I’d like to share just a few photos with you from my yard from spring of 2022.
First photo up was really fun for me. I walked out my front door one morning, after my sprinkler system had been on earlier in the morning, and found these little foot prints across the blacktop. Some little person had walked from my planting area outside my front door and then over to my big white truck. Notice that the foot prints go under the front of the truck. Believe me, before I moved that truck, I made sure no critters were under there.
Here (below) is a closeup of two of the clearest foot prints. The critter was a Raccoon. They sometimes walk somewhat pidgeon toed, with the “ring” finger (#2) of each foot sometimes pointing forward. Toe #5 in the photo below is their “thumb”, whether a front foot or a hind foot. So you can see how the right foot points a bit to the left … and the left foot points a bit to the right. I’m told this is not unusual for Raccoons. In the photo below, the Raccoon was walking from the right directly to the left. A friend of mine tells me these are prints from a Raccoon’s hind feet … he says the shape is different than a front foot, and he says they usually keep their front feet clean, so it’s usually the hind feet that leave prints.
I know there are Raccoons hereabouts because I’ve seen them, and because the land that my home is on used to be a dairy farm with a creek running through it (and a little bit of the creek is still there above ground), and because there is a pond on the property, and because we are just a block or two from a large lake. Water = Raccoons in this part of the world.
Several weeks later, I watched this “hen & chick” plant (below) grow, and grow, and GROW, and GROW!!! I’ve never seen them do this, but I’m not an educated or life-long gardener like some of you folks are. It was just an inch or two shy of 3 feet tall. I’m told they grow tall when they don’t get enough light, but this area in front of my home gets full afternoon sun. Who knows? I don’t … and the hens & chicks aren’t talking. 🙂
Photo above taken from the side of the “head” of that plant. Photo below taken looking directly down at the “head”. Click on photos to enlarge them.
So then, behind my house … the photo below is what neighbors behind me see of my house. Heat pump on the left, kitchen window, patio with firewood storage for my woodstove and for camping firewood, patio doors, then my computer/office room/windows, then a bedroom.
Photo below. Under the bedroom window is a large, healthy fern. It was tiny when I moved here three years ago. I must be doing something right. 🙂
And then there’s the Yucca just around the corner to the right. The first spring after I moved here, it did nothing. In 2021, it had one small flower stalk. But this year, 2022, the flower stalk grew taller than I am (I’m 5’8″). I feed it and water it and talk with it.
And I talk with these folks too …
And I’d LIKE to talk with these folks (below) too … but they scamper off so quickly that I can barely snap a photo of them, much less talk with them.
A few weeks later, a mom and her teenage son (spots all gone) were in my back yard. I managed to get the video below of them eating the leaves off the tree right behind my home. They often do that, reach up and eat those leaves. I like that. Saves me from needing to prune the branches, and the deer never send me a bill.
Seems that young deer thought he needed to tidy and clean and prune himself up, too, when he realized he was going to be in my video. 🙂 They are nice neighbors.
Your yard is much like mine, full of wildlife. So nice!
I always love your blog posts about your yard, especially the flowers, well, the bunnies and birds too, etc. 🙂
Love the raccoon prints!
Isn’t that cool!
I’ve never known a blossom on a hens ‘n’ chicks to grow that tall. I don’t care whether you’re doing something right or wrong, I like it! 🙂 Nice photos.
Ha, fun comment. 🙂 I don’t know whether I’m doing something right or wrong either, Ruby, but I like it too!
Nice back deck, with chairs for guests, we’ll be right over! 🙂 Well, ok maybe in a few days or weeks since we’re in New Mexico. Nice home and yes nice “deer” neighbors.
The table and chairs are ready for your arrival, Shawn. What a treat that would be to actually meet some of my blog Readers. Come on up! 🙂
The bunny and the deer are such fun, how you talk about them, how you interact with them. The raccoon prints too. Your photos are gorgeous.
Bunnies and deer and eagles and raccoons and blackbirds and fish … they’re all wonderful, yes? Thanks for the nice comment about the photos, Mary. 🙂
You’d think those fawns would want to talk with you, but kids these days! 🙂
Ha!! Yes, kids these days!! 🙂
Very nice looking home! And yard. I have deer and rabbits and raccoons and all manner of birds around my home too. Close enough to the city that I have access to all I need, but with enough “country” to keep me happy. Nice photos. Thanks.
You are welcome, David. Sounds like you have a perfect balance where you live. Thanks for the lovely comment and for including information about your own home and yard, I like that.
I thought Yucca was a cactus kind of plant and grew only in really hot dry climates. But the Pacific Northwest isn’t really hot or dry. Nice yard, nice neighbors. 🙂
Well, the Yucca in my yard sure is happy, so I guess it grows well in cooler/wetter climates. I used to think Yucca was a hot/dry loving plant, like you did Babe, but it was here when I bought the house so I’ve simply been watering and feeding it … and it’s happy! 🙂
Thanks for letting us in the tour! Love your 4 legged neighbors ❣️
Aren’t they wonderful? 🙂
A few nights ago I went out to be sure that the hose had been turned off. It was such a beautiful night that I had walked out to the middle of the yard to look at the moon, when I heard a deep-throated growl coming from the darkest corner of the yard. I stood very still and stared at the spot, but it was very dark and I couldn’t see a thing. Then I heard it again! I clapped my hands and waved my arms and growled back at it. Then I retreated slowly to the house. I went in and told Anne that the raccoon had just growled at me. She said that she probably had the kits with her. Exactly!
We have had a raccoon family each summer living in a shed. A couple of days prior to this she came to get a drink from the fish pond and didn’t even seem to sense that I was standing not even four feet away. She is BIG! I would not want to meet her in the dark.
Yesterday morning the goldfish didn’t come to surface when I went to feed them; traumatized. We haven’t seen Grandpa, the oldest and largest, since. It’s not the first fish we’ve lost to her, or the first time she’s trashed the pond.
So we have mixed feelings about these neighbors 🤔
Whoa, what a great story … a true story! I’m sorry Grandpa goldfish got eaten, but maybe momma Raccoon shared a few bites with the kits and that seems good of her to do.
But, wow, to be growled at by a Raccoon, and one that big. She has obviously been taking advantage of food sources in the area, yes? Indeed, I wouldn’t want to mess with a Raccoon that size (with kits) in the dark. Seems she thinks your yard is HER yard.
Oh, yes, mixed feelings indeed. Great story, Fritzi, thanks for sharing. Glad you lived to tell the tale. 🙂