Queens and Fiery Dragons!

  When you are starved for adventure and have no way of exploring for it, you create it.  If you truly wish, most everything can be turned into something different than it really is and even the most mundane find can become that long-wished adventure.  That is what occurred today.  

  While out surveying my queendom better known as the Small Gardens, I came across a fiery dragon!  This was no foul being, however, as this was one of my subjects. As Queen of the Small Gardens, I get to pick and choose who shall be deemed friendly and who shall be considered an enemy of the queendom.  This dragon shall serve a purpose and that purpose being the added protection from enemies of the queendom.   The dragon, albeit still a babe, will fight to save the Small Gardens from attack!  It pays to have such brave subjects!

  A wee babe of a green anole was seeking an equally small insect to have as breakfast.  It climbed about in the potted chrysanthemum plant.  Wow!  This tiny tot must have just recently hatched as it was only about four inches long!   It made me happy to know that it was hiding among the thick leaves of the plant a there were plenty of birds, larger lizards and even a few snakes in the garden that would have gobbled up our sweet friend.  After allowing me a couple of photos, the little one scampered down beneath the plant stalks!

  My fiery dragon will protect the queendom of such things as aphids, caterpillars and even mosquitoes!  The Queen jubilantly welcomes all dragons to her realm!  And so ends today's magnificent adventure of one with limited access to the outside world.

Bayou "Snowshoes"?

  This far down in the Deep South, we rarely (if ever) get snow.  If by chance we do get a few flurries, things come to a screeching halt while we watch.  The Bayou hardly ever gets any significant snowfall and by significant, I mean more than a couple of inches.  To explain this, folks still talk about the "heavy snow we got back in '63 or was it '64?"  (It was '63..actually it was New Year's Eve!)  That heavy snowfall allowed us to make snowmen!  We got all of about 6 inches but it was thrilling for us.  So, with all of this "lack of snow", there is not a lot of reason to own a pair of snowshoes unless you head north for the winter.  Here, a good pair of shrimp boots will get you through just about any weather.  

  This morning as the sun was coming up above the pines on the far side of the Bayou, I spied something glimmering in the old oak tree.  I slipped down the hillside to see just what was sparkling so.  To my surprise, it was nothing more than a spiderweb but what a beauty!  The small web was strung between the Y shaped twigs of a low-lying branch and was dangling in the perfect spot to be illuminated by the rising sun.  Wow!  It was gorgeous!

  While I stood admiring the handiwork of the spider, it occurred to me that perhaps this looked like one of those crazy things called snowshoes.  Granted, I have never seen one other than in storybooks or movies but the shoe was always some sort of bentwood frame with fiber woven back and forth across the open area.  This was supposedly good for walking across deep snow.  That is something I will  never know but, at least, I have an idea of the workings of the things.  (I often wonder if there is some sort of magical shoe that will allow me to walk across that Bayou mud to get to the other side without sinking up to my ears!)  Anyway, my spiderweb seemed like it might make a pretty design for a snowshoe!  Maybe?  I really have no idea....just dreaming here!