Ms. Toady and the Old King

  One good thing that has come from my being confined to the outdoor space of the Small Gardens.  It has made me aware of all the special things that are often hidden in plain sight.  In just the past four weeks of my realm being greatly diminished from the entire eight acres to a mere garden plot, I have discovered many interesting things.  Perhaps it is more the idea that I am appreciating things that I overlooked.  Small things are now stupendous.  There is not a day that goes by that I am not spellbound by an otherwise "normal" thing.

  Today, I found a toad.  While that may not seem to be earthshaking to others, the toad kept me fully entertained for nigh on a half hour.  Some may find that a tad ridiculous but, since my time is plentiful, the half hour was well spent.  I pondered the life of a toad...this toad...Ms. Toady.  The critter lives in the roots of an old oak tree that stands just outside the pergola that surrounds the french doors.  The tree is dying so many of its large roots are hollow.  In fact, the entire tree is hollow which makes for perfect dwelling places for so many critters.  The toad shares its root "cave" with a lovely old skink.  The skink was, at one time, the "King Skink" but he has been ousted by an upstart.  So, the toad very kindly let the Old King share her abode.  The two get along divinely and seem to have a great working partnership.  The toad, being younger, ventures further to hunt for prey allowing the Old King to stay near the doorway to their root home.  Also, the toad is active at night and wishes to settle in for rest during the heat of the day.  The skink is diurnal so vacates the root except when an escape is necessary.  It seems to be a win/win situation for the pair.

  Early this morning, I sat on the little foot bridge crossing the Pebble Creek.  The creek empties into the Puddle Pond with a delightful sound of water dripping over the ledge.  As I sat there enjoying life, I noticed the toad hippity-hopping from the Pebble Creek.  She was heading back to the root home for the day.  I thought of how her night had been busy catching the night bugs..many of which linger around the gardens.  Her belly was fat so pickings must have been good.  It gave me a sense of satisfaction knowing that the little toad was well fed and had a cool place to spend the heat of the day.  She and the Old King have an unusual friendship but it works.  I wish them both well.

There are spiders in there!

  When I was just a wee tot, I was bitten by a spider.  The spider was never identified but I was told it was definitely a spider bite.  That seems to be a reasonable assumption merely due to where I was when I received said bite.  The story begins the day after a hurricane had hit the area.  While the old farmhouse did not receive damage, the trees in the yard took a beating.  Several large trees had been uprooted and left gaping holes in the ground.  For some reason, a large tapestry was draped over the tree limbs to dry.  Ahh, to a tiny kid being told to go play while the adults cleaned up the mess, that tapestry became a tent!  I happily whiled away the hours in my own little world until that fateful moment when something decided that I had been there long enough.  I remember excruciating pain on my knee and, as a tyke would, I went screaming for Mom.  Since doctors were not usually called upon unless you were in dire straits, I had to tough it out.  Mom washed the then rapidly swelling bite.  Pop came in and put some sort of "drawing salve" (which I remember as being black, tar like and smelly) on the spot and then wrapped up my leg with a piece of torn bed sheet.  For the next few hours, I walked around looking like the most forlorn mummy ever to be released on the world.  Later, Pop "operated" on my wound.  A scalded pocket knife did the evil job of lancing the bite and the most acrid smelling ick came pouring out.   More of that black salve was applied and the knee was bandaged again.  All of this was done without any anesthesia.  I was given a new toothbrush to make amends.  Whoopee!  Yay!  Ouch!  I was also reprimanded about not watching out for spiders.  "Stay away from hollow trees and dark holes.  Spiders live there."    So my tent playing was over and I was still mummified for a few days with ragtag bed sheet strings dangling from my knee.  I did, however, recover unscathed except for a small scar left behind by the pocketknife.  This bite was the start of a long line of spiders just waiting to attack!  Since then, I have probably received nigh on 50 bites from one sort of spider or another.  Thankfully, the pocketknife has not been seen as the cure all since that most haunting day.

Looking up into the hollow tree.

  This story came to mind when I had the bright idea to stick my hand inside of a hollow tree today.  Why?  I wanted to see if the tree really was filled with evil spiders just waiting to pounce on unsuspecting folks.  The tree is a large oak that was damaged by yet another hurricane a few years back.  Hurricane Katrina had tossed large mounds of debris in our yard. One piece of that debris was an entire deck from someones house.  That deck slammed against the tree leaving a gaping gash.  The tree did protect the side of the house from being hit by the deck so all was good.  Now, however, that poor tree is hollow and almost dead.  So...curiosity got the best of me. I stuck my camera up in the hole and took a photo.  In fact, I took several since I had no way of telling if I was even focusing on anything.  I fully expected to see all sorts of critters on the photograph but, even though I enlarged it, I found nothing resembling a critter.  No termites...no roaches...no beetles...no grub worms...and, believe it or not...NO SPIDERS!  Well now!  Did I just debunk the well-meaning advice given to me as a youngster or did all critters vacate the premises so they would not be photographed??   I do find it quite odd that I found nary a bug in the tree but, at the same time, I am sort of happy that I did not.  At least, I did not get another spider bite!