Animal Aventures

There is a quail family that lives in the olive trees next to our driveway. We spot them at least once a day crossing the driveway in front of the house--one parent in front and the other, rounding up the strays. There are at leas ten babies. When Dana and I first saw them last week, the babies were two inch fuzz balls. Today, we looked out the kitchen window and saw them all resting in the shade of Dana's car. The babies are slightly bigger and beginning to sport some distinctive coloration.

OilMan left the house at the same time this morning, he to renew his driver's license and I with Ozzie to walk to Dana's for coffee. When we returned, OilMan had returned just in time to see two fawns, still sporting spots, walking up our front steps! We have seen them at a distance with at least one parent, but for some reason today they became separated from their parents and decided that our house was the place to be. Following them with his camera, he caught them next to our fence--the one that they could eventually leap over in a single bound.

The rest of the day was spent once again in the garden--a reprise of yesterday. The water feature is now running and mounds of earth and rocks dug out of our field by Dana and OilMan are adding texture to the area where the pond once was. I wrangled spiky plants and grasses all day and have just retired to apply soothing lotion to my grass/thorn/spike irritated arms. We are determined to make our terrace a pleasant place to sit.