Two Baby Turtles on the Frog Pond

After an all-day rain on Friday, we awoke on Saturday morning to as gorgeous a sunny, blue-sky summer day as there ever has been. The temperature had dropped a bit and it was very comfortable out, with lovely breezes. A perfect morning for a bike ride!

But alas, it was not meant to be. A summer morning from childhood might have featured a game of hide and seek. The game we adults got to play instead was "find and eliminate the source of the horrible dead smell in the shed," with a prize that NOBODY really wanted to find.

But we did what we had to, as we always do. Have you heard the saying that the only help that's coming is at the end of your own two arms? And so it was in this case. My morning's work involved taking about half the stuff out of our shed and sorting through and cleaning everything. In the process, I discovered a nest of three mice in a large plant pot.

Two I transported to the edge of our property in their pot. The faster third mouse leaped out of the plant pot, ran straight at me (!!!!), and then disappeared behind a large cooler on the floor. It is most likely, even at this writing, still somewhere in the shed. (I'm sorry to say I had to set a few traps; no, much as I adore our critters, we cannot have mice living in the shed.)

Oh, and for the curious (cover your ears now if you're squeamish), the hide and seek prize ended up being a poor deceased mousie who had crawled into an empty coffee pot and given up the ghost. (Have you ever heard the phrase, "Dying for a cup of joe"?)

During the time of the shed cleaning project (which is to say about two hours), our driveway was filled with plant pots galore and boxes of other miscellaneous house stuff. My husband told me the neighbors would think we were having a yard sale. "Yes," I said brightly: "One free dead mouse with every coffee pot purchase!" (Alas, it is necessary sometimes to introduce a little levity when you are dealing with a situation that is No Fun Whatsoever.)

I am happy to report that our much anticipated bike ride finally took place, but it happened in the afternoon instead, after a morning of serious adulting tasks. My husband and I took our bikes up to the local gameland to visit a frog pond we know that is a hop (ha!), skip, and a jump from the turtle pond I showed you in early June.

I was snapping pictures of the gorgeous green reflections, while my husband wandered to the far end of the pond. He began to gesture excitedly, and I walked up to see THREE baby turtles on a log on the frog pond! Of course, as soon as I got there, the one in the middle jumped in!

The above is a picture of the two baby turtles that were left. I think they are painted turtles, as their faces are covered in yellow stripes. In trying to be a glass-half-full kinda girl, I'd like to think they were NOT on this particular log in the morning, but only came and sat on it during the afternoon sun. So things worked out perfectly, after all. I'll have to go back and see them again soon!

The last time I showed you the turtles on the pond nearby, I included two songs by the Turtles, and I think we'll continue that trend. Here are the Turtles, with She'd Rather Be With Me.