wildlife continues to amaze

we went to crosbyton, tx for a quick overnight to see some of my music man's family. it was fun to meet his aunts and uncles and some cousins, etc. everyone was so nice. my favorite photo that i took is of a donkey. yes, a donkey. we went to a farm and they had donkeys. there were also chickens and cows (even a couple of bulls). we had been having so much rain and the day we were to be in crosbyton, they were calling for sunny skies and 79 degrees when we landed. we were in heaven. and sure enough. it was beautiful.

as a result, when we got home (it had been HOT in austin that day) my plants needed a touch of watering. i started watering, and then my watering can appeared to be backed up. i took of the "rain" spout and looked down the normal one. it seemed that there was a leaf in there, but then i looked again. nope. not a leaf. it was two beady eyes peering back at me -- yep. a toad. so i poked it with a stick a couple of times, moved a smidge, poked it some more. still nothing. filled with water the wrong way (water down the spout), still no movement. could it be dead? possible. but still i didn't quit. i banged the thing on the ground, a post, anything i could find. i filled it with water, emptied it. finally, after banging the spout a bit, i look inside and i see legs sticking out of the spout on the inside. YAY! but wait, there are another set of legs coming out of the spout too. and then BOTH of them start climbing back into the spout. WHAT?! there are TWO in there? how is this possible? and how the heck did they jump high enough to get into the watering can in the first place? so many questions.

my banging and water filling continue. and with some diligence, they both (?!) pop out of the spout into the main reservoir of the watering can. and i dump them out. and they weren't small suckers either. well, i'm glad i found them alive. could you imagine trying to get dead toads out of a metal watering can. i think it would have ended up in the trash.

that's all for me. oh and here's the latest cute photo of laila.