This morning outside my window I saw this:

Mama turtle on a walk.

I left Katie inside and went out to see what she was doing.  I think she was headed up our hill to lay eggs.

She’s hissing at me.

This is the third snapping turtle I’ve seen over on this side of our yard this week; the other two were even larger than today’s mama.  Pretty soon we should be overrun with baby turtles.  But it rarely happens that way.  Usually I find one or two a summer somewhere in our yard and I take them across the street to the pond where their mamas live.

You can read about one of my baby turtle adventures and a time we tried to help a mama.  I learned a lot that day!

Meanwhile after a quick photo I left her alone to do her job.   I hope she makes it back across the road when she’s finished.  I know I’m not going to be helping her back to the pond!

PS:  More than 4 hours later I am weeding a bed at the front of the house when I realize there’s a nest in a crab tree and a robin is sitting on it.  That’s nice.  But it’s in the middle of where I need to weed.  She’s watching me.  I go inside to discuss the problem with husband who is planning on rotatilling that area this afternoon.  I don’t think that is a good idea.  I think we should let the grass grow there till after any babies fly away.  I go back outside.  She’s not sitting on the nest.  I work for a little while and she starts to scold me from a nearby tree.  I move my wheelbarrow, myself and my shovel to the front porch and watch.  She flies back to her nest.

Maybe I should give up on this garden and move to the one at the south of the house.  I go inside and over to the window overlooking that weed infested garden to see if the sun is there yet, hoping for shade.  And I see this:

Might be same mama. Might not.

She stops and sniffs the air, then makes a beeline for the garden.

Didn’t want to weed today anyway.

I watch her walk through the garden right up to the house.  She’s staring at me in the window the whole time.

I see you!

She’s under the deck now.  Hopefully laying more eggs.  Katie is inside, the door to the deck open.  Suddenly she’s barking and staring down between the deck boards.  I shut the door.

Wildlife 2.  Weeding 0.

That’s fine with me.

Stunning

I was going to tell you about the community band’s spring concert performed Tuesday night this week.  We invited some of the local 7th graders to play with us.  Their faces were glowing.  Such cute talented kids.

Was going to tell you about the tree peony in full bloom.   More blooms than I’ve ever seen before.

Was going to tell you about lots of stuff from this past week.  Meant to.  Every night I was going to tell you all about it.

But work this week has been…to put it in the words of one of my youngest employees….brutal.  And at the end of the day Friday I heard this conversation:

Person #1:  “I like watching Jeopardy, like to see if I can come up with the answers before the contestants.”

Person #2:  “I do the same thing with Wheel of Fortune.  That’s about all I can handle after a day like this.”

Person #3 yells over the wall:  “After this week I’m going to pour a glass of wine and watch Sponge Bob.”

Yep that about sums it up.  Pouring wine now.