CRITTERS HERE AND CRITTERS THERE

Ah, the wildlife of Lake Anna.  Ray and I try to get to our lake house at Lake Anna several weekends a month.  Since Ray leaves work by two pm Friday and I work a few Fridays until one, we are usually at the house around five pm.  Right now we are still able to sit outside in the daylight starting the unwinding process from the previous work week.  This past Friday we sat by the water catching up with one of the other owners of the house.  She tossed the ball around so her black lab puppy, Rosie, could get some exercise (she had been cooped up in the car for two hours) and do some swimming.  What a treat for us when a momma deer and her two babies sauntered down the hill and across the woods.  What a treat for Rosie to chase them away.  Leave it to a puppy to ruin the serene moment, but she also provided great entertainment when we watched, along with our neighbors across the water, the three deer outrun her out of the woods and to safety (I hope).  No one had a camera to take pictures though L

Saturday morning, the four owners of Casa de Lake Anna had some chores to do.  It made sense since it was a gorgeous day to be outside.  We cleared the woods on the left side of the house this time (more water view), mowed, sawed, chopped, cut, clipped, trimmed and pulled away at the debris adding to our pile of sticks and branches and limbs.

The shed had green mildew growing along the edges which was easy enough for me to bleach and hose down.  The inside of the shed is where chaos erupts with rafts and noodles and kayaks being returned every which way.  So outside it all went to be deflated and returned to better placement until next year. 

The shed being restored to "tidy".  The kayaks haven't made it back in yet.

The hammocks never made it to the outside world this year and were left for the mice to use as comfortable bedding.  One mouse, or mice (I don’t care to know), used blue and pink noodle foam, brown tarp, yellow poncho material and some white braided rope to make a nice home.  The home was spotted seven feet up in the rafters of the shed.  Below this were paddles with netting (a water sport).  I spy the dead snake.  Poor snake must have spotted the mice and got tangled and strangled in the netting of the paddles. 

At first I thought it was a rubber snake.  Not.

The food chain of life.  Once the shed was made orderly, I watched a gecko camouflage himself on a tree stump. 

Can you spot the gecko?  To the right of the dead magnolia bloom on the tree stump.

Deer, geckos, snakes and mice compared to scorpions, monkeys, sloths, and more—and yet, I still cannot wait for Panama!