A Tale and A Visitor

Every since I can remember, our family has had amazing visits from a variety of creatures. Some were funny like the mother Robin stomping on the top of the newspaper mail box on the patio to tell my Mom to come out and see her babies. Once satisfied that Mom chimed about how wonderful her babies were, mother Robin took her babies 'home'; several horse runaways charged through our corn field like thunder; 2 river otters slithering over each other keeping close coming through the yard. Mom was sitting on the yard swing and they stopped to say hello to her climbing all around her feet then off they went down to the river across the street. Turkeys, pheasants, cows, a tomato frog (awesome), a big and plump yellow spider with black stripes (so beautiful), yellow baby chicks that Dad was raising and squirrels one of which jumped on the screen door and scared Mom bad enough that she fell down. That was the end of feeding the squirrels. Bunnies that would eat the flowers and were just too funny leaping and jumping. Once I spread moth balls around the flower garden, supposedly to keep critters out and discovered several black birds rubbing themselves with the moth balls to remove mites from their feathers. What? we couldn't believe what we were seeing. What wonderful lives these characters have and what joy they bring us!

These kinds of visits continue here in Florida. The other night my husband went out to check out the sunset. Walking between the screened patio and the car his foot bumped something. He came in to get a flashlight to check it out. It turned out to be a turtle. What? Is it a land turtle? Did it come from the river or the lake? Is it a female or a male? Is it lost? Why in this spot? It appeared there within a couple of hours as I had walked that space earlier and that spot had been empty. We were having lots of thunder and lightening and maybe it was scared and took refuge.

Well I was so excited I needed to take a picture. Well, of course, it was tucked in its shell so it looks more like a rock but I didn't care. We talked to the turtle for a little bit and thanked it for visiting and left him/her alone. Checking later, the turtle was gone and because it was very dark by then we couldn't see where it went. I imagine the adventures and stories they could tell us as they have given us so many adventures and stories to tell.

Although I'm sure the turtle just picked up all the vegetation on its shell as it traveled, it also has the feeling of camoflage. The creature was about the size of a large dinner plate. Researching to discover more about this little visitor.

Love to hear about the characters that have visited you.