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All About Nature This Week

Last Saturday night we had a gecko get into the house. It kept going under the furniture, but with me moving whatever it went under, Paul was able to catch the gecko pretty quickly and get it out. I remember thinking, “Man, I hope that doesn’t happen again!” Well, Monday night, Abigail hopped into the bathtub (she likes to get in before the water is filled up) and I heard her go, “Augh! A LIZARD!” Sure enough…there was another gecko, this time it was a different, larger one and it was most definitely in the bathtub. Don’t ask me how it got all the way upstairs and into the kids’ bathroom (which is right at the top of the stairs) without any of us noticing, because I have no idea. Paul tried to catch it for a bit, but it somehow disappeared. 😬 A couple hours later, I went to go up the stairs and noticed it on the wall in the stairwell. I grabbed the sock basket (a cloth rope basket that I keep in the stairwell for people to toss socks in if they think they may wear them again the same day) and managed to chase it down the rest of the stairs before trapping it under the basket. Paul took over from there. The poor little gecko did lose its tail (I totally did not realize that if a lizard loses its tail, the tail flops around independently for at least a couple minutes afterwards 😳 but now I do 😂). Paul got the gecko outside (and also tossed the tail outside). Crazy!

One crazy story about one of the morning walks I took with Abigail this week: we encountered what we thought was a dead baby rattlesnake in the middle of a street we were crossing (I drove back to the area where we saw the snake after I dropped Abigail off for school and it was no longer there…so either someone moved it, or it wasn’t actually dead…just too cold to move and it was sunning itself. 😱😬😱) and Abigail got up close and personal with a patch of mud. She was not happy and wasn’t going to walk any further until she was clean (an issue since we weren’t anywhere near home), but luckily she allowed me to use her shirt to clean her up a bit. What an experience!

We’ve also seen an anole lizard hanging out on the back patio. We thought it was a brown anole at first, but then we saw it again and it was green! At first we thought we were looking at two different lizards, but then realized it was the same exact size. So I looked it up and apparently there is a Carolina anole that can change colors between brown and green.

The toads continue to frequent our yard and really like to hang out in the planter on the front porch. I love that they keep the bug population down!

The other bits of nature we’ve been enjoying are pretty flowers, a couple of good, soaking rainstorms and pretty Texas skies. So, just as a warning, there are a ton of sky pictures coming!

I love my geraniums!
The coral is so pretty!
I love the contrast of the red against the green.
Enjoying a pretty sunrise on our walk.
I have a weakness for pretty clouds. It’s going to become even more apparent as we progress…
Toad! I really zoomed in. He’s still pretty big, though. I think he’s about the size of my palm.
This is what our mornings are like most days, haha. Neither of the kids are really ready to get moving right away.
Can you spot the windmill? This is right next to our subdivision (across the street from our mailbox, actually).
A super-cool cloud.
I added all the spooky!
I was mesmerized by the contrast of dark and light right next to each other. No rain in those dark clouds, though!
I love the contrast of the darkness of the trees against the sky.
I also love being able to see the rays of sunshine breaking through the clouds.
The sky was so blue on Friday!
This sight actually took my breath away for just a moment.
I love my little walking buddy! She lasts the entire two miles, which is pretty awesome for a four-year-old.
She found this awesome leaf. She had to bring it home because, “Mom, it has so many colors!” The side that is facing her even had a bit of red on it.
Such a pretty sky! I love living in Texas!
I was picking up some new pants for Joseph and found these jammies. I think she likes them just a little bit.
I changed up the contents of my large galvanized jug. I love the look of the grasses and the cattails!
Here’s the Carolina anole. I took this picture yesterday. It’s kind of a brownish-green.
Here it is today.
It’s definitely more green, but I think the tail is still a little bit on the brown side. They can change color depending on how they’re feeling (mood, stress level, etc.), how active they are, and even as a social signal (showing dominance). Right before I took this picture, we even saw this guy extend his bright red dewlap (throat fan) which let us know he was a male (female dewlaps are lighter in color). He also bobbed his head up and down (apparently they’re closely related to iguanas, who do the same thing). I’m not sure what he saw that made him do that, but it was neat to watch.