Box Turtle Enclosure: Progression Thread

[Nanci]

When I took Bella out before bed, I caught Mrs. George the Second starting to bloom:

 

[RobbiesCornField]

I told you those sweet potatoes were evil.
But congrats on the toadlets!

 

[vetusvates]

Nanci! Ms. George II is beautiful. That color is just hypnotizing, for me. You don't have that in 1440x900, or 1680x1050, or thereabouts, do you?

 

[Nanci]

I have better photos of Mrs. George the first. Look for the thread that I think is called Noah and Mrs. George! I think I do have a second pic like that that is still in my camera. Maybe she will open fully tonight!

 

[Nanci]

This is my favorite...

 

[vetusvates]

Well, of course, Nanci, I had to work my way backwards through the whole thread. I seem to remember having seen pictures of Fort Tort......but I do not remember ever having looked at this thread.
I will keep up with this one. Beautiful pictures. If I ever came to visit you, I would never want to leave.

 

[Nanci]

I wish I had gathered all the Fort Tort pictures into one progression thread. When I make my next enclosure, I will. It's so weird, how you start out with bare ground, and then a year later, there is this thriving ecosystem. Not to mention, soon, my outdoor rooms will take up more space than my indoor rooms. Winter is so barren and sad, and then suddenly it's spring and everything out there is going crazy! I never had frogs, and now I do! That's so amazing!

 

[Nanci]

I have eggs! This is a mockingbird nest off to the west of Fort Tort.

 

[Nanci]

I did a lot of thinning out today and put in two new papyruses. They give the dragonflies a place to rest.

 

[Nanci]

Although this one seems to prefer Mrs. George. This is what Mrs. George looks like in the day and evening.

 

[Nanci]

And this is the new water lily, Queen of Siam! She's got really beautiful leaves. All this rearranging caused great distress amongst the half-formed toads. They are still basically toadpoles, with all four limbs but still with a tail, that still swim a lot. I had to carefully relocate them all to the new, smaller patch of "grass."

 

[Nanci]

The mockingbird is a little over-protective. This morning when I went to take Bella out, I could hear an angry mockingbird (sounds like a bee's nest!) and a crow who was making that croaking call. I walked to where I had a clear view of the big pine, and there was the mockingbird trying to chase off the crow, but the crow wouldn't budge. He just sat there with his wings hunched, flinching every time the mocker would hit him. But then the crow's six buddies came flying past, and he cawed out a distress call! They circled around to help. This made the mockingbird go INSANE! He picked off two crows while they were still in the air, chasing them a couple hundred feet away, with the crows doing evasive barrel rolls to get away. Then he went back to the tree and picked off the original crow and a helper, and they all just abandoned the area. So the mockingbird went to proudly survey the scene from a small sycamore. He spied a pair of wrens at Fort Tort and drove one off into the blackberry brambles, and the other tried to hide in the small oak. The mockingbird knew he was in there, but when I walked closer he decided to go patrol the crest of the roof instead. No one's getting his eggs!!

 

[Nanci]

Here's Mrs. George II with her third day bloom. Now she will just stay open till the bloom dies and disappears underwater. I'm very excited, though! Albert Greenberg has two buds that are breaking the surface, and Tina has two, also!!

 

[alan]

Beautiful pics Nanci. The flower's colors are great, even Mrs. George closed-up is pretty.
When I saw the Mockinbird eggs I was going to comment that your yard will be well-protected, then I read about the air-wars. That should give you some entertainment when you're out there. I hope you don't need a hard-hat to go out and read.

 

[Hypancistrus]

Have I ever mentioned how very jealous I am of your freedom to build such things at your house? We'll chalk that up as reason #18 for the week for why our next house should be in the country.... D'oh!

 

[diamondlil]

Wonderful updates, your garden is just so lovely after all your hard work!

 

[Nanci]

Alan, I'm a little nervous about spying on the nest. I don't want them to view me as an enemy and make my life miserable! I have to walk two feet away from it to get out to the pump to turn on the irrigation for everything!

 

[vetusvates]

Wonderful pond, Nanci. Looks so cool and inviting. The water and flowers remind me of Leo Delibes' opera Lakmé.

If not before, you'll recognize the infectious melody at 1:21.

 

[alan]

Alan, I'm a little nervous about spying on the nest. I don't want them to view me as an enemy and make my life miserable! I have to walk two feet away from it to get out to the pump to turn on the irrigation for everything!

Yeah, I know what you mean, we had a nest in one of our bushes out front. I didn't know it until I went to trim the bushes and they got upset. I trimmed it real fast and didn't touch it again until they left the nest.
When I leave on my bike in the morning I use that side of the house, several times one of them was on our cable TV line scolding me. When I cut the grass over there I got yelled at constantly. They never attacked me and never bothered me anywhere else.
I didn't see the neighbor's cats over there for a while so they actually helped the finches and the house sparrows that shared the front of the house with them.

 

[whippet]

Nanci....Do you realise you just raised my future morgage by at least a grand. Now Laur HAS to have this country house JUST to get a nice turtle/tort/pond combo herself. *grin*

But truly...lovely work. I am incredibly impressed. I can't fathom slaving in the hot sun to acheive such splendor. *claps*