Fort Tort

Wow, it’s barely June and I can hardly keep up with all the photos I’ve taken! First, the blackberries are going crazy. I have so many this year! Everyone is enjoying them; Amie, Koko, Butters- I even convinced Bella to try one this morning! How can a dog who thinks lettuce is a treat be suspicious of a blackberry? I stopped in at Fort Tort this morning to deliver a breakfast feast of a few blackberries, spent hibiscus blossoms and a couple mulberry leaves. Here’s a picture of Butters munching her flower. A family of small red and black wasps has moved into Buttercup’s burrow; you can see one perched on her in this picture!

Meanwhile, amphibians still rule at the Water Garden. I pulled a lily pad out from under the ledge and discovered Baby Toad Hideout! There must have been 20 or more to start with, seeking protection from the heat of the day in the cool darkness. A week later, they have little by little dispersed out of the Water Garden and off into the grass and plants in the big wide world. Whenever I find one, I move it to the safety of Terra Pen. Every evening I am treated to frog song, all night long. There are at least five different species I can hear. I love trying to trick them into calling by making frog croaks myself.

Back at The Fort, I’ve been trying without success to establish _anything_ growing on top of the burrows. Whatever I plant is consumed as soon as the torts find it. However, we have a new inhabitant living in the vicinity of Koko’s home! This big skink is always out basking on top of the barren wasteland that is Koko’s burrow. He’s quite tolerant of me photographing him. There are lots of lizards out there this year. I’ve noticed that there are more green anoles than brown anoles so far. I wonder if many of the brown anoles were weeded out by the very, very cold winter. Here’s a picture of Koko, deciding if he should follow his blackberry treat with mulberry leaves or a hibiscus flower. I hope everyone is having as nice a summer as we are, here at Fort Tort!

I had to come up with a little project for my spring vacation, and decided to expand the little patio to the east of Terra Pen. The hard part is digging up the sod and removing the dirt from it. Laying the stones is the fun part! I bought 20 of them and laid them out to extend the patio out in front of the Water Garden’s north side, and then along in a nice curve to the existing decorative fence. Then I had to go get six more, and them I had to go get three more! The baby toads are out and about now- each the size of a small house fly, so I had to be extra-careful not to injure any with all the digging.

After the stones were laid came the exciting part- planting! I decided to try day lilies and lilies of the Nile for a change, and I also found some gorgeous fuchsia Gerber daisies and three new sage/salvias for the butterfly garden. I enclosed it all with a small wrought iron fence so now Bella can go out and sit with me at the Water Garden, off lead. This means she sits as close as possible to my rocking chair on the deck! I’m so happy with how it turned out. Now, what next?

It’s late spring and the tree frogs are out in full force! They start calling when the sun starts to set, and it is even possible to trick them into calling by making croaking sounds myself! A careful search will usually turn one up.

Over at the Water Garden, the baby toadpoles are growing quickly. Most have hind legs. As in years past, the toadpoles quickly figure out that they can join in when I feed the Sarassas in the evening. This year, even the snails come out when it is fish-feeding hour. If I am very careful, I can hand feed them!

I have tried unsuccessfully to get a picture of the large bullfrog who lives under the bench facing Fort Tort. I hear him rustling around in the evening and have even seen him twice, but he is very wary. He likes to take a dip in the small free-standing water garden next to the big Confederate Jasmine. Maybe I’ll catch him “on film” some day. Finally, here’s a picture of the D.D. Blanchard Magnolia with a bloom at the very top. Remember, you can click on any image to make it larger!

I picked up a little female Florida boxie yesterday from a friend who works on a road construction project down in Polk County. Some workers were carrying her around in a shovel because they thought she was a snapping turtle. Amie has an upper respiratory infection among other problems. She has severe shell damage to at least the keratin layer of her carapace, as well as a big bite out of her plastron near her left hind leg. Some animal, perhaps a coyote or raccoon, tried very hard to eat Amie! It seems that this damage was not very recent, though. She uses the leg most of the time, but sometimes just keeps it tucked in. I plan to take Amie in to see Dr. Pat on Tuesday- we’ll see what his assessment of her health is! Her weight feels decent- not too light. The good news is she has already eaten a couple superworms for me.

The word of the day is amphiplexus! Last night a monstrous storm came through the area. We were under a severe thunderstorm warning and tornado warning for much of the evening, and even when the warnings expired, the severe weather continued till midnight. I packed up Dillbird and Isabel for evacuation, put the iPhone in a waterproof bag, and prepared to bolt to the safety of Fort Tort if it seemed necessary.

Luckily, the most severe weather split and passed through to the north and south of my house. At one point, the radio died, and I could hear toads singing. I ventured outside, and ended up wading through a river of flooded fire ants. Ow.

This morning everything was green and wet and humid! Koko and Buttercup, having found shelter from the storm for the night, were out grazing before the day got too hot. As a special treat, I picked a strawberry and a couple mulberry leaves for the torts. The pick-your-own strawberry garden in Terra Pen is producing a good handful of sweet red berries daily. Here’s a photo of Koko enjoying a bite of berry, and Butters with her beloved mulberry leaves.

As I was walking around my beautiful “outdoor room,” I stopped to check the Water Garden. There’s a toad! It looks strange…Wait- AMPHIPLEXUS! “A sexual embrace, a grasping reflex, the mating ritual of toads.” I’ve seen pictures of the act, but never witnessed it in person! They must have started in the night and continued mating into the morning. This, exactly, is why I allow the unkempt mat of grassy greenery to take over a good portion of the Water Garden- to provide an appealing haven for mating amphibians and shelter for the tadpoles and toadpoles. The toads remained locked together, seemingly undisturbed by my presence. I had time to run in and get the camera. Not wanting to disturb them, I limited myself to a couple quick photos. When I returned later, they had moved slightly, leaving a trail of hundreds of toad eggs. Toad eggs are easy to distinguish from other amphibian eggs because they are laid in a string of tiny black pearls, not in a mass.

The spring flowering trees at Fort Tort have finished blooming, giving way to vines, roses and perennials. I enlisted Isabel as a model and set out to photograph the Wisteria, the Black Magic Rose and an unusual Gerber Daisy. Although the immense Wisteria up by the house has yet to bloom, this little Wisteria covering the west half of the arbor at Fort Tort has been a faithful bloomer since the day I planted it. Wisteria is toxic, so cannot be planted inside the enclosure, but it provides a shady cover for the little bench facing the Fort. There are three big rose bushes around the deck, and I would like to plant more. Although I’ve grown roses for cutting in a greenhouse, these are the first I’ve grown in a garden, and I really enjoy them. The Black Magic Rose is the youngest of the three.

I love growing Gerber Daisys , especially those of the bright red variety. I’ve planted many around the Water Garden patio over the years, but have never seen one with a double bloom like this. I can’t wait to see how it develops!

The cushions for the glider up on the deck overlooking Terra Pen have not weathered well, and were replaced this spring. This glider makes a perfect place for an afternoon nap, complete with a patio umbrella for shade, a warm breeze and plenty of wasps! Fortunately, the wasps are of the non-confrontational persuasion, so far. Here’s Isabel, relaxing on a pillow in the shade.

Speaking of naps, I’m a little tired from my midnight storm watch, so I am ready to hit the glider and doze off! I leave you with one more photo of the blissful, prolific toads of lengthy amphiplexic stamina! Go toads! I am looking forward to many, many toadpoles soon!! (Don’t forget, you may click each photo if you would like a larger view).