Unexpected Blessings...

One thing that is great about living a simple life is that you have plenty of time to count your blessings. While walking along the road that divides our property from mom's, we stumbled across some passion vines! The flowers had already begun to fade, but there are more buds along the vine that should flower soon.

Following the vine back a bit...we found some fruit! How cool is this?

This is the largest of many fruit growing along the vine. The vine is rooted on a drop-off so it is impossible to try to transplant. We did take a cutting from it, in hopes to get it to root.

Speaking of roots...the first year we owned this house, I put in a small watergarden. That was in the Summer of 2001. We managed to keep the water lillies alive and thriving until this spring when we lost all but 1 small piece of rootstock. Well this week that one little plant produced it's first flower of the year! I wondered if it would flower at all this year since it had to start over again. What a great suprise! This was the first day it was opening. Water lillies will only flower in still water, and they only stay open during the day (with bright light). It was not quite open all the way...

And here it is fully open. It is perfect!

The frogs have had a hayday in the water garden this year. They do their mating calls just about the same time I am trying to sleep at night. While getting some shots of the lilly, I was able to spot this little tadpole. He's just getting his legs, and I'm sure he'll be joining the chorus in no time!

Here's a shot of who I suspect is the mama of the tadpole. (it's gotta be a girl, look at the cleavage!)