Got Camera Happy

First off, the good news. I took Cody to the doctor, and he has TWO illnesses. Bronchitis and a stomach virus. Thus, the second fever was from a different thing, not a relapse of his first illness. Nor was it something more serious. Now he has medicine for both--antibiotic for the bronchitis, and anti-diahrreal/nausea medicine for the virus. But the good doctor told me to try an OTC medicine for the viral symptoms before getting the perscription filled. So, I bought him the old standby, Pepto Bismol. Ok, I got the generic, but the wierd thing was, the 16 oz. bottle was the same price as the 12 oz. bottle. Guess which one I got.

As luck would have it, I'd already had vacation scheduled for today because there is a karate tournament tomorrow. Needless to say, we won't be making this tournament. (We have to take vacation on Friday or Monday to get Saturday off.) So after we came home from the doctor, I grabbed my camera and went for a little tour of my yard.

My yard? With all the rain we've had, I should say my lake. Here it is, Lake Riverdale:

Some years it rains so much, I have a front lake and a back lake. Just a front lake so far this year.

The daffodils are in full bloom all over the place,

so I had to pick a few to make this lovely bouquet.

While picking said flowers, this little beauty and I surprised each other.

This is a checkered garter--an adult about two feet long and almost as big around as a quarter. If you look closely enough, you can see an old scar on its back. The coloration on its sides was absolutely gorgeous, and this pic doesn't nearly do it justice.

Not quite so lovely, but beautiful in its own way, is this old deer skull, complete with rack, that the dogs have drug up:

We have a lake in town, Grenada Lake. It is not a natural lake, but a reservoir, and part of the system of reservoirs built to help control flooding in the Yalobusha river system. The water in the winter and early spring is very low, and you can actually see the remains of the road that was covered when the dam was built.

Being a reservoir, it of course, has a spillway. On any given day, there will be people fishing there. A beautiful day like today was no exception.

This is a type of ornamental pear tree. They are all over this town and in the early spring are covered with these beautiful white flowers.

Unfortunately, my histamines view these as the enemy, and I will be absolutely miserable until the flowers die back.

Then comes plowing season...