Creatures from our Mud Hole and a Sweet 'n Easy Gift

We have a mud hole on our property - most people call it a pond - but really, i think its a glorified mud hole.

It's not really large, it occasionally dries out, it doesn't have a good inlet and outlet, but it has wildlife neverless.

Tadpoles, frogs, turtles, salamanders, ducks, snakes, and one lone white heron are just some of the inhabitants we find.

One duck couple comes every spring and we like to think the female is the one we saved and that she comes back to visit us every year:

Last year, I was looking out my bedroom window and saw something strange swimming in it.  I ran outside, eyes opened wide, and saw ... well ... something I can't really describe.  To this day, I'm not really sure what it was, but it was interesting and strange enough that I felt it necessary to leave my boys this note:

and yesterday, a neighbor knocked on our door to let us know that one of our mud hole inhabitants was in the street, vulnerable to the next car driving by ... and she knew we liked saving things like this ...

This snapper was BIG ...

and get a load of that spiked tail!

just a shovel and a wheelbarrow and gentle handling ...

and the snapper was returned to his home and promptly sank into the mud ...

The Sweet 'n Easy Gift

Did you ever want to get someone a little something - not spend a lot of money, but want it to be a little bit special.

I wanted to do just that - I wanted to give a coworker something, but knew if I spent $$, he would feel uncomfortable.  So I bought a cute little Kolo album and personalized it with his grandson's name:

Those are older Doodlebug rub-ons that I applied straight to the album.  Aren't they cute?  Add a couple of tags on bakers twine and there you go.  Easy, not expensive, but sweet, right?

I hope you have a wonderful, creative day!