Captured

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I ran outside to get this picture this morning.  Doesn't he look like he's posing?  The light was casting some cool shadows and I was able to move so I could get the shadow behind Mr. Blue.

Then I looked down and saw this little guy right about the same time he saw me.  He froze - I didn't....

I was about 10 feet from him.  Then we were off to the Great Swamp Nursery to start the flower beds....

There weren't too many people there today and we only bought a couple of things.  We'll be back.

It was a gorgeous day and perfect for working in the yard.  This is the Red Bud at the peak of bloom and starting to leaf out.......

Some Bridal Veil through the deer fencing......

A dried up Clematis bloom........

And some mystery tulips - don't know where they came from...........

While I was weeding in the garden, I lifted up a stack of dishes (yes, I have dishes in the garden - I used them as a border) this guy was burrowed underneath.  Unfortunately the camera focused on the weeds over the top of him but you can see his coloration.  It's salamander not a snake (I would not have been calm enough to capture a picture of a snake!).....

And one last picture that I took when I came home from work on Friday.  We had another bird visitor to the yard.  One we haven't seen in quite a while..............

We're expecting rain for the next several days, so I'm glad we got started in the garden today.  I have a ton of weeding to do as we didn't put the garden to bed in the fall as we should have and some things have really gotten out of control.  It's also very overgrown because I have a hard time pulling out the volunteers of the good plants even though they come up where they don't belong.  But, I've decided that I'm going to be better at that now.  Time to clear it out and try to keep it in check.  Wish me luck!