herveus

This is the lantern I made in Korea. It made it home a bit worse for the being packed in a box, but not badly.

Meanwhile, I was doing a bit of paving in my front yard. The brick pavers had been laid out to see what they would cover. When I moved them to dig up the ground, I found this:

That's a worm snake -- about 10 inches long. As it tried to get free from my grasp, it gripped me fairly firmly and poked me with its head pretty firmly. I've held garter snakes, and they weren't nearly as pokey. I think these snakes are used to poking through stuff. It also has a spine at the tip of its tail. It tried to poke me some, but to no effect.

Our azaleas are doing pretty well this year. Last year, MJ fed them with Miracid vigorously. The red ones the builder put in are impressive. The three in front of the house are a bit sparser, but better than last year.

The rhododendron (planted way too close to the corner of the porch by the builder) is just coming into bloom. There are some purple columbines in front of it. The day lilies in front of the azaleas need to be divided, while the daffodils on the far side of them need the same.

You can see one yellow blossom behind the big plant in the middle with the cream-ish blossoms. Just in front you can see one of the orange blossoms. All three of those azaleas are deciduous.

Another shot of the azaleas showing the orange one more clearly. It is the smallest of the three and is only really visible from the front porch. It has purple columbines growing up through it.