There's a Toad in My Soil!

Some of you may have seen my twitpic picture yesterday of my little warty friend here.

http://twitpic.com/kb3fl

I got the shock of my life when working in the garage. I had some ginger that sprouted, and I wanted to pot it and make a plant for indoors. I was dumping potting soil out of a bag into the pot and this guy falls out into the pot and jumps. I about had a coronary.

Toads used to really gross me out. But when you are the mom of a little boy, you get over that jazz pretty quick. Since I had my good scare, he had his. I picked him up, but I have learned to hold him out a sharp angle. Anyone that has ever picked up a toad knows why. They shoot out a stream of urine that is actually quite impressive, volume wise. Then as a sneak attack, they usually pee a second time, in case you thought they were done and held them up to your shirt.

I continued to hold him out at an angle for a minute...and then set him free on the edge of the driveway. His expression is rather cute, I think.

Speaking of cute, this is one of the gourds that I picked up this weekend. I just think all these warts are fabulous.

This is the beginning of my fall display. I will be adding a lot to it this week and next week. I take Halloween decorating very seriously. I try to add a new decoration to my collection every year. This year I got this cool web.

It came with two spiders that have bendy legs, so that you can position them in the web or anywhere they can grab on. The web is quite reflective, and shines in the sun or light, though you can't really tell in this picture. This weekend I will get out the 5 ft inflatable light up pumpkin!

This is the west edge of my house, minus the sunflowers. I finished cutting those down the other day. I saved all the seed heads for the birds this winter. All that is left over here is some okra and what is left of my green beans. It feels very barren to me, after seeing those huge sunflowers there.

The reds, purples, yellows, and browns are beautiful in their own way. I am sad to see my summer plants go, but I love and respect the richness of autumn. What is your favorite part of autumn?