Bathing beauties in a bathtub, puddle and pond? Let me explain. Two times a year Mr. Fix-it and I must tend to our swimming pool. Once in the spring to open it up, and once in the fall to close it down. Part of closing the pool requires draining some of the pool water. The excess water drains onto the lawn where it can pool and form puddles like it did on this day. I was struck by how many robins were taking advantage of the puddles formed from the pool water to bathe. They looked like they were having fun as you can see below.
Then I looked just outside of our fenced backyard and saw Mr. C's cows bathing in the farm pond. These cows are raised as beef cattle. After talking with Mr. C. he says he raises them until they weigh about 1200 pounds then he sells them to a distributor who then ships these gals out west where they are kept in stockyards and fed well. Once they reach a weight of about 2400 pounds they are then processed and sold as Angus. Sorry if I offend anyone but this is life and I found this information interesting. I knew the cows were beef cattle but had no idea how the process worked in this area. Now I know.
Well there is but one picture left of a bathing beauty isn't there? And it is the one bathing in the bathtub-believe it or not. The first picture shows one of the residents of my bathtub pond. The frog is a Pickerel Frog (Rana palustris) and is usually camera shy. On this day it just must have known it was a 'bathing beauty' day because it stayed put and let me snap quite a few photos. You would think that pot of stones, horsetails and lilies was placed in the bathtub pond just for this frog! Note: Pickerel frogs emit a secretion from their skin that can be irritating to humans so I was most happy we did not handle this frog....
in the garden....bathtub pond.