The Dirt Diaries

We think a fox family lives near the trail

The "critter cam" Santa brought me for Christmas is the gift that keeps on giving.

Dad loved the mountains and wildlife

As many of you Dirt Diaries readers recall, we built a small nature path in memory of my Dad back in 2012.

We've always wondered what cool things were happening on "Curly's Trail" at night or when we weren't looking. (Was there a Sasquatch or zombie on the loose?)

So I set up the camera (a Browning sub micro) on the last post you can see in the accompanying photo.

That stairway is about 30 yards from our deck and leads down to the stream and a little waterfall.

The camera takes a photo of anything that moves within 100 feet of its view, night or day.

The resulting picture includes an information bar that displays the time, date, moon phase and temperature.

A raccoon heads towards the stream

That’s great unless you forget to turn the camera off when someone is working in the area. We had 150 pictures of Alfredo’s legs when he was sprucing up the trail and patio by the stream.

Caught the head of a pileated woodpecker

Some of the critter pictures have been surprising. We didn’t realize there were so many deer around. (As long as they stay away from my roses, that’s okay.)

The deer love my hostas and wildflowers.

We thought we might catch a glimpse of a bear since they’ve visited our deck several times. None yet. We’ve seen owls around, but thus far they haven’t shown up to have their portraits made.

The discovery that a bobcat had been sauntering around the trail was a true shock. I often work down there in the new rose bed Alfredo built for me last spring.

Yikes! Mr. Bobcat strolls along the trail at lunchtime

We’d heard they do live in Western North Carolina, but no one in our community has ever seen one. Until they take a peek at the photo on my iPhone.

From now on, I’ll be looking over my shoulder when I’m down by the trail tending to my beauties.

Because we no longer have to wonder where the wild things are.

They’re right here in our very own garden.

Love these delicate, canary yellow daylilies

July got off to an unhappy start with Chris back in the hospital for emergency surgery. The work that was done last September went bad, so he had an unplanned six-day staycation at Mission in Asheville.

Thankfully all is going well and he is now home trying to do too much out in the garden.

I can’t blame him because July is when everything is happening from the veggie patch to the roadside to the rose garden. Tomatoes are ripening, wild rhododendrons are showing off, and the roses are just getting their second wind.

It’s a great month to enjoy all the blooms around us, and appreciate how fortunate we are to live in such a beautiful part of the world.

Even when there is the occasional health hiccup.