Monday, March 14, 2011

It is my Blog's Anniversary!

How quickly a year can pass! This week I am celebrating one full year of blogging. I want to say thank you to everyone who has visited my blog over the last year and left kind and encouraging comments. I have enjoyed visiting each of your gardens in turn. It has been truly wonderful to get to know each of you. I think of you as friends.

Today I thought I would repeat an early post- a favorite story from the vault-one that only a few people saw in the infant days of my blog. It seems appropriate on this anniversary to choose a story about another first- my first ever garden:


Reptiles in a Canadian Garden???
                                                                       
In contrast to the starkness of the other townhomes in its row, our back garden stood apart from the rest because of the tangle of growth that threatened to burst at the seams of the rough wooden fence. 


This small, contained pocket of green was my own private paradise. I fussed over every square inch; indulged and spoiled every plant. And as it turned out, I was not the only one who appreciated the jungle-like lushness of my garden! 


Heading into the back garden one spring morning, I noticed that my wisteria vine was hanging down awkwardly, having become unmoored from its supporting trellis. Standing on a chair I dragged out from the kitchen, I reached up to adjust the vine. As I approached the branches, pruners at the ready, there was a sudden movement in the tangle of branches. I hesitated. Was my imagination playing tricks on me? Was it just the wind or did something just move in there? Stretching forward to take a closer look, I was shocked to see an eye starring right back at me. I gasped, lurched back and almost lost my footing.

Alarmed, I ran into the house to share what seemed to my husband like a very tall tale. Imagining I must have had discovered a possum or raccoon, my husband went out to the yard to investigate further.

When he parted the branches to take a look for himself, he too was surprised with a glassy-eyed stare. Frightened by the disturbance, the startled creature shifted its position and my husband lunged backward just as I had done, almost falling off the chair.

It did not take long for us to put two and two together and figure out the true identity of the interloper. We knew our neighbour two doors down kept various reptiles, including snakes as pets. Their pet iguana could regularly be seen sunning himself in the window of their spare bedroom.

Unfortunately this isn't Iggy. I wasn't able to get a picture of him that day, but this is pretty much what Iggy looked like as he sat hidden inside the branches of my wisteria vine.

It turns out that “Iggy”, as we later learned was the iguana’s name, had escaped by chewing through the window screen several days earlier. 

And where would an iguana on the lamb choose to go to but the garden/jungle paradise conveniently located just a few doors down?

We were not foolish enough to make any attempts to try to catch the iguana on our own and went immediately to get his owner. Our neighbor quickly lured the iguana out into the open with a treat. When the iguana climbed down onto his shoulder, we were able, for the first time, to grasp the true size of our uninvited guest. Iggy’s pale green body stretched some 5 feet from his nose to the tip of his tail. On each of his feet was a set of 1" claws. 

The lesson learned that day? A garden has a way of never ceasing to surprise you!

Hey, at least it wasn't one of the snakes that got loose!!!

33 comments:

  1. Congrats on your anniversary. Story made me smile I would have been so scared...

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  2. Great story, happy anniversary Jennifer!

    Eileen

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  3. Happy 1st Blogaversary, Jennifer! Great achievement and, from the quality of your blog, I must admit I'd never have guessed it's 'only' been a year, as you are SO PROFICIENT and PROFESSIONAL!!! Your blog is one of the best for all-round quality :)

    It's so hard to find time to go back through the archives of blogs we start following after they've already been up and running strongly for quite some time. I'm still so new to it all, having started just short of 4 months' ago with my own blog and not very much longer prior to that, reading other blogs.

    I would LOVE to one day have time to begin at the beginning of those blogs I really enjoy...yours is on my list!!!

    Thanks for visiting me, today :) Your observation that the two different parts of the bromeliad flower appear to bear no relation to each other is certainly astute! I, too, wonder what nature's intention is?

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  4. OOOPS! I'd almost forgotten to comment on the body of today's post in my eagerness to congratulate you :)

    It appears you've always had green fingers??? Your first garden was beautiful! Lovely story of the surprise eyeball-to-eyeball with Izzy! It does make me aware of how complacent we tend to become within our own urban gardens, never imagining that snakes and other creatures we don't favour might be lurking somewhere!

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  5. Congrats on a year of blogging --- isn't garden blogging an amazing world? Blogs are full of tips on attracting wildlife into the garden, but luring an iguana into a wisteria? Amazing!

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  6. Congratulations also, on your blogaversary. Your blog is always a delight to read, and your photos truly amazing. Thanks for sharing your year.

    The blog about Iggy was amazing, and you are right, one never knows what a day in the garden will bring.

    Loved your table cloth!

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  7. Jennifer, happy, happy blogaversary. I can't believe it has only been a year.

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  8. Happy Blog anniversary. Your reptile visitor is very cute. I want one too in my garden.

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  9. Happy 1st Blog Anniversary!

    First of all, I love the jungle-like lushes of your garden. Beautiful and neat.

    The eye photo is really attractive. At 5 feet long, it should be bigger than the monitor lizard I captured last year. You must have gotten very close to get such a sharp image. Did that eye belong to Iggy since the second photo is not?

    Wonder if you would have captured the snake's eye too if it was the one that escaped.

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  10. Happy Blogiversay Jennifer.I have enjoyed your posting so much and look forward to many more. The lizard is very pretty from a distance. LOL!

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  11. Thanks everyone for your comments!

    One, I did not take the shot of Iggy's eye. That picture is just a stock shot that I found. The picture seemed perfect - that is exactly the eye that stared out at me, when I climbed up to prune the wisteria. While I am not as deathly afraid of snakes as many people, I would certainly have been more terrified if it had been a snake!

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  12. Jennifer, congratulations on one year! I didn't realize it before but we started blogging around the same time. I have to agree, better an iguana than a snake any day!

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  13. Happy Blog Anniversary. Wow, I think I'll stick with the little anoles and spiny lizards I have in my garden, thank you very much.

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  14. Happy Blogaversary! Great story! Five feet of lizard would have made me a bit squeamish for the next few days.

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  15. Yikes~ iguanas are pretty scary looking when they appear unexpectedly.
    Happy Anniversary. Your blog is always a beautiful place to visit.

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  16. First, Happy Anniversary. It is my pleasure to visit here.

    I didn't run into it, but we had an iguana loose in our back woods for several days before the owners found it. It was even about the same size. Now I know how it probably got outdoors.

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  17. Congrats on embarking so successfully on this adventure - I'm sure, judging by your success, that this is just the beginning of your new journey! How exciting! Who knows where it will lead! Onwards and upwards! Keep bloggin' and treating us to the (rewards) expressions of your artist's eye. I've sent every gardener/flower-lover-colour-consumer I know the link! All the best!

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  18. GratulujÄ™ rocznicy!
    Pozdrawiam.

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  19. That is so amazing!! I probably would have screamed and fallen over. :o) I'm so glad your blogging! I love your blog and can always count on your amazing photos to cheer up the dreariest of days. Happy Anniversary!!

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  20. Happy anniversary and many more...you have incredible pictures and love this story...

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  21. Thank you for leaving a message on my blog

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  22. Congratulations on one year! And to celebrate it with a wonderfully great story too.

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  23. Happy Blog Anniversary Jennifer! What a great post to mark it. Beautiful creatures and photographs. Many Happy Years of Blogging to come! It has been great to connect with you here.

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  24. Happy Blogging Aniversary Jennifer! Nice looking garden you have, with that tablecloth making such a pretty sight in your private paradise, just love it! I would have a heart attack thinking it could be a snake rather than Iggy!Though my backyard which is besides a river is a haven for iguanas too. I have seen them from far but have not the opportunity to capture them on lens yet!

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  25. Congratulations on your Blog Anniversary! Keep up the good work.

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  26. Happy Bloggoversary! And you were rewarded with those visitor to greet you with awe! That photo is so clear and vivid, as if it was your pet you took the photo of. I laughed at the end of the story, haha! Beautiful photos and gardens you have there. thanks.

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  27. Delightful post... I would jump three feet if I saw him in my gardens. Congrats on your year mark... mine was last week! Looking forward to your next year of great posts.

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  28. Congratulations on a successful year. Love your iguana story which reminds me to look more carefully for reptilian visitors to my garden.

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  29. This spot in your garden is soooooooo beautiful!!!!
    Happy blog anniversary!!
    hugs

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  30. Fantastic story! Congrats on your first anniversary and sure many more to come! I think about you a lot and really like to see your garden one day. I remember when you first bought your house with pretty huge swamp and can’t believe the transformation!!! All the best and hope to see you soon.
    By the way, where were your dogs when your reptile vistitor came by?:)
    Cheers, Olya

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  31. Recent numbers show that 63% of US households own a pet - that's 71.1 million homes and families with dogs, cats, iguanas, parakeets, fish, ferrets, potbellied pigs, etc, etc., Taking care of a pet is tougher than taking care of an infant, since our pets can't speak. Hence, making sure your pet is safe and happy when you leave it alone at home should be a priority for all pet owners. One of the simplest ways of watching over a pet remotely is by using some sort of webcam software like GotoCamera that is easily available online these days. Thanks to technology and some very smart people who are working on making things easier for us, you can now use your basic webcam to monitor your pets while you're away from them.

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