Although it’s just Dave and I and the cats in this big house, we are always making new friends.

The bluejays are pretty shy compared to the ones at the townhouse, but I’m slowly winning them over with a steady supply of peanuts.

And of course, I’m steadily working on gaining Foxy’s trust.

If I sit very still, I can get him to come up and take a peanut no more than a foot from the camera. He always runs off with it to eat it, but never more than a couple of feet away. He’s already learned where there is one peanut, there’s bound to be more.

One thing there is no lack of here is toads. It’s absolutely toad city.

Dave and I are always coming upon them as we are working out in the yard. This particular guy watched me clean up the holly branches I cut away.

And this big, fat fellow hops up onto our side porch every night (up four concrete steps) to catch bugs under the porch light. If we come home after dark, we have to remember to keep an eye out for him so we don’t step on him on our way in. He’s such a regular, Dave has given him a name – Anthony Hopkins…

He’s pretty used to us now, and is very easy to photograph. I can get the camera right up to him and he doesn’t seem bothered at all

This next guy was so easy to photo that I thought he was actually dead at first.

There are lots of backyard ponds around us, so dragonflies of all kinds are a fairly common sight in the garden. And I’m happy to report that this one was not dead – just very chill. He flew off after I snapped a few photo

There have been many butterflies checking out my garden progress, but they are hard to capture.

So far, I’ve only managed this Easter Swallowtail and a wee White Cabbage.

And speaking of wee….

Don’t ask me how I even saw this little guy

To give you an idea of his size, that wooden plug below him covers your average size wood screw. He was TEENY.

Likewise with this dude, who I found later that same day

He’s on a half-grown Lily bud. He can’t be any longer than my thumbnail. And check out that antenna… easily triple (if not quadruple) his own length.

There’s always someone new to meet in this big backyard!