Hot raccoon

This little guy showed up on my porch yesterday afternoon. Very unusual since raccoons are active at night. He may have been hot and thirsty, and was separated from his mother.

After sitting on the bench a while, he got down then scurried across the stone to the small pond where he drank for a long time.

He then climbed the cottonwood and went to sleep.

I thought he was snoozing when I zoomed in but when I looked at the picture on my computer screen, I realized that he actually had known I was looking at him the whole time.

Drought

Baldwin is like many other places right now--in the midst of a serious drought. We have many cracks in our ground, some so wide we're not letting the dogs run around in case they might step in one of the two foot deep crevasses (good thing we don't have horses). My gardens are doing well, however, because I mulched heavily and the ground is not losing moisture as quickly as the grassy areas.

My smaller, elevated butterfly garden is going strong.

All my "full sun" potted plants are now under the porch. Semi-sun plants don't even get morning sun and some of the shade plants are now inside. I was given the hosta in front but will wait until the weather cools to plant it.

Peppers are especially happy

Our big pond is down about six feet and we see more deer, oppossom and raccoon tracks every morning.

I picked a variety of peppers today. Also this morning, MSNBC news featured a story, "Heat, drought make for potent peppers." Lack of moisture causes the alkaloids to become concentrated, resulting in more intense flavors--and heat.
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/48257563/ns/weather/