I was walking home from Mom’s last night, and spotted this turtle at the side of the road. I knew our #1 daughter was on her way home from work and, afraid the turtle would run out into the road and be killed, I reached down to pick the turtle up and move it to the other side. Then I saw what it was doing. Click on the picture to enlarge it.

“Oh! Sorry, Madam,” I said, and took a picture. Yes, we’re about to be the proud godparents of a clutch of hatchlings. 🙂

I finally got a snappie of the lizard who lives on the back porch. Probably one of many. Lizards make me happy. Yes, I’m a Democrat. Shut up. It’s only a very small picture because I had to stand so far away, to keep the li’l speedster from running away before I could snap it.

And I told Damyanti I would post about Flash sometime, so here is the background. Tomorrow is Friday Recommends, so Flash will come into it on Saturday.

Once upon a time, my husband went out west for a week or so to bring our #2 daughter home from her summer internship. Before he left, our #4 daughter said, “I sure wish we could make a goldfish pond. But if we ask Daddy, he’ll either say no or he’ll do it himself.” So we laid our plans. We got books and made lists and, as soon as he was well on his way, we went to the store. We already had a galvanized tub in the basement, and the scraps of a pool-liner, so we dug a hole, shoved the tub in it, lined the tub with the pool liner, and filled it with water. We put sand in the bottom and bricks by ones and stacks of twos, to hold the water plants at various heights. Then we got goldfish.

When Charlie got home, we had a well-established little ecosystem going. The cats were interested, but the fish had plenty of places of refuge, and the cats decided the pond was just another kind of television.

Then the weather started turning cold, and we realized the fatal flaw in our plan: The pond wasn’t deep enough for the fish to overwinter. We had to buy an aquarium and bring the fish indoors. We had to drain the tub. And just like that, our pond was gone. Charlie took up the tub so it wouldn’t rust or be in the way when he mowed, and the dream was over.

But–ah!–it was sweet while it lasted!

Saturday: The Coming of Flash.

WRITING PROMPT: Have a character throw himself/herself into a Do-It-Yourself project without thinking it all the way through.

MA