After spending so much of the last week watching the puddle get smaller, the rain finally did what I had been hoping it would do. Over the last two days, we collected a little more than an inch, and apparently that was enough to make the puddle look interesting again.
Today, Stanley came wandering through the newly refreshed shallows.
There is something reassuring about seeing it standing out there again. The water is still covered in late-summer green, the vegetation has grown into places that were underwater not very long ago, and the puddle certainly has not returned to its earlier-season version of itself. But there was enough water for a it to decide it was worth stopping by, and somehow that feels like progress.
I suppose I had started wondering whether our larger visitors were simply finished with us for the year. The little birds have continued providing plenty of entertainment, and Pumpkin has certainly been taking advantage of whatever they scatter beneath the feeders, but I wasn’t quite ready for the puddle to become quiet just yet.
Apparently, neither was the puddle. And technically, the heron wasn’t our only visitor.
There is also a rather impressive garden spider hanging beneath the blocks near our decorative skull, looking entirely too comfortable with its chosen location. Unlike the heron, I have absolutely no desire to become better acquainted with this particular guest. It may enjoy the sunshine, appreciate the puddle view, finish whatever spider business brought it there, and then kindly continue on its way.
Some visitors make me grab the camera and hurry toward the edge of the patio. Others make me grab the camera from a very respectful distance.
Either way, after a couple days of rain, the puddle has company again.
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