June, So Far

On the first of June, me and my mom spent some time in the garden. She was blowing bubbles, when I decided to play with water balloons. At first, I just threw them up in the air and caught them, but then I started to on purpose let them fall on my head, splashing me. One balloon was leaking, so I held it over my head and pretended like it was a shower - It was actually a pretty good shower. Then my mom said that maybe I could shower in the garden and I thought that was a great idea. I put on my bathing suit and I played with some more water balloons. Then I rubbed my skin in with my soap and my hair in with my shampoo. Then my mother poured a big bucket of warm water over me. Then another bucket. It was actually really nice. Temperature was just perfect!

On the second of June, my mom told me "There's a toad living under the garden steps." I lifted out all the bags of soil and whatnot and looked under the steps. When I saw the toad, I put my arm in there and pulled it out. Sure enough, a male toad, dry and covered in spider web, but in perfect health. We couldn't let the toad live in our garden, because the cats might chase it. I at first suggested that I just release it in the forest, but then I remembered that lots of people walk their dogs there. Besides, there aren't any lakes or water streams near our village, so it's only wet enough when it rains. I suggested we take the toad to the nature sanctuary and my mother agreed. The nature sanctuary is a great place for toads and it's actually a very popular place for toads, they usually hatch there. Perhaps this toad was hatched there and wanted to find a new place - But, wherever it was from and wherever it was going, the best place for a toad to be is the nature sanctuary and surely not our backyard. Since all the family members with a driver's licence are in America at the moment, we had to walk to the nature sanctuary. My mom prepared the portable terrarium after my instructions. Terrarium bark at the bottom, sprayed with water and a water bowl with shallow water. I decided to name the toad Lars-Arne and I put him in the terrarium and off we went. My mom packed my bathing suit just in case I would want to have my first swim of the year. It was a long walk, but when we were finally in the nature sanctuary, it was yet another long walk, because I wanted to find just the right spot to release the toad. When we finally got up to the pond, where I'd seen tadpoles some years ago, I went a little bit into the forest, crouched down on the mud and held my hand out. The toad carefully skipped away and lay itself in the shade of a log on the mud. I had, of course, been really careful with the toad while carrying it in the terrarium and the toad was in perfect health and lively as ever when I released it. Then we went to the rocks, where we usually swim. I put on my bathing suit and got in the water. I probably spent twenty minutes in there!

The third of June, we went to the nature sanctuary again. This time we visited the place opposite the rocks, on the other side of the lake. It's kind of rocky, but you can walk in, there are reeds and waterlilies there and lots of bugs and fish and sometimes some sea birds. I saw a small snake, however when it saw me, it got a bit scared and started swimming in the other direction. It actually dove and swam along the bottom! It was a newly hatched garter snake with lovely yellow markings. Me and my mom were bathing for quite a while, the water was so warm. After a while we got out of the water and got dressed. I went into the cow pasture for a while, but the cows seemed a bit shy. I tried holding grass in my hands and slowly approaching them. One cow with huge horns actually slowly walked up to me - It was a little bit scary, I prefer the ones without horns. It just licked the grass in my hands once (It was long grass, it didn't lick my hands) and then it just forgot about it and started shaking flies away. Some of the cows went knee-deep into the lake to drink water. It was quite a pretty sight!

I wonder what I'm gonna do today.