Salamander

I needed a bucket. I was working on a trenching project to pipe the back-flushed water from my well water filtration system away from my foundation, where it was currently configured to empty every night. Not good for my foundation to have so much water dumped at its base.

I needed a bucket. There happened to be a bucket under the blue spruce north of the house. I picked up the bucket that had been resting for a least a year on the forest floor and discovered a very cool friend securely hiding beneath the orange plastic container. 

Long-toed Salamander
Ambystoma macrodactylum

Reptiles and amphibians have been a keen interest of mine since maybe first grade. I was delighted to meet its acquaintance. Sharing a habitat with frogs, salamanders and plenty of garter snakes is one of the delights of this place. 

Long-toed Salamander with Nasturtiums 

I marveled at this creature, spoke comforting words to the small amphibian and then placed him among the moist grasses and ferns below the ramp to my front door. It is good luck to have a salamander as your gatekeeper.

Just be cautious of those garter snakes my fine friend.