A Lizard In The Flowers

 I have one friend in particular Up North.  You know, anyone who I have to drive, say, more than an hour to be with is Up North.

In this case, she's way Up North.  Well above the Freeze Line in Boca Raton.  Up above the Mason Dixon Line.  In New Jersey.

When I tell her that one of my first memories of living in South Florida was when a Cuban Anole ran to hide.  It ran up my pant leg and ended up nestled in my shorts.  I had to kick my shoes off and "Drop Trou" right there to get the little critter out.  Yes, it was fine, my backyard is completely secluded and secure, I did not scare the horses or the neighbor.

No, it didn't bite.  And no, it survived the trip.  I let it loose in the flowers of the Bougainvillea right next to the pool.  

They're all over the place.  I hardly notice them any longer.  

I'm not fanatic about it, but I have been known to avoid stepping on one because they are harmless and have their own lizardly life to live.  For the most part, they are even beneficial to our environment eating insects that try to eat, well, me.

Me, or you, or that Buick.  Some of these insects here look like they can carry off a  Truck.  

 I do tend to plant things that are beneficial to the Monarch Butterflies here.  That creates plenty of cover for the other creatures that share my yard with me.  In fact, we have so many Monarchs here at any given time that it is possible to be a "Disney Princess" or "Disney Prince" just by walking into my yard.  More than once I have been told to stand still as there is a butterfly that has landed on my shoulder.

We were going to a garden center.  I like these places because they give me ideas.  I am constantly propagating plants here from cuttings, and we have needed to put some into the ground for quite a while.  If anything I am being slowed down because my own normal tendency would be to turn the property into a forest.  

I am working on building a Hibiscus Hedge under a window and we need some ground cover.  This is the issue.  In Florida, we have termites.  You either have them in your house now, or will have them.  It's a matter of time.  In fact I have come into the house and spotted one climbing my shirt on more than one occasion.  

You don't want wood based mulch against the house.  If so you are inviting them to dine on your biggest investment.  We went there looking for some stones and some ideas.  The garden already has the plants started and the landscape cloth in place, but mulch in a place where you have watering happen through irrigation is inviting problems.

So Stones.  Against the house.  Another one of those adjustments you make when you get here, you realize the way you were doing things Up North before you migrated here, you former Snowbird, do not work in the Tropics Adjacent Florida Sun.  

You had no idea there were more than one type, you started looking into it and your mind fogged up.  You don't want anything dark, because Dark Brown, Black Polished, and Charcoal would retain heat.  You are already running air conditioning 11 months of the year, and what passes for our "Winter" is about two weeks long.

If you ever want to see someone miserable, find a South Floridian where the high will be in (gasp!) the upper 60s like it was here in February.

We know!  We know who are tourists here because in February you are in Shorts and a T Shirt and don't have enough sense to cover up because damnit 65 is cold!

Snowbirds without a lick of sense... I'll tell you.  And get off my lawn!

When it gets that cold  the Iguanas can fall from the trees.  You haven't lived until you find a cold temperature stunned Iguana wake up in your trash can because that dark blue plastic box warms up fast and the creatures are cold blooded and their muscles don't work below 45.  

Don't put them in the trash can, you will only have to let them back out and that creates other problems.

But them and the snowbirds are best left to their own devices.  The other lizards?  They tend to be harmless as long as they aren't elected to office and head to the state capitol.

Those are the most toxic lizards of all.