Turtles Again

Turtles keep coming into Jacob's and my outings.  Today we were on our way to hike up to the Mountains to the Sea Trail so Jacob could do some nature photography and I could do some drawing.  About a block from the trail head Jacob spotted a turtle in the middle of the road.  We pulled over, got out of the car, and did some drawing and photography.  Then we decided to help the turtle out by getting it out of the street.  But we thought it might be an animal that had a home ground, so we decided to put it on the side of the road that it seemed to be aiming toward and hope that it headed into the grass and not back into the street. 

A few minutes later we were just starting up the trail when another turtle of the same kind appeared right on the side of the path we were walking on.  This one was bigger and had brown under its neck, whereas the first one had had a pink neck and chin.  We felt a definite sense of turtles coming into our life since last weekend we saw that giant pile-up of turtles at the lake.

I looked up turtles and found out this turtle was an Eastern Box Turtle, fairly commonplace around here at one time, but growing increasingly endangered because of being hit by so many cars and trucks.  I looked up turtle energy and the Native American spirit meaning for turtles.  I learned that when turtles come into your life, health and longevity are often coming your way.  Turtles are symbols of wisdom (they are over 200,000 years old), endurance, protection, and innocence. 

It rained off and on all afternoon.  Jacob and I don't mind walking in the rain, and raindrops on flowers make very beautiful photographs.  When I got home I finished the turkey-proof square foot garden box.  Rain spattered down a bit while I wove the edges of the mesh together with bright orange jute ribbon;  so the soil was perfect for planting the plant starts I had gotten.  The sun came out just as I finished everything, making the little cube look very glowy.