Afraid of My Own Backyard

It's time to get the lawn mower out around here and start sprucing up the flower beds.  

I'm excited to see if any of the seeds I planted last year will actually turn into flowers.  

I know it's really unlikely that they'll work without me doing anything but sticking them in the ground and allowing the rain to nurture them, but we'll see. (By the way Utah readers, nobody has sprinklers in Missouri.  It rains enough that you don't need to water things.)

Last week after work one day, I decided I would start with the front yard and sack all the dead leaves that somehow were still remaining in our flower beds and around the fence from last fall.  

As I was shaking one of our bushes free of the leaves, a very quick little furry friend sprinted out from underneath it, nearly running between my legs! 

I shrilled like a little girl, of course, not knowing exactly what it was. 

When I looked around, I realized the little furry friend was a baby bunny.

Bunnies are so funny because they believe their best tactic for not being seen is to hold perfectly still.

While it was now in plain sight, it froze, looking at me, and panted speedily in fear.  

I felt bad for how scared it was of me.  Little did it know that it sent my heart into a beating frenzy as well. 

When I had finished with the front yard, I walked around to our side gate that leads to the back yard and hesitantly opened it.  You just never know what's in our backyard. 

Last year, we had a liter of baby bunnies born in our backyard.  I saw two snakes, a frog, enough bugs to make your skin crawl, and just last week, someone's huge black cat was lurking around our trash cans back there. 

Needless to say, I am a little terrified to get back there and discover who else has been living with us these past few months. I told Joe today, he had to help me the first time we mow this year cause I don't know if I dare!