Twenty-four hour update

It is a crying shame that a female turtle has to dig a hole for four hours prior to giving birth. I got home around seven and she was sitting, wide awake, in the flower garden. Only pregnant turtles are awake at that time of day, I'm told. Minutes after I greeted her she emerged and found the spot. A ridiculous spot as far as I was concerned but I'm sure it made perfect sense for a turtle. It's just three feet from last year's nest.

I didn't see the eggs at all. It got dark long before she was done digging the hole. Around eleven o'clock, I thought I could hear them thump down into the hole but it was pitch dark and mostly, I was on raccoon patrol. At one o'clock in the morning, she was working to cover it all up and I went to bed. At five, the nest was filled and finished but she was still sitting next to it.

Again, we had breakfast together. One organic strawberry and a pile of grated broccoli and carrots. It was nice of Beverly to reason in the comments yesterday, that her return might signal some karmic interchange. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the haute cuisine. Oh, and the built-in nanny. If nothing goes haywire, I guess we'll be passing out cigars at the end of August. Cheers.

p.s. Someone asked in an e-mail about the turtle pool. It's a plastic sandwich container, two inches deep. No diving board or water lilies but just the perfect size for a full grown box turtle.