Thursday, November 4, 2010

Turtles, from Residents to Art!

We always see turtles at our place during the warm months. We have two ponds, and one of our favorite residents are mud turtles.  It's fun to feed them a little turtle food.  Sitting by the lily pond, it doesn't take long before a few turtles swim over for a handout. Here is a mud turtle that went for a walk, and may have been looking for a place to lay some eggs.


This is the first snapping turtle I've seen at our pond. It's a fairly good-sized one, about 15" long.  It was just outside the edge of the pond and I ran to get my camera. Just a few shots and it quickly slipped back into the water. I wasn't going to argue with it!


I love turtles of all kinds and take inspiration from them. Here's my most recent Turtle Box. The turtle is hand drawn and woodburned (pyroengraved) on one of my own organically grown gourds.


For more of my work visit Midnightcoiler.

9 comments:

Nicole's Homemade Treats...The Blog said...

Nice post - mu son has been begging me for a turtle! I will have to pass!

Wee said...

I love your pictures! I especially love your Turtle Box! Your work is amazing!

Tiffany said...

Great blog! Love the pictures too! My mom used to pic up box turtles on the side of the road when we were kids-we used to play with them in our kiddy pool.

JadePond said...

I love turtles! Thank you for sharing!

My Mother's Garden said...

Those turtles are pretty cute! I can see how they inspired you to create to that beautiful gourd turtle box.

Heather Leavers said...

Certainly makes my tadpoles seem a bit tame!

Pretty Things said...

I love I love I LOVE turtles! A friend of mine has a license to raise from hatchlings Maryland diamond back terrapins, then release them into the wild, and they are amazing to watch.

Midnightcoiler said...

Thanks for your comments everyone. I love turtles and all kinds of wildlife too. It's amazing to me what you can attract by just digging out a simple pond. It makes the saying " If you make it they will come" so true. From nowhere we have fish, crayfish, frogs, turtles, snakes, leaches, dragonfly, waterbugs and other visitors that come to hunt, drink and reproduce at the pond.

Sherman Unkefer said...

Love those pictures of art! Great blog!