The Heron is pretty harmless

But we have heard there's a 5-6 foot gator in the pond so the dog has to be leashed at all times. We've only seen a small one but the big guys pretty much stay under water when it's hot. The come out at night but I can't bring myself to let Jigs run free even in the day. She's taking it pretty well.

One of the sightings involved a big wader, a white egret, I suppose an American Egret. Bill saw the gator motionless in the pond, saw the Egret about twenty feet away. The gator submerged and a short time later there was an explosion of white feathers and that was the end of the Egret. I don't want Jigs to go that way. I guess it would be better than having to put her down for some horrible cancer, but we're going to forge ahead and hope for the best.

From the picture, the pond is down a couple of feet; we're way short on rainfall. It's rained about three times in the last two months. I must have finally figured out the plant material because everything is fine. Even some snapdragons we threw in at New Year's for a week's color are going strong. Who knew? Just standard dwarf snapdragons are xeric perennials. Live and learn.