I picked it up to see if it was alive or if it was just a shell.
But when I picked it up, not only was it alive, it laid an egg in my hand
By coincidence today is father's day.
Planted this early last year as an experiment. Although tea roses are beautiful they are fussy and I've had bad luck with them. This specific variety is a climber- not as strong as ivy, but it should latch on to nearby things. It grew a decent amount, and started creeping upward, but would not bloom at all-
Until just this week. Four of them.
Tried to guide it to grab a hold of the lattice, but it doesn't seem to want to do that just yet. It appears to have two goals.
First, it tried to "hold hands" with another plant. So I separated them.
Second, it seems to be growing the opposite direction as intended, toward my hose faucet. I think that might mean it wants to be watered more... (I'm really cautious about this because I've accidentally killed roses by over-watering). I'm going to leave it for now. But, if my water bill spikes suddenly due to something when I'm not home...
Leopard slug. On the pathway by the house
Kind of gross but I don't have it in me to try and kill them. Slugs are very hard to exterminate, anyhow. This species of slug is native to Europe but was introduced during colonization times and became prolific here.
Like the other species, they have one behavior where if you touch them, the horns retract. Kind of cute tbh.