European Wall lizards

I've had these little lizards in my garden for the past few years.  They look like chameleons or the geckos I saw in Hawaii.  The more mature ones are green.  I am happy to have them in my garden and multiplying.  I have very few slugs since they moved in.  Yesterday, I watched one... I thought... attacking another smaller one.  I wondered if they were cannibalistic and so googled this, of course.  I found a good informative site that informed me that I had shared a private second or seven while these lizards mated.  Sure didn't take them long... no time to get the camera.... papparatzi that I am. Further discussion over dinner lead to an informative email about the lizards in our area:  Quote:

DistributionWall Lizards are endemic to continental Europe and western Asia. They have been introduced to several locations in southern England and North America. In the early 1970s, a small group of Wall Lizards was released in west Saanich on Vancouver Island when a private zoo closed. Initially, the lizard population remained small, but once acclimated to our local climate and a breeding population established, the population grew enormously. They now number in the thousands. For the moment, Wall Lizards are restricted to the area of west Saanich, Triangle Mountain in Metchosin, and Victoria on southern Vancouver Island. Recent reports of individuals in the Gorge area of Victoria in 2007, and occasional reports - so far unsubstantiated - of individuals on some islands in the Strait of Georgia, suggest that the species is slowly dispersing. It probably is only a matter of time before Wall Lizards reach the British Columbia mainland or north-western United States, either intentionally or accidentally; southward dispersal is very likely on the mainland.

 

We have had none of the promised rain so I have been out watering in the garden.  There are a few vegetables sprouted and some of the flowers.  I have 13 lupines germinated in pots (out of 20 seeds, so far).  The watering makes it easier to pull the weeds.  I have weeded the thyme circle and edged it back to its 7 foot circumference edging rocks.  It is in bloom and there are more bees than last year, but still not an abundance as there were in years before.  The golden oregano beside it looks terrific.  I weeded some of the area around the thyme circle.  There is still lots of weeding to do.  

The next day, I cleaned up under the bench.  I liberated 4 flat cement blocks from the veggie garden path and added them under the feet of the bench.  I laid 3 layers of cardboard over this... that ought to keep the violets under control...watered the cardboard and put the bench back on its blocks.  It is a bit high and I hope it settles ... I may have to level it again, too.  But I do like it higher, as it had settled quite a lot over the years.  But it had no blocks under its feet... so we will see how this goes.  I moved the metal egg container thing beside it for a 'tea table'... all very rustic, in its nook in the cedar hedge.  I must get photos. The top of the table is a white plastic cutting board.  I must see if I can paint it turquoise to match the bench.  I think there is paint for plastic.  

Today, I used the hedge trimmer to trim down  the cedar hedge by the veggie garden, along the driveway a bit,  on the inside of the cedar hedge at the front, as well as the little hedge and shrubs around the water garden.  I was using muscles I never knew I had to do this and hope I am not too stiff from this.

A new season

These blue perennial geraniums are very good garden plants.  The one with the felt-like textured dark green leaves has found its way into a few spots around the garden.  It is not invasive, I moved transplants of it to available spots.  There are some other, tougher perennial geraniums growing in the strip along beside the driveway.  Very good plants for beneath the cedar hedge.  They never need watering and fussing over.

The malva are good perennial plants that I think are in the hollyhock family.  You can see that the leaves get rust like the hollyhocks in my garden do.  They seed themselves around a bit and I don't mind seeing them come up where ever they may be.  Last year I planted a lavatera that has flowers like the malvas. It gets quite big, like a bush and will be covered with the pink flowers.  It needed water this year to get established.  Hopefully I will have pictures of it in bloom, next year.  It is deciduous, so adds nothing to the garden in wintertime.

This is the fleeting flower of the unknown plant with the blue-green thin leaves and seed heads that the finches like.  This is plant seeds its self everywhere.  I have to keep after it to keep ahead of all the seedlings growing everywhere.  It does not seem to spread across the road into the park though. 

I managed to get a photo of one of the little European wall lizards.  They are usually too fast to catch and disappear in a flash.  Upon examination of the photo of this one, I find that the lizard is molting and so that is why it could not run away.  These little creatures are great in the garden.  I am sure they eat bugs of all kinds.  I still see lady bugs in the garden, so they are not eating them.
These photos are from July.  August has gone zipping past, with just the bare minimum of maintenance in the garden this year.  We had a good half inch of rain a few days ago.  The Autumn rains are starting, hopefully.
We had no yellow plums this year because the blooms froze.  There does not seem to be any purple plums either.  The apple tree, though, is loaded with apples.  One of the branches is leaning way over and touching the ground.  My vegetable garden was a bust, again.
On the other hand, our new photo upload /networking site is growing steadily.  Our alexa ranking will be breaking the 100,000 mark soon.  In this ranking system, the lower the number, the better the rank.  I have added Google ads to my communities, on the site.  I set up Adsense for google ads on my blog and can ad the ads to my communities on Megashot.net.  This is my referral code.  You can use it to see the site and register. You can see the ads and the communities I have built on the site:  In the Garden, The Honest Fox, Whimsies, Flares and Echoes, Playtime, and Abstract Art.  The ads are text ads and unobstrusive.  I actually like their appearance. I set up my adsense account on August 10th.  Since then I have actually earned $50.00.  It was interesting learning how to do this, and actually user friendly and easy to do.  I have trouble not clicking on my own ads, which is a definite no-no. Of course, the ads are gardening oriented and in my own area.    I suppose I could take URLs on the ad and put them into my browser to look at the advertising sites.  That would not be clicking on my own ads!  I will need some chipped rock for my woodland path.  The delivery charges for the bit of stuff I need are expensive.  I don't have a truck to haul dirt or rocks.   I would like to compare the delivery prices on some of the ads I see.  Well, I guess I will need to use Google's search.  It works very well too.

European Wall Lizards

This little lizard was sunning on one of the small rockery walls in my front garden today. I had topped up the water in the half barrel tub next to this rockery when I noticed it. I went and got my camera and managed to get a few zoomed photos. When I tried to get closer, it disappeared in a flash. These little critters are really fast. I call them Waldo.. as I never seem to be able to find them. The gold fish in the half tub is Elvis, as I am always surprised to find that it lives! Especially after a winter with the water frozen over for a few weeks at a time.

A informative web site: http://www.bcreptiles.ca/lizards/eurowall.htm I should report my wall lizards and try and find out about reporting bullfrogs, too.