{"id":1656,"date":"2026-06-16T15:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T21:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cultofdarian.com\/blog\/?p=1656"},"modified":"2026-06-16T15:34:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T21:34:19","slug":"weve-got-beauty-with-beast-got-a-prince-with-a-toad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cultofdarian.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/16\/weve-got-beauty-with-beast-got-a-prince-with-a-toad\/","title":{"rendered":"We’ve got beauty with beast, got a prince with a toad…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My bottle gourd had its first bloom yesterday! It’s a lighter flower, seemingly closer to the bloom of a poppy than a cucumber or squash, but it was there, and a little bee was rooting around in it for some time. I’m still a bit frustrated that I essentially introduced a bunch of clay into my raised beds, as they now have difficulty absorbing the water and most just seems to run off and out. I’m hoping that this years plants will break that all up and it will be fine in the end, but I may end up needing to replace a bunch of the soil in them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The toads are also making an appearance – there are now four medium-sized toads hanging out in Toad Hollow. I’m not sure if they migrated in or had been buried and hibernating to just emerge, but they are now out and about. For the last several weeks, there was only one guy in there and he seemed pretty content to lounge about, but now there are four to watch, and every time I’ve checked today, there has been at least one of them out and observable. The boy has been interested in the toads, and has been watching them. He excitedly told me about our additional guests, though I had already seen them when I watered this morning.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Toad Tax<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

I had planned on taking him to the pool today since it is going to be pretty warm, but of course my health issues had to flair up. So today will be another low-key day and hopefully I’ll be feeling okay enough to take him tomorrow…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Song of the day: Cinema<\/a> by Nazareth<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My bottle gourd had its first bloom yesterday! It’s a lighter flower, seemingly closer to the bloom of a poppy than a cucumber or squash, but it was there, and a little bee was rooting around in it for some time. I’m still a bit frustrated that I essentially introduced a bunch of clay into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-1656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rants"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t