Reservoir Avenue School

Tunia prepares for her 2001 - 2002 journey.

Can you find Tunia in her garden?

Summer, 2001: Tunia spent most of the summer in her garden, though she did go to the island of Martha's Vineyard for a visit. Martha's Vineyard was great, but Tunia loves her garden. The garden is a great place to relax, read books, write, watch the birds and butterflies, play, and plan where to go on a future journey. Many of Tunia's friends spend lots of time outside doing those things. Tunia's friend Oliver also spent time in the garden. He watches over Tunia's garden while she is traveling, and he spends time there when she is at home. He is a big help. His favorite part of gardening is eating the ripe strawberries straight from the strawberry plants!

Tunia and Oliver are looking for ripe strawberries. Oliver seems to have found some!

This summer, though, Tunia and Oliver had one problem in the garden. Something was digging holes around Tunia's flowers. Each morning when Tunia and Oliver went outside, there were new holes around the plants. Oliver sniffed around the holes and all around the yard. He sniffed and sniffed. He has a really good nose, but he couldn't find whatever it was that was digging the holes. Oliver has a lot of perseverance, though. That means he doesn't give up easily. Each morning, day after day, he sniffed and sniffed to make sure the garden was safe from digging creatures. But on each new morning, Tunia and Oliver found more holes. Oliver continued to sniff around to solve the mystery.

One evening after dark, Tunia and Oliver solved the mystery of the holes. They went out into the yard, and Oliver suddenly started sniffing madly. His nose directed him to the gate and then along the fence. He was getting closer to solving the mystery. Oliver found out that a skunk wanted to spend time in the garden also. But the skunk did not like Oliver near him, so he sprayed Oliver. Skunks spray a very bad smelling fluid at any creature that seems to be a danger to them. The skunk thought Oliver was a danger, so it did what skunks do. It sprayed Oliver. Luckily Tunia was not near the skunk. Oliver was VERY stinky from the spray. Oliver had found the creature that was digging the holes in Tunia's garden, but he ended up one smelly little dog. The skunk probably had been digging holes and looking for insects under the soil at night. That's what skunks do. Oliver had been guarding Tunia's garden and the rest of the yard. That's what dogs do. But it seems that dogs and skunks can't do what they like to do at the same time. Oliver, Tunia, and the skunk found that out! After many baths, Oliver is back to normal. The skunk is still visiting Tunia's garden at night. But Tunia and Oliver are not disturbing the skunk when it visits at night, and the skunk is not disturbing Tunia and Oliver when they spend time in the garden during that day. They should get along just fine that way.

Tunia sits with some of her bird friends who visit her garden. Above left are two American goldfinches. Above right is a black-capped chickadee.

Tunia looked carefully at her roses to be sure aphids were not causing any problems. The ladybug on the rose leaf in the picture, above right, was working hard at controlling the aphids.

Tunia watched as a polyphemus moth dried its wings after leaving its cocoon. Above right, the close-up photo shows the spots on the moth's wings. The spots look like eyes and scare away predators, like birds, who might eat the moth.

Tunia visits Koi and Koi-Koi, two of her friends who live in her garden pond.

This red admiral butterfly was sunning itself in Tunia's butterfly garden. Tunia has many butterfly friends.

Many butterflies visit Tunia's garden, including this Eastern Tiger Swallowtail at right. It sipped nectar from the butterfly bush, which is also called a buddleia.

At right is the same Eastern Tiger Swallowtail in the photo above. In this view of the underside of the butterfly, it is easy to see that this butterfly was once a caterpillar.

Tunia looks out at some of the boats at Martha's Vineyard.

  

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Click the arrow to go to Tunia's first stop this year - Australia.