After a flurry of posts every day for a week, I haven't been posting at all. I've been out in the garden every day—if I had a nickel for every weed I've pulled... I could hire a gardener! I'm working on a custom gift order for my SIL. And I've been gathering up product for consignment at a new shop that's opening next month. I'll tell you more about that later but I'm driving down on Thursday to deliver everything in person and check it out. Everything I bring has to be packaged, labeled, or tagged for retail sale. That's a little different than how I do it for my website.
I don't know if this photo will disgust you—it depends, I guess, on whether you're afraid of snakes. My husband has been cleaning up an area near the driveway and was moving some big stones this morning. Look what he found when he lifted one of them.
The picture's a little fuzzy but I wasn't getting any closer than I had to. Not because I'm afraid but because we don't want to scare them away. We're very happy to have snakes—in fact, the more the merrier. They eat insects and small pesky animals and they're really too small to be a bother. This photo makes them look larger than they are —those little green leaves are clover so you can see they aren't that large. This pair, probably a male and female (one's a bit larger and lighter in color), were curled up together and a third smaller one slithered off into the bushes. Another small one lives near the front porch and often suns himself on the top step. My cats watch from inside the screen door and are fascinated with it. I've also seen him lurking under the coneflowers in the herb garden. I think he's sort of cute!
9 comments:
Oh, they are so pretty! Do you know what kind they are? The clover really helps give some perspective on their size...the picture does make them look large.
We had a huge field behind my house growing up and were sometimes visited by snakes in our otherwise semi-urban back yard. My mom used to joke that we might find them doing laps in our pool along with the gophers. Mostly we saw king snakes or gopher snakes (just be careful picking them up, but not poisonous). Never a rattler, though we would see them once in a while in the field.
I think they're just the common Eastern Garter Snake. When I was a kid I'd visit my grandparents in Pike Co. (two counties over) and we'd sometimes see rattlesnakes but that was a long time ago. I'm sure there are still some around but you don't encounter them very much. That's probably a good thing.
This photo reminds me of a summer day when the kids were little. I was outdoors playing with them and lifted a tarp that we had over some extra wood chips.
Under that tarp were LOTS of snakes!
It totally freaked me out!!!
I will never forget it, nor will the children.
:)
My Sister-In-Law is deathly afraid of snakes,,so is my Mom. Dad grew up in Northern Ohio and has a healthy respect for rattlers and copperheads. Me snakes don't bother me....used to pick em up all the time. we have them all over the yard and in our gardens. Great way to keep the field mice and shrews at bay! At our old house
when I was a kid, we came home to find the German Shepard on top of the doghouse roof and our Mixed breed in the doghouse with a dead king snake in front of him and a couple more dead in their outer play area. The mixed breed was much older, so I guess he saved the younger.
Snakes in the garden? I'm cringing with horror.
I love snakes and those ones are beautuful! You are soo lucky in the variety on nature you have on your doorstep.
Snakes are so cool -- I love them, but I don't see them much in Washington -- we had lots growing up in the mid-west. I'm envious.
Those look so sweet! We only have two species of snake over here, and slow worms which look like snakes but are legless lizards (how they make the distinction i'm not sure). My parents have slow worms in their compost heap, and occasionally get a grass snake in the pond.
Admire your kindness towards the creepy crawly beings. Lucky snakes!! , had they been spotted here in India - they would be dead by now :(
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