Yikes

Thirty-two inches of freshly shed snakeskin trembling in the night breeze greeted me as I stepped out of the basement door last evening. This prize was not there when I came in from my days work three hours earlier. We commonly find shed snakeskins around our stone walls. One was neatly left in the irregular crack formed between two rows of cap stones at the top of a wall. This placement represents a novel solution to what must be a tricky task. Rather than wiggle out of the old skin, this snake appears to have used a gravity assist to slide right out. It is eighteen inches from the mouth opening to the ground. The slide to the ground was likely controled by some degree of grip on the old skin. It must have been quite a sight.

I have no problem with snakes that I can see. It is the unexpected that delivers quite a jolt. This skin is high above the ground uncomfortably close to my head. This time there was no audible gasp but it did instantly focus my attention. One question does come to mind. Who was holding this snake's tail?

New Butterfly

One might expect to find a gardener's best work in front of his house. Here a self planted sizeable patch of dill holds the corner of the planting bed in front of the house. This spring my suggestion that we clean up that area was rejected since the caterpillars of some butterfly ate dill. Recently we found several green, yellow, black and white caterpillars feasting on the untidy dill. This morning I found this newly hatched Eastern Black Swallowtail, Papilio polyxenes, on the stone ramp leading from the basement.

The butterfly was fortunate that I did not step on it. My habit is to walk with eyes fixed on the ground in front of me so that I do not step on the unexpected. Yesterday, my first step outside the basement door found a sizeable snake betwen my feet. It is amazing how long a person can hold themselves airborne. With my girlish scream still echoing from the hills, I quick stepped out of there. Equally frantic, the snake found an opening in the stone wall with its tail and backed out of sight.

Becky also had time to get a close look at the butterfly. Located near her dill patch makes it likely that she made food available for this former caterpillar. We were both in the area and saw the butterfly's first flight. It easily cleared the stone wall, flew across the lawn, turned to miss the trees and disappeared out of sight. I expect to always find a large patch of dill growing in front of the house.

S-s-s-snake and S-s-s-snow

We're back to cold, at least for today. It's funny that we should see our very first snake of the season on a cold day. He was on top of the wall, trying to get some sun, but was so stiff and slow that Ed was able to come in the house, get the camera, then go back outside and still get several pictures of the snake.



Snow covered the garden this morning except for the stone paths. Stored heat in the stones prevented the snow from sticking there, but the top of the stone wall, being up in the air, had a thin layer of snow. With the sun out the snow is melting slowly, but only where the heat of the sun can reach it. There is ice to scrape off the steps. Sorry Mr. Snake, it's March and there's still a lot of stiff and slow left in this spring for both of us.