Saturday, June 27, 2020

In the Garden


I hesitate to say anything for fear of putting a jinx on it, but the garden is coming along. I've been suckering the tomatoes and removing their low-hanging leaves in hopes of slowing down the ever present blight by better air circulation.


Also, some hoeing and weeding . . .


The temperature's been moderate (low eighties) and it's been a real pleasure to be outside digging in the dirt.

This bed with zinnias and little onions required hand weeding so I unched along on my rear end, a gardening position I find myself using more and more.


I think my witch socks lend a festive touch.


 And because a garden post wouldn't be complete without a snake--this fella below isn't our friendly greenhouse-dwelling black snake. This smaller one was sunning on the rocks by the fishpool (maybe on the lookout for a frog?) but when I aimed the camera at him, he slid away.

I suspect he's the same fella that fell across my arm when I opened the basement door to toss some dirty clothes downstairs, He must somehow have been resting on the top of the door and when I opened it, down he came.

It happened fast. What'sthiscoldpieceofblackhose?Omigod,it's asnake. Yes, I made a lot of noise. Waaa-aah! But I saw almost at once it was a harmless blacksnake, evidently as startled by the encounter as I was. He slithered off down the stairs and presumably out the downstairs door which was open to the outside. He also left a truly vile smell on my arm--but it washed right off.

I looked it up. And it appears that releasing musk is a reaction to serious danger. Poor guy. No wonder he wouldn't hang around for a better picture. Yikes! It's that woman again. I'm outta here!

4 comments:

Barbara Rogers said...

Great socks! And Mr. snake probably wouldn't have been sunning himself by the pond if the heron sculpture was real either! Having him (snake) in the house would have also been unpleasant. I almost stepped on a piece of black hose, pretty big and not coiled properly at all...until he took off being very glad I just stepped in the middle of his curves, rather than directly on him.

-- I never could say anything in twenty words or less said...

The socks are fantastic! :)

Snakes are one of the few things we don't have running around in our yard. This is probably a good thing, as despite knowing intellectually that they're as afraid of me as I am of them, the emotional reaction is an entirely other thing.

May your tomatoes do much better than our past attempts. I keep trying, because my wife loves fresh tomatoes, but success has so far eluded me.

jennyfreckles said...

I agree about the socks! I'd have died of a heart attack if the snake had fallen on my arm. So glad we don't really have them.

Anvilcloud said...

It's different environment down there.