Seeds And Stranger Tides

I was going to make my post this morning, but I didn't quite get that far.  I had a great weekend though.  Saturday we went to see the new Pirates movie.  I love pirates, so naturally I loved it.  I won't give anything away, but I will say this...if you go see it, stay til after the credits because there is one tiny scene after and it's funny!  Plus...lets face it Johnny Depp really is good eye candy, especially in 3-D!

R and I had been debating where to go for our anniversary dinner for weeks.  He isn't a fancy sort of guy, but he will step up for occasions and he was willing to take me somewhere nice so I could wear my pretty new dress that I bought for the show.  At the eleventh hour I decided we would go to Old Chicago for pizza.  It may not have been fancy and I just wore jeans, but it was fun and relaxed and there is something to be said for that.

Sunday I was planning on starting my garden.  A couple weeks ago R tilled it for me, but then we had snow and all sorts of crazy weather.  It was sunny and warm, so I took my seeds and my gloves and out I went.  There was one small corner of the garden he didn't till, because I had flower bulbs in that area so I told him not to.  It was covered with dandelions and I thought I should weed before I got going on the rest.  I was pulling up handful after handful when one of them felt oddly thicker than it should have of.  I realized that with my handful of weeds I was holding a garden snake.  I let out a small scream and half threw, half dropped it. 

Normally garden snakes are as anxious to get away from you as you are anxious for them to get away from you.  But this feisty little character decided to hold his ground and he scrunched himself into a strike position.  I know they can't hurt you very much, but they can bite.  I wasn't having any of that, so I whacked him twice with the shovel and he decided that perhaps retreat really was the better part of valor after all.  For some reason I seem to have an awful lot of snakes.  I never had any for eight years and then suddenly they moved in and I wish I knew how to get rid of them.  If anyone knows...please let me know.  I took down the bird feeder because I knew the fallen seeds were attracting mice and mice attract snakes, but they don't seem to want to move on. 

I had one persistent little guy last year who was determined to live in my garage.  I couldn't catch him either.  He was fast.  I took a tub lid and launched him clear out into the street one night when it was cool and I thought that would have scared him enough that he wouldn't come back, but five days later he was in his usual spot.   But I digress...

Anyway...at that point R returned from his errands and came out to help me.  We managed to get the entire garden planted in one day!  Without his help, it took me a week last year.  I was definitely grateful to him for saving me so much time.  I am not a very good gardener, but I do feel that sense of satisfaction when things grow.

The weekend went by with only one mishap.  I am telling you I am the most clumsy person ever!  I skewered my heel on the coffee table.  (My coffee table has marble and has lots of sharp fancy cast iron on it.)  It hurt but I thought it was ok until I looked down at the kitchen floor and saw a trail of blood.  Sigh~  I should buy stock in Bandaid!

Other than that, I am back to my old self and ready to work on those bears!  I will keep you posted!

I hope you had a lovely and snake free weekend!

Hugs, K. <3

Happy Spring!

We have all been waiting and watching for Spring to arrive, and it's finally here!

Ok actually this is what they were looking at...

I took these last Spring and I forgot to post them.  It's not that leafy and green here yet.  Actually Colorado tends to get most of our snow in Spring.  But I do love warm days despite the fact that my house is inundated with critters.  We get lots of squirrels and for some reason, lots of snakes.  I had one that was determined to live in my garage no matter how many times I relocated him.  I am sure he will be back this year too.

I also had two mystery animals that moved into the garden.  They ran so fast I couldn't ever see what they were.  One of them even ran right between my feet and I still couldn't tell what it was for sure.  I think they may have been horned toads.  Whatever they were, they definitely weren't mice.  And they love gardens.

Don't Step On A Crack...

Remember when you were a kid, and there was the saying "Don't step on a crack or you'll break your Mother's back!" I don't know if kids still say that, but this afternoon if I had stepped on a crack, I would have broken a back. Although it wouldn't have been my Mothers.

When I step off of my porch a sidewalk like walkway leads to the left and meets the driveway. Where the two meet isn't quite level, with the walkway being about an inch lower.

This afternoon I went out to get the mail. On the way back I nearly stepped on the crack between the two when it registered in my brain that it was darker than it should be. I sidestepped quickly thinking it was a stick or something and I didn't want to fall down. I am a little clumsy sometimes, and prone to spraining ankles and breaking toes.

After I recovered I turned to pick up the stick, but discovered in fact it wasn't a stick at all. Instead it was a ramrod straight garden snake, spanning the walkway perfectly. Of course it's always a little shocking to see a snake when you're not expecting it and I let out a shriek since I was bent over halfway by the time I realized what it was.

I ran back inside feeling some perverse need to take a picture of it. I grabbed the camera and ran back outside. It was gone. I was a little disconcerted because I didn't know garden snakes could move that fast.

The mailman was extremely late today so I had to go check about three times before he finally came. Talk about paranoia, I was looking very carefully where I stepped. The only thing worse than seeing a snake is knowing one is around and not knowing where it is.

I also had to go out to the garage several times today, and I was walking cautiously in there as well. We have had several snakes in there before, and with the rapidity that it vanished combined with the close proximity to the garage door I had to wonder if he had gone inside.

I have a love/hate relationship with the garter snakes that move in every year. They are sort of creepy looking; dark green with two parallel yellow stripes running down their backs and they always surprise me in an unpleasant way. Not to mention that they will coil up and bite if they feel threatened. Their bites will cause itching, swelling and redness. But they also keep the mice population down.

It's my fault that the mice and the snakes both come to my house. I have a very large bird feeder outside my window that hangs above a forest of apple mint. The birds knock the seeds into the mint, the mice move into this lovely secluded retreat to eat the seeds that fall, and the snakes are drawn to the mice.

So every year we have to catch and relocate some of the snakes to a nice field not far away with all the amenities they like. My Mother says I should just kill them, but I don't like to kill anything really. I know snakes aren't cute and cuddly and people have tendencies to kill things more easily that aren't cute. But it's not the snakes fault it's a snake and not a puppy.

Plus snakes don't come in the house when it gets colder (at least not so far and I sincerely hope it stays that way) and mice do, so it does me a service while it's here.

Still though creepy crawlies aren't really my thing...and I will be watching the cracks I step on for a while to come!