"A Snake in the Bush"

   Son has a way of always twisting sayings around to suit the current situation.  When I found a sweet rat snake hanging out in the deutzia bush, his comment was "A snake in the bush is better than two in the hand." lightly paraphrasing the "A bird in hand is worth two in the bush." adage.  Had this been a venomous snake, I would have had to agree but, truth be told, I hold these snakes a good bit.  They are docile and quite lovely to have in the gardens.

  I came to notice the snake simply because of the "Critter Neighborhood Watch" group let up a huge ruckus.  Thinking that Bat, the cat, was on the prowl, I slipped outside to shoo him from his hiding spot.  Bat could not be found so I started tending the herbs.  Once again, the blue jays started yelling near the blueberry bushes so, once again, I searched the area.  This time, instead of finding that black cat lurking beneath the bushes, I found my lovely friend in the "feather tree".  Ahh, the sweet thing was merely trying to protect my blueberries from the raiding birds.  (Not the snake's true intention but it sounds nicer than "the snake was trying to eat a bird".)  Son found me talking to the snake and probably assumed that my oldness had finally caught up with me as he could only see I was conversing with a shrub.  Once he came to check on the sanity of his old mom, he, too, was elated to find the snake.  We had just talked about not finding any as of late.

  Rat snakes will eat most anything they can catch which makes them great to have around the place.  They literally keep the place "pest-free".  That being said, it is easy to see why they are always welcome around here and the paraphrased adage somewhat holds true.  A rat snake in the bush is always good even though two in hand would not be bad, either!

Eleanora is Happy!

   Ever since the weather warmed months ago, a female box turtle has been a steady occupant of the concrete pond that I dubbed as "Puddle Pond".  This little mud hole is at the end of "Pebble Creek" aka the drainage ditch.  The turtle and I have become quite friendly as, for a while, she depended on my help when she wanted out of the pond.  It seems that turtles are not adept at traversing gravel covered concrete.  She could get out of the water but not completely out of the pond area.  Each day, I would set her on dry ground under the blueberry bushes where she would burrow under the mulch during the heat of the day.  Each morning, she would be back in the pond feasting upon the tadpoles that were there by the millions.  I named her Eleanora simply because it hit me one morning that it was a fitting name.  She is quite the elegant turtle and needed an elegant, old-fashioned name so Eleanora came into being.

  I began to fret over my turtle friend.  It occurred to me that if I ever became incapacitated, Eleanora may never get out of the pond!  She would live in her own little paradise...until that paradise became her prison.  Something had to be done to help poor Eleanora escape under her own power.  I mentioned it to Son this morning and he set about making a "path" for Eleanora.  Knowing she could not navigate the gravel, he began looking for another possible exit.  Puddle Pond is edged on the back side with huge pieces of driftwood and old pilings so that became her path.  He slightly moved things about a bit to make her a "private" entrance into the garden beneath the blueberry trees.  

 Eleanora caught on quickly and was soon to be seen basking on the edge of the path.  She is also extremely happy to find that some fat earthworms had been uncovered when Son moved the pilings.  (At this rate, Eleanora is going to get fat!)  This evening, Eleanora is nestled down in a nook near the driftwood.  She is happy...I am happy.  All is well in Puddle Pond.

Where are my blueberries?

   I often wonder what Pop must think of my gardening skills.  He is probably looking down from Heaven and shaking his head at my mishmash of gardens.  I have a grand tendency of plopping plants wherever there is space and letting them grow with wild abandon.  This is a far cry from his orderly gardens back on the farm.  The vegetable fields were for vegetables.  The flower gardens were for flowers.  Each was carefully separated even down to the different type plants.   There was no mixing.  Each had its own space.  There were no tomato plants in the petunia bed.  There were no jasmine vines covering a fence in the squash patch.  There were no gloriosa lilies mixed in with the wisteria which was covering the same fence as a few roses and some more jasmine.  I just figure they can all get along or move along.  If they do not do well, then that is their problem.  So far, this has worked and everything seems happy.  I know I am.

  There is one problem that will have to be remedied this next winter, however.  Near that fencerow that has the conglomeration of vines, there are some blueberry bushes.  Those bushes are now under the vines.  Yep, my blueberry bushes have become arbors for the mingling vines.  It seems as if they will have to be moved a bit further away if I am to ever find the ripe berries amid the blooms of the other plants.  It appears that my method may not be working at its best.  Oh, well.  That is a chore for this winter and there is no use in fretting over it at the moment.