The jungle creatures in Samsonville clearly believe the house is theirs -- not ours. On Saturday, I was sitting on my deck, about two feet from the kitchen window. Over my left shoulder, out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement...a brown creature. I thought it was a chipmunk, and turned, thinking "how nervy they are!"
But the movement wasn't a chipmunk; it was a snake! Slithering up the wall of the log house, in serpentine fashion. It went behind the molding near the kitchen window, in the void that is created by the rounded logs. About a foot of the snake was sticking out. My mother inspected it and said it was a milk snake.
I wasn't happy about the idea of a snake climbing the wall near the kitchen window, so after contemplating it, decided I would ask my brother to relocate it, assuming he was coming over. As I was examining the wall to determine why a snake would be crawling up it (ewww) -- I found the reason. On the opposite side of the window, also half under the molding, the back end (tail and legs) of a mouse were sticking out. It was trembling in fear.
Both the snake and mouse eventually completely disappeared under the molding. I know it is the cycle of nature and all, but I was not eager to witness a snake devour a mouse -- even given that the rodent was probably a white-footed mouse that carries Lyme Disease. After we sat there for about five minutes, the mouse must have decided that humans were a lower risk than the snake, jumped, flew through the air, landed on the deck near our feet, scampered as if a cartoon mouse to get traction, then shot across the yard, behind the fuel tank, out of the fence and under the shed.
A few minutes later, the snake's head popped out from behind the window. It shot back in when we tried to get a closer look, but after a while it came out, slithered down the wall to the deck railing, then down to the ground near the fuel tank, under the deck, and out the fence in the opposite direction from the mouse. Better than TV!
The plants there were very thirsty, but they perked up as soon as they were watered.
My new hydrangea:
I love bee balm!
These lilies are given away in church every year a few weeks after Easter
Have Basil Will Travel at its vacation home
Back in Castleton, my first tomatoes! Wow!
Latest planting, some impatiens
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