Sunday, March 13, 2011

Gotta Love Springtime

The weather's getting warmer--daytime highs in the '80s!
Plenty of stuff to do outside:
Planted a nice crop of jalapenos to hopefully make up for last year's pepper disaster. (No more experimenting with the lesser breeds).
And plenty of petunias to make Sylvia smile.
Trimming the trees and killing the dandelions.


And catching critters who've awakened after a long winter nap:
This is a Checkered Garter snake, and it's pretty much the only subspecies of Garter in the southwest USA and northern Mexico.
The ones most people are familiar with from up north are good at hiding in foliage and around water, but ours have to disappear in the rocks and dirt so the checkered pattern is a nice adaptation that explains why most folks have never seen one.
Always wanted a checkered for a pet but this guy was too wild and besides that, Sylvia said no.
He's already been released and with any luck will be scaring the dopers across the alley right about now.

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