SNAKE CHARMS

 Last day of September.The season is winding down.  I get a present. Smokey is extremely clever. One of the few garter snakes left from the season. Most of them  have burrowed away . Garter snakes usually hang around where there is a water source, and lots of food, like slugs bugs and other things.

 The Stellar Jay ( Cyanocitta stellen) has been known to eat garter snakes. Jays will eat anything, basically, being omnivores. And spiders are basically food to snakes and jays.

                      Spiders  will eat anything that falls into its web.

  Garter snakes will eat the spider, and the Cat will catch the snake that lives in the garden . Young garter snakes are born LIVE around August. Sometimes 70-80 are born a season. This year I noticed there were many garter snakes in the garden, more than in previous years. Healthy garden  healthy snakes.

 Cats will also torment jay, and the jays will torment the cats. They see cats as a big nuisance.

      Jays come down from the forests where they live to eat seeds, nuts, berries, snakes, and torment cats. Snakes like to slither into buckets of apples. Buckets that sometimes have human hands rummaging inside . Snakes do NOT feel like apples, by the way.......

  Ahh yes, there's a water source. Not just cats drink out of the buckets. Snakes, racoons, cats, jays....

                   Sometimes keeping track of the snakes, jays, spiders and other things takes team effort.

                                   

 Spiders in the garden eliminate the need for common pest control substances.

 And if you want to control the bugs and spiders and things, encourage the garter snakes. During the winter, garter snakes will live in undeground dens, hibernating with other snakes. Garter snakes will live up to two years. If captured they will release a musky scent. They are not aggressive unless under attack. 

                                   

 On the last day of September the snakes are heading for their dens. Spencer still sits on his chair, once in a while, in the last warmth of the season. The sunsets are earlier, the sky a little mottled. And tomorrow will be October.

Sunrise to Sunset

From morning to night. The day goes something like this. Cat on the porch. Today it's Smokey.In the light of the sun.

  In the early morning, the Black Bacarra finally opens. My favourite rose. And I'm not really partial to roses.But I've been given quite a few roses. And have even found a few I like. Actually, I prefer loosey goosey flowers. But this one "sends" me. Must be because it is scented like chocolate.........dark chocolate.

                               

   And the Flame Rose, or Sunset Rose ( it has a variety of names), is rather scorching this morning.
                                                         And there it is....that loose fluff of flowers I crave.Pots piled together. Any pots. Stuffed with dirt and things that cascade, fall, droop. The droopier the better. Just waiting for sweet peas to make an entrance. And Penguin. He arrives with the sun. He craves  a snack or two or three. On his epic morning sojourn, from one neighbour to the next.

 "Once more a perfect morn! With feet that trod Earth's green....."

                     

 ".......and sun-kissed hair that swept heaven's blue................."

 Cordelia  in her favourite hiding place...

"affable, smiling, I met God.............."

 
                         "Delighted with His work as when it was new." (Epigram on Morn by Sir William Watson 1858-1935, born in Yorkshire)

 At night when the sun goes down, the light hits the green of the wall so perfectly.It's full of garter snakes.........hiss....

 Sunset bathes everything in a lovely glow. Even Smokey. He has taken to frolicking on the hill. It's where he catches garter snakes. Garter snakes that I take away from him. Much to his chagrin.

 I hide the snakes in the terrace with the Moai heads, under the ferns, where he can't seem to find them. Which is just as well. The snakes have a job to do, eating bugs and slugs. Happy snakes. Healthy garden. And Smokey returns to his favourite past time: sleeping in the last light of the sun. Probably dreaming of more snakes to catch tomorrow.....