Day 124: A Tea Party and a Surprise Visitor
Posted in Project 365+1 2008 on May 3rd, 2008 by Karin
This morning, Marlene was over along with Rochelle and the rest of our church band to rehearse for our church program tomorrow afternoon and Monday night. Marlene brought along her two daughters, The Princess and Social Butterfly, who you see in this photo as well as LG. Her first pretend tea party. How cute is that???
I emailed Marlene to ask if it was okay to use this picture since her kids are in it, too, and I think I said something to the effect of how I didn’t think anything else exciting would be happening today, so this would be my picture of the day. Well, I should know better than to say things like that, because not an hour later, we were all outside - Mike in the garage unloading and loading his truck for his gig tonight, me puttering around taking documentary photos of cactus blossoms, LG running back and forth between us, and Melody running around the yard.
At one point, Melody was standing on the little dirt mound in the front acre barking like crazy at one of the critter holes she likes to sniff around. Normally, she digs and dives and sniffs in them, so her standing there barking was a little odd. Mike had an inkling, so he went to see why she was so agitated - and this is what he found…
That would be a (non-poisonous) Gopher Snake, my photo friends! Gopher Snakes are not bad critters. In fact, they are good at ridding the land of pesky rodents. (Although our resident pesky rodents are kind of cute and I kind of like them.) However, there’s always a chance (however slight) that a rattlesnake might take up residence on our property, so having a snake around is not really a good idea with a curious dog and a curious preschooler. Therefore, Mike gently scooped Mr. (or Ms.) Gopher Snake up with a pitchfork, deposited him in a trash can for safekeeping, and will be relocating him to better living quarters - away from us.
Have I mentioned that I do NOT like snakes? I did take this picture, though, and I was fairly close. Close enough to tell you that he was not a very happy snake.
The moral of this story? Do not ever assume the day will be boring, because if you do, it most assuredly will not.
Taken May 3, 2008.