Lovely snake in the backyard!

This is the most beautiful day we've had since 2010 started. I felt like if I could get my balance, I had to get outside!

Mom went with me. We were happily digging away. Her secret name is Assiduous Weeder and I make regular healthful weed rescues from her weed bag.

She had the shovel and I had a bucket and one of my canes. We were giggling and digging, I had a nice conversation with a squirrel (squirrels speak English - who knew? XD ). I'd collected gorgeous viola odoratas - sweet violets - and one lone dandelion bloom. Mom had dug up a nice bunch of wild garlic.

She saw a piece of plastic and tried to move it with the shovel so she could pick it up when suddenly she said, "There's a snake! It's a green snake!"

It looks more blue in this pic than it did through my eyes and hers. What a beaut, eh?

We've got all sorts of fauna around here: a raccoon family lives in my neighbor's backyard, salamanders and box turtles appear every now and then, lizards abound. There are more birds in this area than I could possibly count. I heard my lovely wood thrush day before yesterday in the early hours of light.

But nobody has seen a snake in so long, neither Mom nor I could remember.

She said, "Should I kill it?" I hollered, "Don't you DARE!"

So, several pics later, he (or she) pulled his/her head back out of sight, and we moved on to nice big dandelions and musk thistles.

Somebody here on this earth or in the life to come loves us. :)



Copyright 2008-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, Sparkling With Crystals, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Use the ShareThis link if you want to share this. Nothing in the above article is remunerated content. Remember that if my work gets published anywhere else without proper citation, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Fairy Ring

It's looked better before, more completely circular, but it had a recycle dumpster in the middle. Wouldn't have made a good pic.

We ought to be covered up with mushrooms by, say, Saturday. Claudette is coming and we may get the remnants of Ana before it's over.

Fairies, gnomes, leprechauns, elves, sprites, and other Natural things welcome.

Copyright 2007-2009 Parin Stormlaughter, The Carmelite's Habit, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. I do not grant reprint permission. Contact me to request permission to link. And remember that if my work gets published anywhere else, I'll pray for you. And perhaps take legal action. Rest assured, prayer is far more effective.

Critters of 2008

Last week, I finally captured a little lizardy-looking critter that had been scooting around the house. I had caught it in my hands several times but it literally slipped through my fingers back to the floor. Canning jars...second most useful thing to have around the house.

After sharing with my mother ("That thing looks like a miniature alligator!"), I released it into the wilds of the front yard. It immediately scooted onto a rock and seemed glad.

OH HECK I have no idea if it was glad or not! XD It just...seemed like it would be glad if it could.

I just hope that if I ever find myself out of my natural environment, some kind soul will capture me gently and carry me home.


Last summer in the heat of May, four days after my father died, we found this marvelous darling. My father would have called this a terrapin.

Lucky shot because he was making tracks and was gone in a flash. Yeah, a racing turtle!







We have all sorts of critters around here. Next summer, I'm going to stake out the backyard and get pics of the raccoon family that lives next door. There's a monstrous beaver the size of a small Labrador not too far from here, down the mountain. I'd love to get a pic of him or her. The City of Vestavia Hills (next to us) issued a coyote alert two years ago when they started eating peoples' pets.

I've heard migrating Canadian geese four times during the autumn. My mother sees small bears at her farm, and we've heard wild cats yowling.

Please, love the Earth and take care of its inhabitants. All of us.

Please don't do this--there's a better way: Tons of drugs dumped into wastewater.

AP Impact: Tons of drugs dumped into wastewater

Do you have any idea what you're drinking when you turn on the tap? Other peoples' drugs, probably.

There are other ways to handle drugs you may have that you don't want to keep--like expired over-the-counter meds, prescriptions that you will no longer continue to take--carry them back to the pharmacy where you bought them. Or, carry them to any pharmacy if you're not near the one where you made the purchase.

Pharmacies have 'safe return' procedures to take back unused meds. They do not flush them into the water system.

Our bodies are 2/3rds water. Please, for the present and the future, take your unused meds back to a pharmacy. Please don't flush them.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Water is precious. These dumped drugs will eventually end up in the ocean. As goes the sea, so go we.