mo...monsters in the garden

where the snake wasn't ...

... ok - so today was my first day back after the S-N-A-K-E incident - admittedly I took my time returning ... and the weather co-operated for the week or so - raining daily so I didn't really have to go, etc.

... as I put the lock back on the chain back to the main side gate I sensed I wouldn't see any snakes ... very different from the last time I entered the allotment and sensed I would.

I only got my courage back after much thought ... and much time trying not to think about it ... here's how that went ... logically, I realized that if I went and the snake was alive, it would be gone (three cheers for that scenario) and/or if it indeed had been dead, as I sensed it was on my last visit - I would know this because it would still be where it was - there in the same position up by the bottomless birdbath with the hens & chicks; and being dead - I could deal with it (somehow) ... logic breaks down at this point ... don't ask but I'm beginning to believe now I've inherited snake fear (which is probably also attached to wounded frog fear and might even be stretched to include fear of other green things - keep reading) ... so when I stretched my neck in my plot and saw that it was NOT there today I was way more than just a little shocked - I'd been so dang sure it was dead last time ... my intuition was so strong that it had been ... hmmmm ... just like my intuition when I'd entered today was telling me there would be no s-n-a-k-e-s ... agh ...

I hung my three gardening satchels on the post outside lot 80 instead of bringing them in and as usual putting them on the table. I bought more time and pulled out my camera and took a few shots from outside the lot ... keeping my eyes on the ground at my feet (now covered in shoes with socks - not like last time when I was barefoot in skimpy little sandles) ... eyeing new weeds that had grown at least two feet in the weeks since my last 'productive' visit - scanning underneath enormous zucchini leaves that have taken over the garden ... seeing everything now as places for snakes to hide out ... ugh

... I noticed that another gardner was came along the path towards me with a little girl so bravely I walked a quarter of the way into my plot along the weed riddled path ...

'Hello - how are you'

... don't think I missed a beat before I said, 'scared! ... (who cares if I'd never met him before) ... I explained about the (dead) s-n-a-k-e last time ...

He said, 'Oh that big dead 3-4 foot one that was out here on the path just over there for a couple of days ... gone now! ... an animal probably took it ..."

Phew - I thanked him for that information and said it made me feel an awful lot better ... and to prove it I began to inch slowly backwards along the path towards the table (too bad I then screamed & slapped my arm hard, as I lept about a foot in the air while still listening to him ... as a mosquito landed on my arm at the same time my camera sucked the lens back into its body and scared the poop out of me (figuratively) ... the lame smile afterwards probably didn't help much ... and I can't remember his name ... his little girl's name is Grace. She kept tugging at him to go and wouldn't say goodbye - smartie pants wasn't suffering this fool lightly.

So of course, it doesn't end when they go ... I decide to be brave and lift some of the zucchini leaves off the path so I can see if I'm stepping on snakes ... lift lift lift ... and W-O-A-H-ly moley ... isn't there a zucc the size of a small animal that would eat a snake under leaf number 3 ... and then another one under leaf number 5 the size of a body part (from my knee to the top of my thigh) ...

3 of 5 harvested today ... tell me what's hiding below isn't laying in wait!


... right now 5 zuccs have taken over the back seat of my car and are going to Ottawa with me tomorrow where I'll unload them on family & friends because they are way too heavy to lug up my stairs (well one is only about a foot or so - I could bring it in) ... and I'm sure I've not found all the zuccs in the garden yet and who knows how big they'll be be next week when I return (I never really saw this coming ... I wonder if there's a name for it ... fear of big-ish veggies!!!)

... the other 2 zuccs (amidst some smaller fare) ... the little green things are cucs not zuccs (and FYI - I wasn't afraid of them)!