Encounter with a Baby Black Snake in the Garden!

Yesterday morning, I got up a little before 8 and we were out in the garden by 8:30. I started out by harvesting a TON of lettuce, enough to fill this huge metal bowl with leaves spilling out the top. Apparently this has been a good year for lettuce. We went on to plant and trellis a bunch of tomatoes. Patricia taught us to dig really deep holes for the tomato plants because they can grow roots off of their stems when buried in the ground. A vigorous root system makes for vigorous, drought-resistant plants.

As Cate, Joshua, and I were getting ready to plant some tomatoes, Joshua found a tiny baby black snake in the path. It was so small that I might have mistaken it for a big earthworm. He scooped it up, and on closer inspection, it was a perfectly formed and proportioned black snake, just in miniature form! It was so incredibly cool!!! It was thrashing around in Joshua’s hand, probably scared out of its wits, but I was so enthralled with it, I started talking to him. Cooing at him, honestly, like I would at a human baby. I told him how beautiful he was, and sent him blessings, because as a black snake, he will grow up to eat poisonous copperheads. As I cooed at him, he noticeably relaxed out of his curled up strike position and started checking out Joshua’s hand with his tiny little tongue. “Look,” Joshua pointed out just after I sent him blessings, “I think you’re helping him relax.” To my amazement, I believe Joshua was right!

It was especially cool since I identify with snakes because the snake is my sign in the Chinese zodiac and appears in my Mayan chart. I think it was especially symbolic that I noticed that the baby black snake was also shedding his skin.

:)