Some of the big men in trucks here are pretty tough, many of them dread snakes and hate them, and kill them every time they see one. Maria is fond of snakes, and is glad to see them in our gardens. They eat rodents and aerate soil and are a valuable part of the eco-system here.

We dug a new garden Sunday, a wildflower garden in front of our lawn chairs, it is the first new garden of the year, but perhaps not the last. We have seven or eight new gardens that Maria tends lovingly, and they have ringed the house in beauty and color. Every time Maria spots a garden, she picks it up and comes to show it to me.

I do not hate snakes or fear them, I don’t have the ease with them that Maria has, she talks to them, visits them, puts them back in the garden where she thinks they will do the most good. I took this photo of her holding a garter snake the other day, and it was a portrait of strength to me, something one of her goddesses might do.

I could not imagine touching or talking to a snake in my other life, living in nature and among animals has opened me up in so many ways. We don’t mind snakes here, they are not poisonous and go good. They move in the most beautiful ways, and this one wanted to pose for his portrait.

Maria put him back in the garden and later, he kept popping his head up between two rocks to stare at us and scold us for bothering him.