Gourds, Mums, Maggie and ..,oh no, a snake.

Remember when my grandson helped me plant the little gourd plants at the beginning of the summer? I planted quite a few different kinds, at the time, but he helped plant this smaller variety. Well, guess what? The Bean's plants are the only ones that produced any gourds ..., and only three gourds.




WELL, THIS IS MY GOURD HARVEST.

Oh, Bean, you must have magic in your hands. You are the best little planter of seed starts there every was. You planted them just right. It may only be three gourds but they are beautiful! When they are really dry, next spring, we will decorate them and call them "gourd babies".
I planted some Mums in the barrel near the front door this morning, rearranged some pots and
cleaned up the clutter on the porch. Looks much better.

It's suppose to rain next week. I know..., it's California, but we have to have some
inconvenient weather once in a while.














Maggie is not looking forward to the rain. She loves lying outside under the rose bushes. She says that when it rains we are going to have to close the bedroom door when she takes her afternoon nap so the pupster, Carl, doesn't come in and bug her. She says that she won't be able to go outside to get away from him.
"OK Mag's. We won't let him chew on you and bite your tail. The bedroom is yours."













Now for the Snake story....

Yesterday I had some errands to run and when I returned home I saw Annibel, the cat, in the middle of the gravel driveway, in front of the garage. I thought that she was just waiting for me, which seemed odd. She never stands out there waiting for a car to come up the hill.
Then I saw her biting at something.She was pawing and jumping back, lunging and retreating.

When I drove up closer I saw something moving on the ground in front of her. Yep! You know how I said that we were so lucky this year? That we did not have one Rattlesnake visit us all summer? Well, I spoke too soon. It was a "baby" rattler. and Anni' was playing with it.
I drove up closer and Annibel backed away. I got out, left the car running and picked up Annibel, closed her in the garage, got a shovel and went back to the car. By then the snake was moving under the car so I got in, carefully ,and drove over and away from the snake. Then I had to do what I had to do. This is always a bit traumatic for me. I don't like killing anything and this little snake was just a baby. JUST A BABY.
I put it in the garbage can after I killed it. Never throw a poisonous snake out into the bushes. They still have venom in them.
As much as I would like to be "at one" with venomous snakes we just can't let them come near the house. We went through two dogs losing a stand off with one a couple of summers ago and the vet bills were astronomical.
Annibel is OK. I'm OK. But I will be glad to see the Prospector come up the driveway this afternoon. His week of fishing is over and I am really looking forward to his arrival. Where there is one baby rattler, there may be more. Until it rains we will have to watch every step we take. It is the price we pay for living in this beautiful place. We share it with wonderful creatures who, once in a while, make the mistake of trespassing on the "human places". I am so sorry little snake. Each of you that I kill makes another small hole in my heart.