Bits and pieces

I find interesting things when I walk down our driveway. This is a shot of a deceased snake.

Isn’t it beautiful? It’s a scarlet snake, a fairly common snake found from New Jersey to Texas, mainly in coastal plains and piedmont regions. This snake was probably less than 10 inches long. Its range is shown as not extending into the Appalachians, including out area of northwest Georgia. So, it’s out of its normal range.

I don’t know how it died, but I suspect a cat might have been involved.

I have also been finding the dehydrated remains of adventurous traveling snails who underestimated the rigors of crossing the Great Driveway Desert. They are there every morning when I walk out. I found more than a dozen on the day I took this photo.

If you look carefully you can see the trails of the snails and their little shells at the end. There are three or four in this photo. They are mostly very small, only about half the size of my little finger nail. I don’t know whether they are dead, but I toss them into the dewy grass. Maybe they can get enough moisture to revive there.

This is the last hurrah of our flower garden. This iris (I think) stands about six feet tall. There is another bloom getting ready to open, but it has been getting cooler at night lately, so I don’t know whether it will succeed.

A few nights ago I went out to let the dogs relieve themselves, and the nearly-full moon seemed about to be drawn into a vortex of clouds.

It’s a good thing so much interesting stuff happens on out driveway, since I so rarely get far from it. I did manage to get one sunset shot on one of our grocery shopping excursions.