My Blue Heaven / Snurp Alert!

We had a guy coming to look at our shed and give us an estimate first thing in the morning, but after that, we packed up our things and headed over to the former Dry Hollow property. My husband wanted to jog and I wanted to check out a favorite vernal pool.

It was a cooler day, very sunny, bright blue skies, a bit breezy. A very nice day for a hike. I had my tunes box and some new music on it - The Secret Policeman's Third Ball CD had just arrived in the mail from Amazon, and I'd already digitized it and loaded it on my tunes box.

It had been cold enough that the mud on the trail was still mostly hard, which was good. There wasn't any ice left, which was also good. The trail in would have been amazingly impassable in the ice we had that lasted a long, long while. We had not been here since October 17. Last summer, we came over a few times but the bugs were amazingly bad here then.

I walked to a vernal pond I know, a blue jewel reflecting the sky, which you may see above. It's one I've shown you before on these pages. I fell here in February 2023, tripped over a log, so I am more careful now when wandering around vernal pools. I try to watch my feet more, exercise a bit more caution.

As we'd parked the car at the bottom of the gated lane, I had remarked that I didn't think we'd see a big snake on this day. This was a reference to a huge snake we saw here last spring. But I might have somehow summoned a snake by making that remark. 

What did I spy at my feet as I headed downhill to the pond but a wee, beautiful, sweet, little garter snake! My husband and I, when we are in snake country, will sometimes say to each other, "put your snurp alerts on," a snurp being a shorthand reference to a snake. We'd spotted our first butterfly at the Little Juniata last week; now, today, I saw my first snake!

The poor little thing was so cold that it was not moving very quickly, so it just lay there and posed for multiple photos. I remarked to my husband later that maybe I should have offered it a warm pocket. Somehow I don't think Tiny Tiger would have liked that!

The vernal pools had been teeming with life at the other end of the Scotia Barrens a few days ago. And I have heard this particular plot of land referred to as "Scotia West." Funny how different parts of the same place can be so divergent. 

But it was warmer the day of the frogfest; colder on this one. I saw eggs on this pond, but did not see or hear a single frog on this somewhat chilly day. An itty bitty snake will have to do!

I've got two photos, so here are some songs. The vernal pond above looked like a blue heaven to me. So here are two of the dance scenes from the film My Blue Heaven (dance scene 1, dance scene 2). And for my snake - or snurp - in the extras, I've got Tom T. Hall, with Sneaky Snake.