Snake in paradise?

As I was on a walk in Espoon keskuspuisto today i took one of my favorite routes on a very narrow path in the woods. The sun was shining, air temperature about +15°C, so nothing to complain of.

As I walked slowly I heard some rasping sounds in the bushes. I looked down and spotted a small snake. Or as I quickly noticed that in fact it was not really a snake, it was a slow worm (Anguis fragilis).

Slow worms are semi-fossorial lizards spending much of the time hiding underneath objects. The skin of the varieties of slow-worm is smooth with scales that do not overlap one another. Like many other lizards, slow-worms autotomize, meaning that they have the ability to shed their tails in order to escape predators. The tail regrows, but remains smaller.

I have a huge respect for snakes, so even if I knew that the slow worm wasn't venomous, I moved very carefully towards it. The camera is a strange thing, it is something which is between me and the object, so it kind of gives me a safe feeling.