A Snake Came.....

An hour ago, I walked out into the garden in early afternoon heat. A grass snake (Natrix natrix) and I met in the lush grass growing so quickly in this damp, humid weather. I`m not sure who was the most surprised!

Instinctively I jumped backwards. We have adders in this garden. I saw the yellow and black collar around the snake`s neck as she slid away, into the leaves beneath the liquid amber tree. Her stripes were    less distinct than those of the poisonous adder. I quickly found my camera. The snake was still there, frozen against the tree bark and almost impossible to see.

Above, she has rested her head on two round nodules of bark in the centre of the photo. Below, her tail is just visible, curled in the centre of the picture, but would be easy to mistake for tree roots or stems among the dry leaves.

Grass snakes will play dead to avoid attack from predators, so I stayed very still and she eventually slithered out, across the grass, to the shelter of the next rough patch of vegetation underneath a tree. She was going in the direction of the compost bins, where she probably has her nest.

The snake had emerged from the herb patch and may have been hunting for mice or searching for water in saucers beneath clay plant pots.

I was pleased to see that the beautiful green mint beetles (Chrysolina menthastri) have hatched again. They arrived last summer for the first time and this hairy, variegated mint seems a favourite plant. 

Around the garden, on the first of June, summer seems to have arrived at last.

Self sown foxgloves mix in with perennial geraniums.......

.....lupins......

.......the first summer roses......

....and the pink flowered ornamental strawberries that would happily take over.

Clematis henryii and the Lady Penelope rose are climbing an old cherry tree stump....

....and this is the first poppy bloom not to have been ruined by rain.

Clematis Gypsy Queen looks well in her second summer here.....

....and the spaces cleared in the old herb bed have made room for new plants.

This is an old plastic tub that once held a Christmas tree. It has a new lease of life as a shallow, small wild pond where birds and insects can drink. I wonder if the grass snake could make her way up through the ivy, to find water?