Early Haying

I walk Sol by this dairy farm every day.  There is always a beautiful, ever changing view over the fence from the road.  I was struck yesterday by how golden the first cut of hay was- everything has been early this year!

Snakes and chipmunks

I know I share the garden with lots of other residents, but I rarely have hands-on encounters with them. That's what made last night so unusual. I picked up and moved both a garter snake and a chipmunk in the course of an hour.
There's a big population of snakes in the garden this year, and I welcome and enjoy their presence.  Here are some pictures from a week or so ago of two of the four garter snakes that live in and around my stone wall:

I love the variation in their color patterns. Snakes are welcome in my garden because they are beautiful and because they are predators of many larger insects.

I'm also comfortable handling them; my father kept snakes.  Last night I startled one of the garter snakes while it was warming itself on the concrete apron in front of the garage, and it slithered under the door. I did not want it to get used to hanging out in the garage, so I went inside, lifted it by the tail, and returned it to the lawn by the wall. I guess I'd better add some weather stripping to that door.
Later I was in the garden picking peas. Sol stood outside the fence perimeter attentively waiting for the  occasional older tough pea I'd throw his way.  As I leaned over the vine, I caught a flash of movement in the strawberry bed to my left. 
I put down the coffee can half full of peas and turned towards the strawberry patch. It had been a light harvest, mostly because the plants had been thinned hard the previous year. I'd also lost a lot of berries to thieves, despite my netting. 

I saw one of the thieves now, wrapped in netting. It was a chipmunk. He'd tried to move the wooden weight aside to get into the bed, and somehow entangled himself thoroughly.

I lifted the section of netting, and cautiously began to unwind it from his little body. He was hardly moving, but his eyes followed me. I suspect he had been trapped for a while, as he seemed to have lost his usual feisty nature.
I was still careful, knowing he might bite in fear. I hung the netting over the gate of the garden, and he  dropped out, and lay on the ground for a moment.  Sol was oblivious to this drama, busy eating peas on the other side of the garden, or their might have been further drama.  In a moment the chipmunk recovered and scurried off. 
I have no use for woodchucks, and very little for the rabbits that nibble at my garden. But despite their  depredations in the strawberry patch I have a soft spot for chipmunks, know at our house as ' little striped dudes' for their cocky attitudes and fierce chirrupping when annoyed.  Sometimes character makes up for other flaws.