In the Garden - Brave Photographer

It had been 97° in the shade and feeling dry at work when I walked out to my car in the parking lot and 102° on the I-495 Beltway. I had exited off of Route 50 onto Aris T Allen and was just about home when the hands-free phone rang in my car.

Black Rat Snake

"Guess what is in the yard?"

"What? I don't know."

"A black snake, four feet long. I was talking with Jill on the phone and I saw it come towards the house from the grand children's bed. It then went into the bed by the patio and across the gravel path over to where the echinacea are growing. I can't see it now, it's in the bushes."

"Why don't you go out and pick it up by the tail - whirl it around your head - and throw it over the fence."

"Yeah, right. But I took pictures - lots of pictures."

"Really. Did you get a picture of the head?"

"I got all of it - I used your camera."

"I am by the Clock Tower Shopping Center - I will be home soon. Would you look on-line and put in black snake Maryland?"

"I have to get dinner ready - you can look it up when you get here."

"OK, bye."

It was 91° by the time I pulled up to the curb in front of our house. It felt a lot more humid in Annapolis that it had been in Beltsville.

A quick Google search once I got home /black snake Maryland/, and up came Black Rat Snake. Not a bad photograph - you can also see that the lavender is coming into bloom.