I’ve been hearing rustling in the juniper bed out front, and figured we had chipmunks and voles and everything else under there. The crabapple(?) tree has been dropping pea-sized fruit all over the sidewalk and into the junipers, and the squirrels and birds have been having a field day so I’m sure the ground-level critters are too.

A little bit ago I went to let the dog out, opened the door and there was a foot or so of garter snake coming out of the junipers. I shooed the dog back in, grabbed the camera, and it was already over on the other side. It froze when I leaned over it.

Soon as I pulled the camera back from this shot it unfroze and whipped under the bushes in an eyeblink. I never did see the whole length of it, but I measured the spot where I took the picture above, and that was about 22” of it just in the picture.