Springy

It's always a scramble in the Spring - things grow faster than you can get gardens and flower beds cleaned up and ready.  This year I was away for a lot of the time that the prep work would have been done, so now I'm racing.  Trim, weed, rake, mulch and oh-dang-I'm-not-going-to-get-that-moved-this-year-again.  Yesterday involved some mulch moving, and as I tossed a shovelful into the wheelbarrow, I saw what I thought was a big earthworm.  I hate it when I accidentally whack earthworms apart, so I separated it out to move it to safety.  Except it wasn't an worm - it was an eastern wormsnake.

My neighbor tried to get a pic for me, but the little guy wouldn't hold still and pose:

Very pretty little thing, others out on the web have snapped better pictures than I got:

A rich caramel brown on top, peach pink underneath, and scales that were iridescent in the sun.  I moved him to the woodpile, where he can choose between there, a mulched flower bed, or rocks in which to hunt his buggy meals and where there's less chance of him getting stepped on or having an unfortunate run in with my shovel.

I do love Spring.