Rosendale Ramblings By Sari Botton

Snake! from Sari Botton on Vimeo.

Compared to everyone else in my family – and I don’t think any of my relatives will disagree with this or take offense – I tend to think of myself as a slightly daring nature girl. I hike! I camp! I eat cherry tomatoes out of the garden without washing them first!

But every now and then here in my little pastoral realm I encounter something that exposes my urban/suburban underpinnings – my inner Zsa-Zsa-on-Green-Acres, if you will – in a harsh light. Yesterday, it was this snake. I was headed out for a walk, and there it was, approaching the back stoop. It seemed to be angling for a little puddle just ahead of it.

I stopped dead in my tracks and proceeded to hyperventilate. I didn’t yet know it was a harmless garter snake; people on Facebook apprised me of that after I posted a picture of it. But knowing it wasn’t inclined to bite me wouldn’t have allayed my fears completely, anyway. There’s something about that reptilian skin and snakes’ slithering nature that just freaks me out, undoes me completely. This was my Fear Factor moment.

I called Brian and frantically asked him what to do. He said to scare it away by making some noise with a rake, or some rocks. I didn’t have to do that, though. By the time we hung up, the thing started turning around and moving in the other direction. It was pretty cool to watch. I caught most of it on the video above.

I guess it was afraid of me, too.