Happy Thanksgiving from me and my ophidian friend:)

one of my friends' sons (who - no surprise - had snakes as pets as a kid) got a ph.d. in herpetology and is a professor back at a univ in illinois. we all call him Dr. Snake. of course.

those things make me shiver. brrrrrrrrr. glad he's in your backyard.

have a wonderful thanksgiving, nana.

That IS a beautiful snake. Happy Thanksgiving to you too!

Love to look at them from a distance and you captured him perfectly. Happy Thanksgiving!!!

You're becoming quite the photographer, Jeff. Gorgeous pics of your little friend there. I look forward to seeing more as the seasons change.

You have guaranteed that Nana's House of Horrors will not be one of the stops on my nationwide tour when I'm famous and on the road. Those damn things are creepy!

Forgot to say Happy Thanksgiving! We don't have it here, because we're such an ungrateful bunch :P

I found a snake in my garden too. It was John Boehner.

Yours was far nicer :)

You captured him just the right way...Nicely done.

But, what does this have to do with Thanksgiving?

Nice snake!

Most excellent . . . snakes are so cool! (as long as they're not the biting, poisonous ones . . . and even they're cool as long as they're not biting)

The last picture was so close up I had to lean away from my monitor just to make sure I was a safe distance from your friend, just kidding!

(I was certain that you were speaking metaphorically in your title. )

He is pretty, as are your pictures.

Happy Turkey Day.

Tastes like chicken.

Lets beat him with stick!

I do know people who's first reaction on seeing a snake is to grab a shovel or stick and kill it. It seems almost hardwired into us to kill snakes, and most other predators for that matter, on sight. I'm grateful I saw this one though, and that you all are looking at the pitchers of him.

Great pics! Mr. Snake looks happy to be alive.
BTW WTF happened to all your other posts?!
Anyhoo, loved the photography!

Fun Fact: Snakes are able to stay consious under 23 G's (acceleration), which is far better than humans!
Perhaps they should be fighter pilots. Of course without hands, that might be a bit of a challenge...well that and getting them to understand the controls...and obey orders...oh never mind.

Rated.

Holy moley! These photos are incredible! This is so beautiful, mister! And I kind of hate snakes.

Perfect words to accompany your STUNNING photography, as well.

Holda wait it - Is Andy implying something about SNAKES ON A PLANE!?

GREAT pictures!

Fascinating and well done, Photos! A Happy TGH to you and yours.

Nana, you know I love me some urban wildlife. What a beautiful snake! Like you, I'm more apt to try to get close for a look rather than reach for a shovel. Have a great Thanksgiving.

"Most likely he was assuming I wanted to eat him."

Getting my mind out of the gutter only long enough to say:

Happy Thanksgiving Nana!
:-)

He was probably wondering the same thing about you!
R~

Great pics, nanate. I like snakes well enough as long as they respect my personal space. I try to respect theirs as well! Have a great thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to you as well my friend, and to your snake friend as well....

That snake is orphidian? What happened to the parents? That's sad, but those are some killer pictures. Hard to get that close to anything in my yard.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and all those you care about, Nana!

nature is so natural. ~R~ as I serpentine away

Those are incredible shots, especially that last one! I would have been miles away....

Garter snakes are harmless Zuma! And Kyle, I have four felines myself. One of them is a ferocious snake killer, but she luckily wasn't around for the photo session.

Everybody, happy Thanksgiving, and now get on over to Tink's place; they're blowing up turkey carcasses over there!

Happy Thanksgiving, friend. Say "Hi" to the snake and lecture him a bit to get into a den before it is too late!!

Monte

Your post made me think of D.H.Lawrence's poem SNAKE
excerpt:
"And voices in me said, If you were a man
You would take a stick and break him now, and finish him off. "

I'm happy to read your ophidian friend is safe in your yard.

Always preferable to a snake in the grass.

Happy Thanksgiving. -e

I spent most of my life being afraid of snakes and have just the past few years come close to being able to appreciate them. These are amazing pictures and it was almost as if the snake wanted you to photograph him/her, whichever. Hum, wonder how you can tell?

"I'm glad he's in my yard and alive."
Yeah...I'm glad he's in YOUR yard, too.
shivers

Happy Thanksgiving. These are astonishing pictures. I will never look at snakes in quite the same way.

Cute snake!

I'm with Ghost Writer; your snake would be a lot nicer once beaten safely to death.

Thanks everybody for looking at my pictures. Seeing as how it's the season and all, I'll also say: thanks for all the friends I've made here on Open Salon. You people are very cool.

OK, I admit it--I HATE snakes! Anywhere, anytime, any snake. Can't get past all the shivers they make me feel. But--having said that, I also have to say that I truly love your writing and photography. So I came, I read, I looked, (I shivered), and I rated. A very happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, Nana. I'm very glad you're here so I can read and laugh, cry, get angry, etc. It's a fine ride you put me on! D

Great photos! Really like the close up shot...Happy Thanksgiving!

A happy Thanksgiving to you also Yarn Over, and to you Leonde. The close-up is my favorite shot too; the scales and the eye are like art work. Nature can be breathtaking when you pause and look at it closely.

Nice pics! Did you know the common garter snake is the only species of snake to be found in Alaska? (I looked it up in wikipedia.)

Wishing you a peaceful holiday weekend.

Love snakes! Great pictures, too. It takes a good eye, a lot of patience and a groggy snake to get shots that good.

The harmony in the colors - just wonderful.

P.S.

Tell your friend the snake, I'm sorry the other year when I had to kill his cousin, the one living under my shed, but hey, he slithered right into the path of my lawn mower. He committed snake-icide.

The bunny rabbits who now live under the shed are better tenants anyways, pay their rent on time, etc. :)

Too strange - last night I dreamed about garter snakes, and then I open your post!

Great photos! Glad you've got such a neat fellow in your garden.
Happy Thanksgiving!

I do not like snakes, but your fondness for them is endearing, Nana, hope you have wonderful thanksgiving time with your friends and family.

In that last photo his face looks a bit like a turkey. Thanks for this unusual and happy Thanksgiving post, and have a great holiday!

So cool. Narrow fellow in the grass and all--or leaves in this case. An honor to see him!

Well....isn't he cute....................No he's not, I'm just kidding. But if he makes you happy, then fine. Just keep those bastards away from me! (I see a post in my future)
Happy T-Day Nanners.

Grif, Sirenita, Scupper, Tink, Blue, Rolling, Lea, Hells Bells, Jay, thanks for looking at my snake pictures:)

I have always loved Gater Snakes. I was always amazed at how unafraid they are to be picked up......once you catch them and they realize you are not going to hurt them. This one's a beauty Nana....

I love snakes -- had a baby boa when I was a teenager. His name was Percy. He ate teeny weeny mice. The gross part was when the fleas jumped off the mouse at the end there. Oh well.

Your photos are awesome -- lucky you had your camera with you.
This past October I saw a massive Indigo snake crossing the road out in the Texas hill country. It was so shiny it looked like patent leather.

I've only had to kill one snake -- a baby rattlesnake curled up under a bag of clothes in a storage unit. He could've killed me as well as his mama (if she'd been around, I would have just left -- door wide open and all).

I'm thankful you shared these photos and didn't knee-jerk with a shovel to that beautiful snake.

snakes are cool

Love this post, even though snakes aren't my favourite. The photographs were fantastic. Happy Thanksgiving!

Great pictures!

At least you didn't turn him into a garter belt. ;)

He didnt tell you to eat apples from a tree did he? I think people assosiate snakes with the devil, which is why they want to kill them. I picked up a garter snake once from my roommates aquarium. He found him in the back yard while mowing. It was cool looking so he kept it as a pet. I was trying to get over my fear, so I picked it up and the son of a bitch bit me. So I freaked out and threw it across the room. I found it and got it back in the tank though. I think I had to use a flat shovel cause i didn't want to touch it again. I dont blame the snake, he hadnt been fed in awhile. When I was drunk one time I petted a python that was about 15 feet long. Snakes are not all bad. My friend Bob, who owned it said he fed it whole raw chickens from the grocery store.
Ps----I didnt get a good vibe from her when i met her. Sorry bout all the BS. lATER.................

what a handsome fellah, (great photos) of course I can't but help think of Emily Dickinson's poem "Snake"

A narrow fellow in the grass
Occasionally rides;
You may have met him, -did you not?
His notice sudden is.

The grass divides as with a comb,
A spotted shaft is seen;
And then it closes at your feet
And opens further on.

He likes a boggy acre,
A floor too cool for corn.
Yet when a child, and barefoot,
I more than once, at morn,

Have passed, I thought, a whip-lash
Unbraiding in the sun, -
When, stooping to secure it,
It wrinkled, and was gone.

Several of nature's people
I know, and they know me;
I feel for them a transport
Of cordiality;

But never met this fellow,
Attended or alone,
Without a tighter breathing,
And zero at the bone.

I adore snakes. This narrow fellow in the leaves is indeed lovely. And he let you take his photo and everything, even if he does look a bit consternated . . . .

I should say too that I genuinely don't think people react to snakes the way they do because of any socioreligious conditioning; most of have some sort of tendency, more latent in some than in others, to be cautious around things like snakes and arthropods. I love snakes, but cannot abide arachnids and a lot of insects. It just manifests itself differently in different people.

The pictures are great. I really like snakes, they have this focused gaze and something like a smile on their faces. How cool.
Kisses

I love snakes. I have a baby corn snake as a pet. I can't wait til he gets big enough to put around my neck and freak people out...

My garden hose reminds me of a snake at times, when it's coiled, sunning itself on the patio-blocks. Good photos, very clear.

Great shots and a lyrical description, Nana... based on the title alone, I thought it might be about something completely different.

Happy holidays to you and yours!

When I first moved to Mexico almost five years ago, I wasn't prepared for the snakes. My big black cat got into a fight with a big black snake she's cornered in the back yard and they started going at it hard, rolling and biting, with me grabbing a lawn rake to try to break them up.

I finally turned the hose on them and the cat ran away, so I used the rake to carefully lift the (heavy) snake over the wall and back into the jungle on the other side. Worried about my cat, I called a friend and asked how I could tell if the snake was poisonous.

He paused for a minute, and then said, "Wait fifteen minutes."

(both cat and snake survived.....and I moved into town.)

Loved your pix, kiddo, and the reverence.

wow! i think he was posing for you. that's got to be a good luck sign. happy thanksgiving!

I love snakes. I love how you captured him/her. But I worry about the fact that we're all spotting wildlife so late in the season. Just not a good sign for the rest of us. A friend was saying that she had just pulled a tick out of her dog--in late November in New York state. It's just not right.

Thanks so much for this post. Your sentence, "I'm glad he's in my yard and alive and doing well," is the most spiritual sentiment I've heard all year and reads like poetry.

There has been much to do with serious snakes in the Florida everglades or somewhere, where the snakes are enormous, dangerous and growing in numbers that staggers the mind. They lay over 100 eggs each every 3 months or something! Keep your eye on this critter and his mating habits. Ya never know! He might be sizing you up for a tasty morsel.

Goods shots buddy! Garter snakes are the only reptiles we have this far north.

As long as I can remember, I've loved snakes too. When I was a little girl in Houston, we used to get garter snakes and hog nose snakes in our yard fairly frequently. I remember one garter snake had propped himself upright leaning against our patio door in the kitchen. It was awesome coming home and seeing him there, looking in, propped up for a better view. He slid away quickly when he saw us but I wanted him to stay.

Thank you for this post!

Beautiful, yes. But I'm still scared of them.

Snakes are damned cool, Nan. If you're careful, even the venemous, bad boys are fun to watch, moving along the ground almost effortlessly. The ultimate stelth fighters.