“Hey, that’s not a yardlong bean!”

These were so cute as not to generate the usual scream from Ma at several of the regular stops on the farm. I melted at the sight of this sweet baby Southern coachwhip snake catching sun and hopefully a passing breakfast while resting on a squash leaf. Known to eat rattlesnakes, as does the Indigo snakes that we have, you definitely want these around in this part of the country. The largest I have seen was in excess of eight feet in length on the house lawn recently. Perhaps they’ll make a meal of any squirrel that makes a move on the corn now coming up in the Duck Garden’s second planting.

The inquisitive, colorful baby corn snake pulled into Mom’s potting station for a visit as if to say “whachadoin’?”, or “where’s the guy with the grasshoppers?” It let me pick it up for a move to nearby shady ground, restoring my chances of moving back in out of the chicken coop after that bear growl stunt from earlier this Summer.

You’d be forgiven if for a split second you recoiled at the sight of these snake-like yardlong beans among the vines that Mom let go to seed for future planting. The pale one reached almost three feet. We’re also growing roselle (Florida cranberry) for flower calyxes to make jelly and the closely related false roselle for salad leaves.

In bloom are several species of cactus and the cactus-like Stapelia with the large star shaped flower as seen behind the purple society garlic flower cluster here. Mom has been assisting on the first shifts of tree cactus flower pollination by holding the light in position as I brush. Afterward we make the nightly effort for a few mosquito-free minutes in the quest to spot comet Neowise in the night sky. No luck there, but we are blessed with a great view of Mars and another large bright planet against the Backbone of Night that is the Milkyway.