Gardening - It's Dangerous Out There

With Spring weather, comes Spring gardening. I look forward to gardening. There is something very zen and relaxing about it. Usually. But not this time.

Our backyard is bordered in rocks. Bordered between our grass and those rocks are larger cobblestones. We have a few flower beds through out our yard. I noticed the mulch from the flower beds had blown into the cobblestones, ruining the aesthetics of the whole thing. So I thought I would move about the cobblestones and clean out the mulch.

Mark asked me if I had any gloves to wear. No! Who needs gloves? Gloves are for sissies. How can my hands get hurt from moving these little rocks? Give me a break!

I pick up my first cobblestone and underneath it I find a baby snake. Now, our backyard backs up against a golf course. There are rattlesnakes on this golf course but to counteract the rattlers (ie kill and eat them), the course releases bull snakes. I have no clue which snake this is.

Yes, by the pictures there is a big difference between the snakes, but in the heat of the moment, they all look the same to me. I poke it with a stick and it slithers under the rocks, back towards the golf course. I can only hope it doesn't decide to pay us another visit.

Freaked out, I decide I should play it safe and move further down the yard. I pick up another cobblestone and there is a black spider with a very prominent red mark on it.

Not thinking clearly, I take another rock and try and smash the spider into the ground. All I manage to do is make it very mad. It runs into the rocks. I tell Mark and we try and spray bug killer around the area, praying it gets the spider. Apparently, I should have left said spider where it was, calmly told Mark, had him spray the spider directly and been done with it. Instead, I now have sleepless nights worrying that this spider is still on the loose, ready to get revenge.

At this point, I decide that the mulch looks fantastic thrown among the cobblestones. And I've add gloves to my shopping list.