{"id":1995,"date":"2019-09-08T13:58:10","date_gmt":"2019-09-08T20:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/?p=1995"},"modified":"2019-09-08T13:58:10","modified_gmt":"2019-09-08T20:58:10","slug":"making-acquaintance-with-snakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/?p=1995","title":{"rendered":"Making acquaintance with snakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Growing up in Aotearoa New Zealand, a country with no native snakes, I never learned the phobia many people have about these creatures. Since moving to California I\u2019ve learned to keep rattlesnakes at a respectful distance, but can only listen, fascinated, as friends tell stories of the poisonous slithery ones of their childhoods.<\/p>\n

Our family had a fine introduction to the harmless garter snake in 1972, when we went camping at Big Sur during spring break. I tell about it in a letter to parents:<\/p>\n

\"baby<\/a>

A baby garter snake. Image by Gary Nafis, from http:\/\/www.californiaherps.com<\/p><\/div>\n

27 April 1972<\/em><\/span>
\nWe had a lovely trip to Big sur. The coastline there is really spectacular \u2013 a romantic tumble of cliffs and waves, with the highway carved out of the side of the cliff. \u2026The campground is back in the valley of the Big Sur River, a lush, green, woodsy place, with the river bronze-gold over its boulders. We camped right on the edge of the river, and as you can imagine the kids [our two plus their friend Mark, ages nine, eight and seven] had a ball messing about in the water. … Lots of wildlife for us to observe. One day, coming back from the beach at the mouth of the river, we met a man who had caught a huge garter snake, and was taking it home to his daughter, who collected reptiles. Both he and the snake were very obliging about letting the kids play with it and handle it, and it was a very contemplative, envious trio that walked back across the river meadow where he had found it. It\u2019s interesting to observe the effect of the nature programs they have attended on these kids. A lot of emphasis is put on the phobias and misconceptions that many people have about snakes. The children learn how to watch out for rattlesnakes, but they also learn to value the many other useful and beautiful snakes we have here. Following their example, I even held a snake for the first time, a baby Santa Cruz garter snake that Tony had found by the campsite. A pretty little thing, striped lengthwise yellow and black, and warm and wriggly in the hand.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"California<\/a>

California scarlet king snake. Image by Gary Nafis, from http:\/\/www.californiaherps.com<\/p><\/div>\n

We have had other snakes in our lives. In Santa Barbara, where we lived in the late 1970s, a huge king snake took up residence in our garden. Since king snakes eat rattlers, we were happy to make it welcome. Less welcome were the pair of caged garters one of our sons and a visiting friend brought back in guilty triumph from a local pet shop. My son assured me that he would be responsible for feeding and taking care of them. Yeah, right! Fortunately, both snakes managed to escape within a few days.<\/p>\n

Here on the Mendocino Coast I often see garter snakes, either on a walking trail or in the garden. I have learned to live with the cycles of nature that make them both predator and prey. Here\u2019s a poem about that:<\/p>\n

Learning Detachment<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Mirror black, raven on the wall<\/span>
\nlifts limp coils of garter snake<\/span><\/p>\n

its skin striped red and brown<\/span>
\nin intricate pattern like a carpet<\/span>
\nloomed in some ancient sunlit place<\/span><\/p>\n

maybe the same snake I saw<\/span>
\nnear where a tree frog<\/span>
\nshiny as sun on a wet spring leaf<\/span>
\nleaped into shadow<\/span><\/p>\n

sadness for lost beauty<\/span>
\nrises and dissipates<\/span><\/p>\n

the snake has eaten<\/span><\/p>\n

the raven eats<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Growing up in Aotearoa New Zealand, a country with no native snakes, I never learned the phobia many people have about these creatures. Since moving to California I\u2019ve learned to keep rattlesnakes at a respectful distance, but can only listen, fascinated, as friends tell stories of the poisonous slithery ones of their childhoods. Our family […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,537],"tags":[538],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1995"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1995"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2001,"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1995\/revisions\/2001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}