Snakes and Ladders

Surprising what a Saturday afternoon doing gardening and home maintenance can turn up.


This little fella was having a snooze in the sun on a rock around my pond. I must have disturbed
it whilst weeding and clearing. I was flummoxed to what sort of snake it was, as i'd never seen anything so bronze before. The kids went and got my wife up, who was having a nice nap that afternoon. This little chap caused a right stir. I picked it up to show the kids and wife, also to show off a bit that I was hard enough to pick it up. Truth is I'd never have done it without my thick rubber gardening gloves on. It was very exciting holding it as it swayed in a snakelike fashion. I'd say it was about 40 cm in length (aka a ruler and bit in length). It has a small darting tongue like you'd expect. It was also very docile and not at all aggressive which is why I felt confident to pick it up and show it off.

A little later I was able to establish that it was in fact a slow worm, which isn't really a snake at all. Rather it is a limbless lizard. I had seen slow worms when I was younger, but the colour of this one was so bronze and the ones I had seen before were more grey. This seems to be down to the fact that our new friend is a girly slow worm!

We let her slither in a gap between rocks so she could hide and get some rest from us. It's nice though to think we have nature's friends like this in our garden, but its even nicer knowing it wasn't an Adder!

Oh btw, we also have a few frogs. I haven't been able to get close enough to see them clearly, as everytime I get anywhere near them they dive into the pond.