In May 2011, after four years of life on McNutt's Island, we moved to Montreal. This blog remains, though, as a (sort of) daily record of our time on the island, and a winding path for anyone who would like to meander about among its magical places. For additional perspectives and insights I recommend Greg's book, Island Year: Finding Nova Scotia (2010), and my Bowl of Light (2012). I'll continue to post once in a while. If you do want to read this blog, one option would be to begin at the beginning of it (which is, as we all know, in blog-world, at the end), and read forward, concluding with the most recent entry. It's a journal, really, so it does makes more sense if you read it that way. But, you know, read it any way you like.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

A secret place

Just as we were about to begin gathering the sheep last week, Blake said to me, "Do you want a picture of some snake eggs for your blog?"So he and Anna and I made a quick detour to a place that Blake knows about. He raised up a board and we saw six white snake eggs, oblong in shape and about three centimeters long, in the cool protected dirt beneath. We did not see their mother. I took a picture and then Blake put the board back in place and we left.
These are the eggs of a smooth green snake, one of the two kinds of snakes on the island. The other kind, the maritime garter snake, gives live birth to her babies.

I asked Blake how he knew the eggs would be there. He told us that the mother lays her eggs in the same spot every year. Imagine knowing something as secret as that.
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