On Wednesday morning we were just having a quiet coffee near the French window when there was a thump on the patio. We occasionally get birds bumping into the window and are always alert but this noise did not sound like a bird near miss.
Kourosh was fast off his mark with his camera!
“Snakes alive!” we said, (or we might have if our brains had been as quick off the mark.)
The “thump” was the ungainly landing of two coulouvres who had been passionately mating on our roof. These ones are Hierophis viridiflavus (I think) and could be called Whip snakes in English.
They are completely inoffensive and have always lived in the walls and roof of the house.
After realising where they were, one slid into the old well.
The other split and took off round the front of the house to look for a convenient hole to escape into.
We just hope that they do a bit of natural pest control as they shelter around the house. These two were close to two metres long and certainly looked well nourished.
Elsewhere in the garden the lime trees are in flower, if you manage to miss the delicious perfume you won’t miss the buzz of the bees.
In the front garden the olive tree is buzzing too with bumble bees…
and honey bees.
In the back garden the yellow raspberries are starting to ripen. They start before the red raspberries.
The raspberries are not ripening fast enough for me so I am picking the blackcurrants raw for my yoghurt and I find they go very nicely with a spoonful of our own honey.
a french garden 