Our summer sail included a brief reprieve at Rhoad’s End on Orcas Island. We were hoping to visit with Linden, Rhoads, and Celeste.
No one was home, but we found evidence that someone had been around recently. On the front step sat a cardboard house with carefully created net windows.
We could hear a slithering sound, so clearly there was a creature inside. But all four sides of the box were sealed shut.
Simone asked, “Do you think it is a present? Should we open it? Mom, Maybe it needs water.”
Simone got a bowl from the boat and we filled it from the sink in the Gazebo’s bathroom.
The bathroom is tucked into a nifty crawl space and plants have started to return and grow towards the bit of natural light seeping through the holes in the roof. It’s magical.
We carefully unwrapped the tape at a corner of the box and lowered the bowl in.
We could see that the resident was a garden snake and that it was fast asleep.
Before pushing off the dock to continue our journey north to Desolation Sound, we decided to make the washed-up timbers on the beach into a boat and then take a swim.
Simone drew a thank you note and placed it by the door. We headed down to the dock. What a crazy beautiful Northwest day.
Lifecoats bucked. Ropes untied. Bumpers back inside. And we are off!
“Mom” Simone says, about a mile out to sea, “You know, when that snake wakes up he is going to be mighty hungry. I wish I had caught him a little mouse. “