thunderstorm

spring is scarry. i was walking along my fav trail the other day, when i came upon another bloke. he says "watch out, there's a snake in the path up ahead". naturally, i was rather non-plussed by the situation. when i got up closer i met another couple people who told me it was a rattlesnake (unconfirmed as i never saw said-snake, and every snake is a "rattlesnake" to those aren't sure; though it might well have been). so i carefully tiptoed a wide girth away from the direction mr. snake went and ressumed my journey. next time i was out i saw two baby snakes myself, but they were both little garter-snakes which begs me to question the validity of the "rattle" hypothesis. those nasty beasts tend not to come up high on my mountain which is a nice reason for being there :) but; i never realized how fearful i am of snakes. i always thought, though i had a distast for them that i really didn't mind that much. though i've heard a rattle snake before (annie came close to one in texas canyon, CA), i've never seen one in the wild in my life, which is old given my affection for outdoors and my former life in CA, but i digress. spring is also scarry cuz the woods make sounds they really shouldn't make. for those on the watch for things that rattle, there is a little bug which makes a rather frightening imatation, and he tends to be everywhere. there are all kinds of noises in the woods. i tend to find myself trying to gain quickly in altitude so that i can get away from the noise of spring and have some solitude. some bugs don't know when to shut up...but strangely there is a little pond on the way and everytime i pass a group of frogs fall totally silent until i'm gone...very nice of them.

ps: i just realized i've neglected to touch on the title. spring/summer also brings weird storms from every-which way. recently i was hiking and it started lightning/thundering, and then turned to sleet (for those inclined-to-sunshine this is like "big-wet-puffy-semi-soft-hail" :), which turned to rain, and to bright sun all under 10 minutes. got to love it.