I don't have the most manicured yard on my street, and I admit at times I look at my neighbors' (some of whom hire lawn services to come in and remove/spray anything that they deem as "not belonging") and get nervous that I'm not "doing enough" to keep up the "beauty" of the neighborhood. Then again, I see other benefits to my wilder lawn and garden.

Yesterday, heading back to campus after lunch (I was in a hurry but still wish now I had got my camera and photographed it), there was a small brown snake curled up on top of one of the abelia bushes. I presume it climbed up the trunk and branches, and probably set up there at the top to get the warmth from the sun. (And maybe to find insects, I don't know). I'm pretty sure it was a rough earth snake. I've seen them in my yard before, and this one looked a lot like those. (It was bigger than the other ones I've seen, though about the same size as the larger ones shown on that site). One of the diagnostics is the belly color but I didn't want to scare the snake by trying to pick it up to look at its belly. I'd just as soon it stayed in my yard and brought its conspecific friends, because the website says they eat slugs, and anything that eats slugs is more than welcome in my yard.

Also, like a lot of other tiny things, tiny snake is cute. Yeah, it's possible for a snake to be cute, I think.

The other neat thing I saw was a purple oxalis blooming in my yard. The yellow ones (Oxalis stricta) are really super common down here, but the purple ones (Oxalis violacea) are rarer.

So, one of the reasons I like having a less manicured lawn is that sometimes things surprise me. (I also seem to get a lot more birds than the people with the "golf course lawns" seem to get)