I was admiring my amazing multicolored miniature rose; The large blooms on the blue rose and a pretty little pink blush..........when another curiosity grabbed center stage.    Not sure what kind of snake , it was orange and black on the back and beautiful glistening mother of pearl on the underside.    

The mother must have laid them over night.  In the morning  we found 6 eggs sitting in a fairly obvious large hole.   No idea what type of reptile mother laid them but the gardener thought snake and probably coral snake.  I was out there dead heading the roses yesterday in flip flops and had not seen anything.   My rose garden is made of five enormous raised beds made from the local rocks filled with soft soil and irrigated with drip hoses.   Great for roses and snakes it would seem.    

Today, I found more roses for my rose garden.    In fact, I found a rare one,  it is so special here that normally a tiny cutting costs three times the price of the average rose and that is if you can find it.  

Back on the farm, the workers found a Coral snake.  Another baby, it was in the bananas behind the stable block where they are building new bathrooms.   

Meanwhile, we picked five large sacks of coffee,  before it started raining to join the 7 or so taken yesterday.   Then went to town for a performance of Tango and Flamenco, an Argentinian group are here this week.  The rain crashing down on the roof and the thunder almost as loud as the music.  Roads swimming with water on the way home.

 I think we are now here for the evening, a cold and rainy night.  Time to put on the electric blankets and make tea.  Happy Saturday in Boquete.

  

On this coffee farm we have an abundance of fruits many in season now.   In the garden of Eden the coffee is ripening surrounded by flowers and fruits and bees, birds and so on everywhere.    

However, as in all things too good to be true, there is a down side.  Fruits attract rodents and insects, insects attract frogs and lizards and rodents frogs and lizards attract snakes.  Not sure how Adam and Eve survived as long as they did in the Garden of Eden without protective clothing.

Today, we found a new snake.  At first we thought it was an Ekees or Fer der Lance which is not normal in the Valley.   Two Boquetenas present thought it was.   Later it looks like we have different ID possibilities which is quite a relief.  Could also be a  Sibon Nebulata which eats snails and slugs and such.   Not dangerous.

This is the dilemma on farms like ours.  What do you do.  In this case and most the workers kill the snakes first then do ID later.  This makes some sense.  The Fer der Lance are pit vipers and they are venomous.  Worst of all though they are aggressive.  Our little coral snakes are not really too dangerous as they are very timid and try to avoid people but their venom is absolutely deadly.  The Ekees can strike if they are disturbed and especially for children can be fatal.  You can see Mariano opening its mouth with a stick and even this young snake has developed fangs.  However when I posted the picture, experts chimed in. Apparently, its fangs re not at the front and its head markings are not typical Ekees.

This one was caught in Mariano's weed whacker hanging out under an avocado tree.   We have some large mature  producing avocado trees scattered across the farm as shade trees for the coffee.  I bet there were lots of little animals, snake fodder, enjoying the avocado harvest. We are now searching the area for snake holes.