On Saturday I took part in a Mount Moriah Cemetery cleanup organized by the Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery and in conjunction with National AmeriCorps Week. I would like to say I did it out of pure altruism. Well, some of it was altruism. The cemetery has been an overgrown mess of an illegal dumping ground for years, a disgrace to the memory of those buried there and a locus of illegal activity. One of the neighbors I spoke with talked about the drug dealing and prostitution, the stray dogs, and I was glad to be helping out, even if the effort ultimately makes it harder to herp there.

Here's a shot of some cleaned-up plots:

Dig the results of some of our efforts:

Oh right, there are snakes there too. I didn't even walk around looking for them, but in the course of the cleanup we uncovered two snakes, for me the first of the year. I suppose these hibernated nearby and were waking up from their winter sleep. Both looked a little dingy and thin, like they could stand to eat a few slugs and shed their skins. Here's the baby.



Here's an older guy I found under some old tar paper.