Repeating the ancient cycle of death and rebirth

Milk Snake with Fern Tale *
CC Jean Stimmell

As winter awakens from hibernation, casting off her old, drab pelt, so does milk snake shed her withered dead skin, revealing underneath, a vibrant new self.

But rather than reveling in Spring renewal, something feels ominious. Is it snake's sense that changing climate entails hard times ahead?

* This is a Photoshop creation I made from three photographs I took near St. Paul's School 5/3/13: One is of a juvenile fern unfurling along with two different photographs of a feisty milk snake we encountered who was full of himself: coiling, striking, rattling his tail, pretending to be a rattlesnake.