Snakes from a Copter

When we first saw our place it was just a spot of orange in a sea of green, with an amazing view - on top of the world. The orange was a little bit of the roof of the barn, and the house was completely covered by greenery.

Our youngest was only two years old and as we were clambering down from the road, someone stopped and said "Be careful of snakes." Well, of course we knew about snakes, having farmed in Italy for many years. We taught our children about vipers and were careful to keep the grass short around the house.

But what we didn't know was that here in Lunigiana, vipers have been "seeded" from helicopters, by those who want to save the lives of predatory birds. So they sent sacks of young vipers up in copters, and the sacks were thrown into the hills, releasing the babes into the woods.

So we do in fact have a large population of poisonous snakes to deal with, and whether or not the buzzards and kites I have seen above our house are grateful, who knows. It does seem strange, though, that the lives of birds would be considered more carefully than the lives of humans.

City people can often be very sentimental about Mother Nature. But nature isn't gentle - she is strong and can be cruel. The subtle opening of a flower and the pounding of a hailstorm, a giant tsunami, and a baby sparrow, are all part of nature's variations. Who are we to interfere? And especially at the expense of our own kind.