Rockeries and molesnakes

It took a few days of furtive skulking and ducking and diving, but I managed to collect a few nice big stones for my intended rockery without being spotted by the guardians of the roadside rocks, and of course all other things connected with fauna and flora. As the ground slopes down quite steeply, I had to pack my rocks so that I could even it out with some soil so that the water would not just run away, taking the soil with.
It was hard work, and the sun of course did not play along by hiding behind a few clouds, as the clouds were also not playing with, well, there were no clouds! I was one tired burned to looking like a beetroot, and dried out like a biltong (beef jerkey) woman when after two days of really hard slog, I had managed to arrange my rocks looking almost natural, with a few nice pockets where I could plant some succulents and also some flowers, and maybe some spinach and other stuff. I had to cart up some river sand to put into the cavities first, that being quite deep, before the mixture of sand, soil and compost went in. I had a few flowering shrubs that I wanted to put in somewhere in that part of my garden, but I was so pooped after the path and the rockery that I stayed inside and did some sketching and little household chores for a few days to build up some stamina.

My strawberries were ripening, and it was again a war between me and the snails, and of course me and Sheila's bally peacocks, who are very sly, and I now and then caught one of them spying through the trees, I suppose to see how far the berries were from being plump and ripe enough to eat.
The snails were fearless, and as I had found by now, total teetotallers, as not even one of them drowned in the amber liquid that most people swore to, and I even tried out different ones, like Black Lable, Windhoek, Pilsener, ext to give them a variety.
When I was able and ready to commence with the planting of my rockery, I first plastered self in a good layer of sunscreen, as I still had blisters on my lip and above my eyes from working without any protection, and I had a wee bit of discomfort!
I decided that I didn't like the shape of one of my planting pockets on my rockery, so was going to just rearrange a few stones, and was seeing in my minds eye the wonderful sight this will be when planted, when, lifting a big stone, I just saw this longish thing move, and then it turned into a kind of circle, and this thing then came rolling straight at me.
Look, I am quite courageous, but when such a strange creature, looking half snake and half worm comes  rolling at me with intent to hurt, I down tools, and I RUN! And I was not silent either, as when I looked behind me and this thing was at my heels, I let out a very thin, very high, and very loud scream of terror before I legged it at breakneck speed to my door. I stood shivering, waiting for this alien thing to start banging on the door, but all was silent, so I opened the door and had a peep, but all was quiet and peaceful outside.
That was the end of me lifting any rocks again that day, and after about five cuppa's, I went outside to see if that monster had gone back under his stone, or lying in wait for me, and exhaled thankfully when there was no sign of it. But I was now too scared to go anywhere near the spot where this thing came out, and decided that the pocket that I thought did not look nice, did after all not look so bad! Ha-ha!
Later I walked up the road to Ronalee who had plants for me, and we had a good laugh when she told me that my rolling monster was nothing else than a very harmless snake called a 'tabak roller', in English I suppose it would be a 'tobacco roller, why it is so called I would not know.
So I spent the next few days planting, watering, and watching out for snail;s. Will maybe have to convert back to snailbait if they refuse to take a tipple at the little bowls of beer, and then fall in and drown!