With my granddaughter up at "aunties," I had a chance to do some serious wood-splitting, but at one point, after I'd moved a large log section out of the woods, I noticed that I had uncovered a young Garter Snake who was, no doubt, surprised that there was light where there'd been only darkness. The serpent, duly coiled, didn't seem all that concerned and simply stayed put, its morning slumber interrupted, to try to determine its next move. Fortunately, my granddaughter soon arrived back home, so everyone in my daughter's car got a chance to see the snake up close, even to the point of being able to observe the telltale patterning of the "lips," well, the area of the jaw below the eye and nose. The very notion of snake lips always draws a chuckle when I point this out on nature walks. Those streaks, however, are diagnostic field marks that separate Garter Snakes, which have them, from their close cousins, the Ribbon Snakes, that have unmarked lips.