To water all the plants on my terrace, I use five Coke bottles containing two liters each. They are all lined up close to the kitchen door, where the water warms up during the day. When it is hot, I use all five bottles; otherwise, I use one or two bottles a day. It has been very hot today, and so I took a bottle to the creeper on the north wall of the terrace as soon as the sun subsided in the late afternoon. The other plants will get their share an hour or so later. I was already uncorking the bottle when I noticed that something long and sinewy was stuck to it. At first I thought it was a branch of some kind brought by the wind. When I looked at it a bit more closely, it turned out to be the skin that was shed by a snake. As the bottle was close to the wall, the tight spot was just right to help the snake rub the skin off. To the best of my knowledge, snakes do this several times a year, but it has never crossed my mind that my terrace was the right place for their skin shedding. Well, I could not imagine a snake would ever come so close to the house, either. Live and learn, as the moronic expression goes.