Jon opened the basement door yesterday, and look who was there!!!  A Corn Snake.  Not poisonous, and really quite beautiful.  This one is about 2 feet long, and it slowly wandered off.  We took a video, but I don't know how to upload a video onto this site.  Sorry.  I'll work on that....
 

I looked in our Snakes of the Southeast book, and I think they may have used this one for their ID picture.  Their picture looks exactly like this one.  There is another picture showing it constricting a rat, but I'll spare you that photo.  Just so you know, though, corn snakes are also called red rat snakes.  
 

The good news is, when threatened, corn snakes generally try to escape.  This one didn't seem threatened at all; it just meandered along the house wall and out to the woodpile.  We didn't feel threatened either;  we just watched in fascination, and took pictures.
 

Love seeing critters up close.  Also glad Jon was there to identify it.  I might have been afraid, not knowing what it was, just that it was A SNAKE!!!  OK,  I'll get back to garden pictures. 
 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!