Was it an omen?

In June I brokedown and rented a rototiller to hasten the mismanaged sheet mulch I had put down last November (the cardboard kept blowing away). When I pulled up an old carpet I had put down to smother the lawn I found quite a thriving microculture of beneficial organisms busy breaking down the biomass into healthy soil. I felt reluctant to come in with the roto and disturb their activities. I also discovered a small pumpkin plant growing from where I had put last fall's jack-o-lanterns to decompose! Among the leaf litter a movement caught my eye, it was two small garter snakes slithering swiftly away to avoid the light of the sun. I had leather gloves on so I figured I'd capture them to show the boys, snakes are quite a novelty out here in suburbia. The boys were enthralled by the snakes of course and the next day we released them elsewhere in the yard. I now proceeded to  rototill my proposed garden patch and was shocked to find that I had cut a third snake in half. I now felt horrible about gouging this microculture with this roaring belching machine. I silently asked  goddess Gaia for forgivness and hoped the sacrifice of the snake did not bode ill for my insipiant attempt to turn my lawn into food forest. It is now Aug and the goddess Gaia has answered in glorious and rampant fashion in the form of that little volounteer pumpkin plant that I noticed just 6 weeks ago. It now spans about about 40 feet wide by 20 feet deep, a sprawling thriving vine with a profusion of flowers and pumpkins in various stages of maturity, some turning orange already and look good enough to harvest and turn into pumpkin pies, pumpkin bread, pumpkin seeds, pumpkin soup, and yes, jack-o-lanterns. This small backyard parable shows to me the forgiveness of the Goddess Gaia.   Praise Gaia.               

The lawn starts to give way to Gaia's abundance.

Well I loaded up the family and drove the 50 miles to the Faeries fest to see Magic Mama perform. The boys were dubious about a faeries fest but warmed up to it when they saw the homemade swords and shields and crossbows for sale. Magic Mama was about a minute into her first song when the severe thunderstorm hit. High winds and torrential rain sent everyone scattering for cover.We made it to the car drenched to the bone and hightailed it back to our air conditioning, television, and video games. Never even got to say hello to her and introduce ourselves. Oh well.