Anyway, I couldn't help taking a quick snap of this chap who was basking in yesterday evening's sunshine, whilst I was working up at Haddock's.
I presume it's a harmless Grass Snake, which is supposed to be the gardener's friend. But personally I'd rather he was the friend of some other gardener.
I didn't scare him off this time, but if I see him again......
Hello:
ReplyDeleteWe are completely at one with you here. In the Budapest zoo, to which we go principally for the wonderful Art Deco architecture, we never visit the Reptile House.
Do you have venomous snakes over there? I thought poor old Australia only had the nasty ones. I don't like them either and many times have had to wait at a farm gate for one to cross and pass me by..the girl that had the mail run before me decided to take a nature call behind a tree and was squatted and guess what came along, needless to say she no longer has toilet stops lol(no she did not get bitten).
ReplyDeleteWe have venomous Adders, Carole. But their haunts are usually well known.
ReplyDeleteI feel for your friend, but had to laugh as well!
Looks like the Western Whip snake to me. They can grown very big but are fairly harmless. They like to climb, we saw one basking on top of our wall last week. Lizards are cute but snakes - ugh!
ReplyDeleteI remember you saying once before that they were Western Whip Snakes. I'll have to get my book out. The locals always refer to them as 'Couleuvre'; but that's no certainty.
ReplyDeleteJust looked at my book. I think you're right, Sue.
ReplyDeleteH.I. has a phobia for snakes too. Personally I love them and don't see enough of them. I have handled adders in Farnham, where a mate was a snake-catcher. He used to milk them for venom to make serum. Picking them up is easy - it's putting them down which takes skill to avoid mishap!
ReplyDeleteDon't believe I've seen any on this property...if I had I would still be running.
ReplyDeleteBorn and raised in Ireland, we have a terrific fear of snakes which is fed by the most horrific exaggerated stories. Spending time in Arizona and horseback riding in the desert in Spring one cannot but stumble upon the rattle snakes. The cowboys kill the rattlers as they are a danger to cattle, the enterprising wranglers save the snakes and sell their hide for belts. One time the crop of snakes was large and it meant that I had two dead snakes tied behind my saddle as we rode back to the ranch - in handling them I somehow lost some of my fear - I still do not love them but accept them as having been here since the beginning of time and they will continue to inhabit the earth.
ReplyDeleteThe advice given is to always shuffle your feet as you walk in grass
Helen
Alabama has way to many snakes. I HATE them all. I don't care how harmless, useful, etc they are, I am with you, i would not mourn if they were wiped of the face of this Earth. I don't even like looking at them.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind the small ones, it's the giant black snakes at Willow Manor that frighten me.
ReplyDeleteif they can't poison me, them I'm fine with them. I think they're beautiful, actually. I grew up near canyons filled with rattle snakes, and we knew the sound well -- stay away. Turn around and go back the way you came.
ReplyDelete(Just read your def. of an optimist -- fantastic!)
Snakes don't bide well with me either, but at the same time there is something beautiful about them. It's just, they're more beautiful from a distance. I do like that they eat mice.
ReplyDeleteAmy, I quite like mice..... in the trap!
ReplyDeleteSnakes make my skin crawl. Oddly enough, my brother raises boas and makes a decent amount of money by selling their young. Needless to say, I have no intention of paying him and his snakes ... and his mice ... a visit.
ReplyDeleteIt's spiders with me Cro.
ReplyDeleteEver seem a forty two year old bloke shreeeeek whilst jumping onto a chair?
You get any large scary spiders around your place Cro?
If I could identify the poisonous from the non-poisonous, I'd feel a lot better. Since I can't, they are ALL poisonous and soon to meet the shovel.
ReplyDeleteOnce my brother (he was a child then) brought a snake into the house to scare my mother, who was terrified of snakes. He accidentally dropped it, and it wound itself around one of the legs of our upright piano, and wouldn't budge. My mother wouldn't budge from the neighbor's house until that snake was long gone.
ReplyDeleteChris. We do get some biggish spiders, but no worse than back in the UK. However, some of ours are quite exotic. I don't have a problem with spiders.
ReplyDeleteOh dear don't visit Australia, as Carole said we do have some nasty ones and they will often visit our gardens on a summer day. My Husband would agree with you wholeheartedly "rid the world of snakes", I guess they were put here for a reason :o)
ReplyDelete