Poor thing. It was apparently slithering across the driveway when Barry came home and accidentally ran over it. Of course we didn't exactly think "Poor thing" at first because we do get rattle snakes occasionally. Baby rattle snakes are not always easy to identify, and can be highly venomous and don't always have rattles. But after careful, closer scrutiny and discussion with the neighbors we decided it was a King Snake. By that time it had died. Now you may be able to identify snakes much faster than us, but we are not experts and have had a number of encounters with rattle snakes in our yard over the years, so we were super cautious. By the end I was feeling quite sorry for its suffering. In the past we caught a baby rattler, put it in an opaque container and took it down to the fire-station which is just down the street, for them to identify. Where there is one baby rattler there are likely more -- and a Momma! But our big, brave firemen wouldn't even let us take the top off the container for them to see it. (Well, I guess since they are paramedics too they do often get to see the nasty results of a snake bite so maybe we should excuse their reluctance!)
While we are talking about things in the yard I should mention that my plumeria did finally bloom this year. We had four or five small branches with clumps of flowers on them like the one above. Last year our summer was so cool and had such little sunshine the plumeria didn't bloom at all. This is the beautifully perfumed flower that the Hawaians use to make their leis.
I think this is one of the prettiest plants we have in our yard. I believe it is called euonymous. The red leaves are so attractive and the plant spreads very easily. Since we have quite a lot of space in our back yard I don't mind it spreading.
Our weather today is finally like it should be for late summer. Temps in the eighties. But all the tourists who like to visit the beaches have gone home.
18 comments:
I don't really like snakes and was bitten by one when I was in diapers so the fear in ingrained.
We let our kids have all kinds of pets....but never a SNAKE!
Your flowers are so lovely.
Looks like rain is coming.
Your plumeria is gorgeous - beautiful to have a strong scent, too.
good thing you put up some beautiful flowers 'cause the first picture nearly made me throw my computer!!! NO thanks for that one! I expect 'better'from you!
I am just sad for the snake! Poor thing. The flowers are beautiful...
Your post on the snake made me remember about some boys who spent one summer at capturing snakes and even manage to tame three baby rattlers, I and some of the neighbors couldn't believe at what we were seeing and of course we all kept them boys far away from us back then, eventually they ended up turning the snakes loose only after they learn what they had caught.
My Plumeria hasn't even bloom yet, had it since last October from a cutting.
Hey Chris!
What beautiful flowers you have, but you can keep your visitor ... not one that I would like to have.
I just wanted you to know that I am looking forward to you posting on Coffee Klatch Friday. You just need to post on your page and grab the button , putting it on the end of your post to link it to my page. I will be putting how to do this on my blog... it's really easy but if you are unsure just follow the instructions. Also, I am going to "try" to put a link on the page where other's can see who has joined and check out their blogs.
You can write your response at anytime, but won't be able to link up until Thursday night.
I hope this answers some of your questions.
~Vicki~
I could have sworn I had left a comment on this post. I do not like that kind of visitor and am glad I live in a country that has few snakes.
Sorry about the anonymous post, I have been having IT troubles.
I envy you the climate, but not that snake! On the other hand - I wouldn't mind the flowers.
Lovely pictures, thanks for sharing. I've never seen a snake here in the UK although I am told they exist. However, holidaying in Florida a few years ago, they were plentiful and watching them stalk the little tiny geckos was entertaining.
Definitely unwelcome in my world. I don't like them, not one little bit.
I enjoy seeing all your 'exotica', Chris, even dead examples. LOL Gorgeous plumeria. x
Sure glad I've never seen one of those down there! Your plumeria is beautiful. Ours is now three years old and still no blooms. It gets put in our dark crawl space for a number of winter months to hibernate (according to the instructions we were given), so hoping next spring will do the trick.
A long time ago, on a Surrey common, I was sweeping the top of the bracken with a butterfly net to gather insects. I put my hand in, to turn the net out, and unwittingly grabbed hold of an adder. The snake flew one way, the net another way, and I another.
I find snakes very unsettling even in photos. I realize anyone should be able to discern the harmless from the bad ones but confronted with any sort of snake I lose the ability to be cool and analytical--somehow that suggests that one would investigate the serpent at too close quarters.
I recall having a perfume that contained plumaria--always wondered what the flower looked like.
We got snakes on the moors, but they still make me shudder...
I haven't visited you for a while and now I know what interesting information I've been missing-out on. Thanks.
Oh no, I am not fond of snake huhuhu.
Weather here at our end finally rose up to 60s today, we have been getting low 40s for the past weeks.
Lessons at Home is one of my entries.
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