Sunday 27 April 2008

Too close for comfort

After all the rain, it was wonderful to have the sun back for the weekend. All of us we're keen to sit and bask in it as much as possible. We also went on many walks around our new back yard.


There's quite a bit to explore, with 20 acres of bushland that's only slightly been cleared. Of course that means we're living quite closely with the wildlife! So far that's consisted of grey kangaroos and a little mouse-like marsupial called the Yellow-footed Antechinus. All quite cute and easy to live with, especially now that we've stopped the antechinus from coming inside the house!



But this morning we met another resident, a rather large Brown snake. Keith, Keira and Honey were walking along, when Honey ventured off the path and started madly barking at something. Keith and Keira kept walking and then Keira waited for Honey to follow. When she wouldn't come, Keira went back to see what was going on. Only to get the shock of her life!



Honey, apparently was very close to the snake which as Keira put it (through much wailing) "was moving towards me". She couldn't get Honey to follow her, so raced ahead to catch up with Keith and he ran back and picked Honey up and brought her back to the house.

Honey was extremely excited and we were all very worried that she might have been bitten. But she's shown no sign of it and I think she's been very lucky to get off so lightly from such a close call!

So now I'm wondering who else is out there for us to meet!


4 comments:

M said...

Oh man, that was close.

Despite growing up on a farm I really detest snakes, can't even touch the skin of a python without squirming. The closest I've been to a snake in years was our weekend trip to "wildlife world" at Darling Harbour. I'm such a city slicker these days!

Mary said...

Oh that is just hideous.

The flowers are gorgeous though!

Fairlie - www.feetonforeignlands.com said...

20 acres is quite a backyard to explore!

I grew up in the country too - but also detest snakes. My parents caught one coming under their front door into the house a few weeks ago...arghhhh. I'm wondering if he was the first or the last in line?

Suse said...

Yikes. We get snakes here too, they terrify me.

Thanks for your comment. Wasn't Bel Canto terrific/devastating?! I can recommend Truth and Beauty too, which is her nonfiction account of one of her friendships. I listened to it on audio tape and it was narrated by Ann Patchett herself, which is always lovely.