Friday, December 3, 2010

Our Melon Patch & Unexpected Visitor

It was an early morning when I decided to carry on with fining the clay ground between our proud bouganvilla & bamboo. My dog was patiently sitting beside me watching the activities of the early morning. It was then I heard a rustle in the bamboo behind me. I thought nothing of it at first as our kitty spends most of her time in the garden. It was upon a second rustle that my very brave, yet confused dog, Trekker, jumped up and looked at me as if calling me with his eyes.
I knew not to take his reaction lightly as it was peculiar behavior. I dropped the spade and peeked around the corner only to discover - eeeeeeeeeek!! - a Boomslang! (Tree-snake - directly translated). 


A Boomslang -
image from http://www.africanreptiles-venom.co.za/boomslang.html
It was slithering away from the bamboo where I stood, had a peek into my sister's bedroom and shot high up into the next patch of bamboo. I must have frightened it with the shoveling. She was a beautiful, fully-grown femail of about 1,2 to 1,3 meters long - better check for eggs!
She did not hang around too long, but long enough for everyone to see her greatness. She cut her visit short by sailing of into the neighbour's yard. What an experience!


Despite the goosebumps that I had for the entire day, we all chipped in and finished our watermelon patch, knowing that the spirit of the snake watches over them. Our watermelons received lots of compost as the ground had many stones which had to be removed. We found some rich top soil beneath some trees further down in our 'jungle', which we also used. The patch was decorated with a big log and bamboo sticks and of course our beautiful tree bark!

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