Snake

I heard a rustling in the creeper on the outside of our house yesterday evening. It was getting dark but even so I was pretty sure that I could see the coils of a snake tucked behind a downpipe. Once again, I called for back up. My father in law and husband came. My husband climbed up on a chair and investigated the place that I was pointing gingerly at with a strong torch. He saw a small snake (9 inches?) coiled tightly around a gecko, the snake's head over the top of the gecko's nose in an attempt to eat it. Gross!!

We grabbed various weapons, a mop, a golf club, shooed the children back into the house and began to poke about. Soon enough the snake and gecko tumbled down from their elevated position on the side of the house and we all (Grandad, husband and I) jumped back with a scream. The snake slithered off at speed into the flowerbed and the gecko landed on a leaf then stayed absolutely still. With another poke, the gecko sprang to life and scampered off. We wondered why we were wearing only flipflops, fearing that the now furious snake might reappear. I wished I hadn't put straw on all the flowerbeds for mulching as it made hiding for the snake even easier.

That night I resolved to pull all the creeper from our house (or rather, delegate this task post haste) and never open the children's bedroom windows again - this might sound unreasonable but I can't rid from my mind the imagine of a slithery carnivorous snake sneaking into the dry, warm and then coiling itself into a dark corner to await discovery.

The next morning I warned the gardener that I had seen a snake on the wall of the house. He said that if it was a small snake, it was probably a baby and there was sure to be a mother lurking somewhere. Terrific..... shudder.