Taking a Break

Second son, aka Flamebrain, came into town this weekend, bringing with him his blind/deaf, cat-eating pit bull. She is such a sweetie except for that whole cat-eating thing... Anyway, the plan was for him to help us move some of the ridiculously heavy things we own over to the new house. Alas, Mother Nature decided today would be a good day for rain showers...such is life. Instead of heavy lifting, we did a little poking around in a swamp down near the river. It is a pretty interesting place - quite different from both the immediate home swamp and the work swamp. Endless variety, don't you know.

Since my time is at a premium these days, I intend to break our little excursion up into a few posts instead of one long one. That way you get your swamp fix and I don't feel guilty about not having something to post ;)

Let's start with our first reptile of the day, the infamous cottonmouth. Known also as the water moccasin, this snake is the genesis of many a tall tale. In truth, it is not an overly aggressive snake, it just prefers to be left alone. When it feels threatened, it opens its mouth in a wonderful display.

The first cottonmouth we saw on the road today was gloriously fat. She immediately displayed her mouth for us, indicating that she would rather not be disturbed. Please note in the second photo that the fangs are folded away, not down and dripping venom as some would have you to believe.

Sadly, running over snakes is a popular pastime in these parts. In order to spare this snake that particular fate, Treebeard located a nice strong stick and scooped the portly reptile off the road and into the adjacent ditch. She hit the water with a splash and dove under.