Friday, April 30, 2010

Things that slip slide...

*

Things that slip slide
slither and stretch...




When I met my friend
at the Park gates
at precisely 5 minutes past 4...
We both leave our respective homes at 4pm
I walk up the Boardwalk
and she walks down her street
on the edge of the park
and we meet at the gates...

Anyway...
when I met my friend
she asked if I wanted
to come back up to her garden
to visit her snake
She had told me he lived in a tree
for a few days,
went off for a day or two foraging
then returned to sleep it off
curled in a branch
of the tree beside her deck



While I pulled the foliage back
my friend attacked the tree
with her secateurs -
what we will do 
for a photo for you...

The snake didn't appreciate
our horticultural endeavours
and stretched out
to check
what was happening
to his previously quiet abode



Most of his body remains coiled
around the branch
at the bottom left corner
and his top third had elongated
up and over a limb
to dangle back towards us...

He is a small python, 
what we call a carpet snake





It was a slithery 
sort of walk today
as on the track
in the fading light -

we had spent too long
with the snake
and were running low 
on daylight

we encountered
a very slithery slow skink

We stopped a jogger
who came up behind us
in case she should run over him,
that would make for 
a very squishy sensation

He was in no hurry 
to clear the track
He slipped and slid
and slithered
slowly
into the bush


and we skedaddled on
into the sunset
looking for koalas...

*

24 comments:

  1. I think a big round of applause for your perseverance in getting shots of the carpet python. That skink doesn't look to be built for hurrying, does it?

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  2. All your posts make me miss Australia - even this one!

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  3. Hi Martin

    thank you for your appreciation for the risks I take in the course of a good pic.

    slow
    steady
    slinky
    skink

    I tapped that skink on the tail to get him to skedaddle and he gave me a most indignant look - almost daring me to come closer...
    My daughter stepped on one once - he was hiding out in the garage...she said he was very squishy...a most horrible sensation...

    happy days

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  4. Hi Scintilla

    after spending time with the snake I said to my friend who lives at the edge of the rainforest...That is just one we have seen, how many more are there out there that we never see...She didn't like to think about that....living as she does in their garden of Eden

    Happy days

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  5. Delwyn, I hope you don't mind but I have borrowed and reproduced the lovely Tao words you wrote in your blog on Wednesday - to accompany a photo I took .. of a hazy moon. I've linked back to you.

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  6. Hello Katherine

    No, I am delighted that the words and their messages will keep going round...and round...like the moon...

    Happy days

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  7. delwyn - i love that you are comfortable with these beautiful animals. it's such a gift when they cross our path. my dad used to tell me to listen to what they have to say to you because it isn't an accident that they appear where they do. have a lovely evening. steven

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  8. Pythons...I'm familiar with, of course not on as personal a level as you are, Delwyn, but a skink, I have never heard of.

    All your 'S' words made me smile!
    slow
    steady
    slinky
    skink
    snake
    slithery
    squishy
    sensation
    sleep
    slipped
    slid
    secateurs
    stretch
    skedaddled
    sunset

    I could have listed sort, she, street, small, spent, stopped, should, and slowly, but didn't! :) ♥...Wanda

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  9. Wonderful words, and exotic flora and fauna is what one can expect at your site. What if there were no national parks to preserve this rich diversity?

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  10. Hi Delwyn, I found myself curling my bare feet under me here in the sofa (I'm having my morning coffee with you) - just in case there was anything slithery on MY carpet! (However, I don't think either the snake or the skink would enjoy the snow...)

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  11. Better to have a carpet python then a Brown snake in your yard.

    This snake living in your friends tree looks a pretty decent size. do you get a few of these snakes up your way?

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  12. I love your posts of the flora and fauna in your garden of eden.

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  13. that python is most obliging! and that skink - wow. how big is he? he looks huge..
    fascinating thanks

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  14. So what are the skink and the carpet python saying (a la Steven)?

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  15. Hi Meri

    the snake said that there is far more to life than what we ever see and that we tend to forget that life exists all around us but is unseen...we are unable to see it, both physically and metaphorically...

    the skink, well he said...why hurry...

    Happy days

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  16. Hi val

    the skink was about a foot long. I think he is a blue tongue. Have you seen my posts on Bluey?

    Happy days

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  17. Hi Ellen

    and I love to have you as an enthusiastic reader Ellen...

    happy days

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  18. Hi Liss

    yes, carpet snakes are ok with me. It did make me think that they are still about not yet going into hibernation. This is my first snake in a while...

    There are many pythons up here, often larger. Everyone has a story to tell about the python in the back shed....

    happy days

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  19. Hi Barb

    the skink gives me the shivers more than the snake...he is so primordial...Just keep you feet up anyway...

    Happy days

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  20. Hello paul

    thank you for coming over and leaving your words of appreciation and enjoyment at the Aussie wildlife in my corner of this state. The Nat parks here are great areas of land but the critters also live all around us in our back yards...even in our bedrooms...

    Thank you for the link in your latest post...

    Happy days

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  21. Hi Wanda

    it was too tempting to not go for a little alliteration in the post...and yo have gone the whole hog...so spirited and sensational are you Wanda...and I forgot sweet...

    Happy days

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  22. Hi Steven

    I have answered your Dad's question down in Meri's response.

    I will be listening very carefully from now on...the only problem I have is that the cicadas are always in my ears...not the real ones, not their chirruping...but tinitus...
    But I do forget about it most of the day...

    happy days

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  23. Nice images.. The skink looks nice... :D

    Regards,
    Angad

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  24. The carpet python is just gorgeous, glad you got a peek at him.

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