Adders

Posted on March 4, 2025 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Cliffs, Climbing, diamond pattern, golden, grass snake, Hubby, Life, Nature, Snakes, venemous, viper, Youth2 Comments

Speaking to a friend in America about snakes reminded me that there are a few species here including the most venemous one, the Adder. It’s recognisable by the diamond pattern on its back.

My hubby was climbing cliffs in Devon when he was young and put his hand onto a hand hold. He realised to his horror that it was a nest of Vipers! He told me he had nightmares for weeks afterwards.

But there are grass snakes which are lizards not snakes, they have vestigial legs I think. We found one basking in the sand on a Devonian beach one summer holiday. It glinted gold in the setting sun. Wonderful.

Spiders

Posted on June 4, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged 0spiders, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1957, Environment, Fears, Nature, phobias, Snakes, Wildlife2 Comments

What fears have you overcome and how?

When I was little I would jump and scream if I saw a spider. They scuttle, they crawl, they shake their webs to make it hard to see them.

Then I did biology and found out about them. They have little boxing glove shaped things on their front legs called pedipalps, they have eight eyes, they catch and eat flies and other pests. They come in all shapes and sizes, but British ones are relatively safe and garden spiders are quite interesting to look at with patterns on their backs.

It got to a point where my manager, who was arachnophobic, would ask me to catch spiders if they were in her office! I also like snakes after a wildlife talk at school where they bought some in for pupils to see. I was at a festival today and got to hold a snake. Once you get over the initial fears you can do it.

Spiders and snakes are part of nature, kill off insects and spiders die, if spiders are gone birds have less to eat, and what do snakes eat? Birds and small mammals, soon we would be left with nothing. We need to care….

Happy St Patrick’s day

Posted on March 17, 2023March 18, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Digital manipulation, Drawing, Ireland, Layout app, Photodirector, saints day, Sketching, Snakes, St Patrick's dayLeave a comment

Here’s a little green abstract to wish you a happy St Patrick’s day.

I once found a four leaf 🍀clover, so it feels like a lucky day. St Patrick was supposed to have cast all the snakes out of Ireland 🇮🇪 and to this day there are non there. I guess it could be that Ireland is an Island?

St Patrick’s day is celebrated in Ireland and in the USA where they have been known to colour rivers green. Its not unusual to have parades of marching bands and floats. The predominant colour is green, even green coloured drinks! The symbol is an Irish man with red hair and a beard wearing green clothes and sporting a shamrock ☘ (which I think is similar to clover, but a perennial plant). Much fun and hilarity is enjoyed by the population on St Patrick’s day.

We don’t celebrate St Patrick’s day as much in most of the UK, I think because Ireland is a mainly Catholic country and mark saints days more than we do.

The green abstract was drawn with felt pens then filtered through photodirector to add texture, and an app called layout to add symmetry.

Spider, beware!

Posted on October 24, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bugs, Cauldron, Fun, Halloween, Life, Poem, Poetry, Silly, Snakes, Spiders, WitchesLeave a comment

I don’t mind spiders, snakes or bugs

Sometimes I like to give them hugs.

At Halloween I feel quite itchy

When creepy crawlies make me twitchy.

Arachnophobia, I hear you say?

But give those bugs another day.

They eat up flies, or rotting veg

You find around the gardens edge.

This silly poem now must end

A witches cauldron, over it I bend.

Snakes alive

Posted on March 3, 2020March 3, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Creative writing, Horror, Horror story?, Imagination, Short story, Snake, Snakes, Snakes and ladders, Swallowed, Trying to create suspense, Very short storyLeave a comment

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As Sara reached out to throw the dice she saw a flicker on the Snakes and ladders board. Something had moved quickly on the surface. She saw it in the corner of her eye.

It’s your go, said her partner Jamie. Are you going to throw the dice?

Sara picked it up and threw a six. Across the board, six spaces. Her partner took the dice and threw a three. Base of a ladder and up to the fifth row. He chuckled.

Beat that he said. She threw again and again, always missing the ladders.

It’s not fair, she said.

He was almost on square one hundred now, top of the board. Sara was getting fed up.

Then she saw a flicker again. She looked at Jamie. Did you see that? No, what? He said.

Next throw, two, oh no! As she placed her counter onto the head of the snake, ready to move it down the body back to the bottom row she saw the Snakes tongue protrude from the board. It flickered against her fingers. She froze, shocked into a paralysis. She felt its fangs pierce her index finger, saw its mouth open into a black void. With impossible speed the snakes mouth raced up her arm, gaping wide it covered her head, with one single swallow her body disappeared into it.

I told you I’d win, said Jamie quietly, as he chuckled.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Snakes