Wordless Wednesday- The Color of Corn

Corn Snake, aka Red Rat Snake - Big Cypress

Beautiful but Deadly

These were taken by a coworker of mine right outside our office back door...

Not a big snake and not aggressive at all, but you still don't want to mess with them.

A shy little guy who just wanted to get away from the crazy lady with a camera!

Oh, if you don't know what kind of snake that is, it's a coral snake. Deadly venomous, yet there have been no recorded deaths from their bite (at least not in Florida). They are in the same family as cobras, but are rear-fanged. They have to get a really good mouthful and chomp down hard to inject their venom.

But really, they are pretty shy creatures who just try to scoot away as quick as they can.

Strangers in the Night

1:48am, I am watching some show on the Travel Channel about these two guys who go live with natives in the woods. I see a shadow out of the corner of my eye...it is my oldest and he's walking into the living room holding something...

Sam: Look who was sleeping in my bed.

Me: Oh my God! Is that Steve?

Sam: Steve is the only white snake around here.

Me: Wow! Out of this whole house, he escapes and ends up YOUR BED?!?!?!

Sam: Yup.

We put the wayward escape artist back into his home, placed the bricks back on top (someone had left them off) and Sam went back to bed, and I went back to the Travel Channel.


Some people would've completely freaked to be sleeping in their bed and have their foot touch something that shouldn't be there, especially a 3 1/2 foot snake. But not Sam. The whole thing was a little surreal and yet, seemed completely normal. Yeah, we're weird.

Long Weekends are Great!

Me, the kids and Indy got to spend a nice long weekend up in Lake Placid. We did some caching, went to Cypress Gardens and just hung out. It was really nice. The picture above was taken in Sebring. I thought it was really pretty.

When we got up to our place, the first thing I did was clean up. After not being up there for over a month, things were dirty and the porch needed cleaning. I went and got the wet dry vac to vacuum out the frames of the sliding doors. As I was vacuuming, something caught my eye...something stuck in the framework of the door...I tried to suck it out, but it didn't budge. Then I saw it move. I bent down and looked closely and this is what I found!

An absolutely beautiful little scarlet kingsnake!!! The first one I've ever seen in the wild! We were pretty psyched to find this little guy and ended up keeping him for the weekend. He was so sweet and never once even struck at us. Poor snakes are such maligned creatures!

I'll post more pics form the weekend later. Right now I need to clean the kitchen and go to bed. I am not looking forward to going to work tomorrow. I think I need an extra day off!

It's a good morning!

I just stepped out of my office, and there was a beautiful creature stretched across the sidewalk...a coral snake! Such a pretty little thing. I got about 3 feet from it, and it decided that was too close and it scurried off into the leaves under an oak tree. I am betting it's the same one I've seen before and he lives in the little hammock area around my office.

I'm happy. It's a good morning!