Cinnamon Bloom

Saturday, March 21, 2015

I do not want to freak anyone out, but if you do not like snakes, or faint at the sight of them, you will not want to read on. I by no means find myself in love with snakes, but with that said, I have came a long way in excepting that, we do share our world with some creatures that do have their purpose here and belong here as much as we do. Along with the clear understanding that if you live in the country, you will on occasion cross paths with them. I have a couple of stories that I would like to share, with pictures to follow. 
                                                
                                You have been warned!

My first encounter with one of these creatures, (before I was so excepting) of all places was while riding in my car with my husband, just out for a nice ride, enjoying the day, when all of a sudden a snake crawled out of the space between my car hood and windshield and onto the wiper, and of course it had to be on my side of the windshield.
I tried to scream, but my voice would not work. I was pointing at the windshield. I then drew my legs up into the seat, in my mind, because I had such a clean view of him/her, it seemed as though it was going to drop right into the car. My husband thought I saw a deer or something in the road, I some how managed to get the word snake out, and he saw it on the wiper. Being a man he had total control of the situation, and calmly pulled the car over on the side of the road to save me from this snake. My hero! Still in the fetal position I watched as he came around to my side of the car, by this time the snake had coiled itself around the side mirror of the car (see picture below). My brave husband proceeded to remove the snake from the mirror, so that I could breath again. He grabbed the snake by the tail with his bare hand and tugged on it so that it would let go of the mirror. It worked, but by this time the snake was mad-frightened, and swung back and tried to bite my husband on the hand. My husband of course dropped the snake, and after dancing around like a chicken on hot tar, scared the snake back under the car, it disappeared somewhere back into the motor. My hero! Not!


Picture from inside the car, Yikes!!
Snake on mirror, I did think this snake had beautiful colors 

That's when we decided to go straight home, and yes I was still in the fetal position. We made it home, which seemed to take forever. My husband called my brother-in-law to see if he could help find and remove the snake from the motor. I thought of the water hose, the snake would probably not like the water, good idea, right? It still took over an hour to find the snake, spray it with water, and for it to decide it had enough. We didn't think it was ever going to come out, but it did. Finally it just dropped out of the motor and was gone in a flash. I did not know at the time what kind of snake it was, but with the pictures I had taken and the Internet, quickly found out it was a "Corn Snake". These snakes are non-venomous, have a checkered belly pattern (which I found really cool) are harmless and beneficial to humans. They help control rodent populations. Told you they had a purpose. Corn snakes are mistaken as "Copperheads" (a venomous snake, not as brightly colored, hourglass pattern, no belly pattern, triangular heads) and are often killed. I have lived here for twelve years, I am always outside doing something and have never seen a copperhead, not saying there not here, just have not crossed paths. Another snake story soon.

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