A Backyard Update

Remember I was hoping for a Christmas tomato.

Here is my photo at the start of the month.  There was a tiny tinge of colour on the top one, so it looked promising.

Well, it did turn red and we were saving it to pick for Christmas. When I went out to water on Christmas Eve, where there had been tiny tomatoes, there was now11 little stalk stubs!!!  Blasted birds.  We do like them in the garden, but we were not happy. 

This is how things look now. Let’s hope that means we can enjoy some of the fruit for ourselves.  I took the photo of the stem stubs today, so it looks like the netting may be working, as there are now some more getting a bit of colour.

Also on Christmas Eve, when I was going to the clothes line I was startled to see a very unwelcome visitor…… A small snake, just over a foot long and very slender.  

This is what it looked like.  Once I looked it up, I realised it is a juvenile brown snake.  Eeek!  Even though it is a juvenile, it is just as deadly as an adult.  Have I mentioned how much I fear snakes.  We came across many when we lived out of town and nine times out of ten it was me that saw them first.

Mick got the long handled shovel, but by then it had slithered under the campanula, which was cascading over the edge of the garden.  Despite, lots of hitting into the plant, he didn’t get the snake.  We didn’t know where it went. 

The plant has now been trimmed back.  In his attempt to kill the snake, my little fairy door, that I made on the Isle of Man, sustained a bit of a beating. Fortunately, the little leprechaun survived.

Sadly, my little pixie didn’t.  He is beyond repair.  Poor pixie.

About half an our later, Mick and my brother were sitting on the back verandah, when my brother spotted it again, near where they were sitting.  They had another attempt to get it, but once again it was too quick, and being so slender, it made its escape.  They tried to find it but had no luck.

So, maybe it has left the area…….which is my hope, or maybe it is somewhere in the yard.  We have lots of plants and garden beds, so it is quite feasible that it is still somewhere around.  I am very wary whenever I am outside now.  Blasted thing!  Did I mention I hate snakes…….