Visited again

20 Saturday Feb 2016

Posted by morselsandscraps in movie, photos

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Be warned

This post contains images and a video of a snake which some (overly timid!) readers may wish to avoid

As I drink my morning coffee and J washes up, the diamond python begins his serpentine journey back to the guttering, and hence to his daytime home in my roof. This time, I’m involved in nothing more important than a coffee, so I whizz out with the camera to record his passage. It’s fine while he’s on the balustrade, and I get close enough to touch him (which I don’t do) as his tongue flickers in and out navigating his way back to the lattice. The sun shines on his gleaming black and gold pattern. At one point he senses my presence and stops, oscillating his head to figure out what’s invaded his journey. As he weaves his way back up the lattice the jealous sun positions itself behind the competition, ensuring that I can only photograph sunflare.

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Weaving the lattice

12 Friday Feb 2016

Posted by morselsandscraps in photos

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diamond python

It's dinner time. I'm sitting opposite my son when he says, sotto voce, “Look!”, and points over my shoulder. I turn slowly and see a narrow reptilian head waving out from the guttering. By the time I grab my camera it has disappeared.

However, ten minutes later I glance out the window and see a black shape with gold markings lying along the top of the deck lattice. I'm in the middle of a precious phone call to a friend, but suddenly my attention is divided. I watch as the diamond python weaves its sinuous length between the squares. The questing head stretches towards the bottle brush, changes its mind, glides across a pair of discarded undies, and begins the descent to the back yard, briefly along the balustrade, and then down behind the railings.

As a chaotic week draws to a close I feel blessed, and add such visitations to the long list of things I'll be deprived of in Warsaw, now only four weeks away.

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The view from Saturday lunch

13 Sunday Sep 2015

Posted by morselsandscraps in photos, video

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diamond python

After our second geology ramble, this time at Bingie Bingie, we sat down to a lunch of hummus, dolmades, olives, wine – and a diamond python trying to make its way up the pole to its home in the roof. It had a strategy that it has used before, but this time there was a problem. The pole was slippery and the customary loose coils didn’t give it enough grip. In the video, you can see the slow slide down to the point where it settles back on the verandah.

I thought it was giving up easily, but no! It lay on the deck cogitating for a while, and then began the upwards coil again, ignoring the boat-mast J offered as an alternative route. This time the coils were tighter, and the ascent slow but steady. We watched anxiously as the length wound its way around the chain holding the pole to the roof. Finally the tail was drawn up, and roof residence reestablished.

Thinking …

Trying again …

The next day as the afternoon sun reached the roof, the narrow head peered over the guttering. The python spent a good five minutes in deep thought – no forked tongue flicking in and out to indicate imminent action. And then the tongue appeared, and the roof-resident began a careful descent, keeping the coil-brakes on. When it reached the deck it paused a moment and then slithered off to do whatever diamond pythons do late on a Sunday afternoon.

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Thursday’s special: Warble, glissade and hatchings

20 Thursday Nov 2014

Posted by morselsandscraps in Thursday's special

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chickens, diamond python, magpie

This week, my Thursday was triply special. It began walking with a friend on her beach. She warbled to magpies on the rocks, and they warbled back: it really was a conversation.

As I drove the Potato Point circuit to look at the beach, as I always do, a ritual of homecoming, a python made its elegant and unhurried way across the road and into the grass.