WORD FOR THE DAY - SPECIOUS

Greetings, sorry I spelled yesterday's word wrong.  It's supposed to be disingenuous.  I just thought I'd look it up and discovered my error.   I don't like to be wrong, but I guess it's good to be wrong once in awhile;  it keeps one humble.  

Today was a good day.  I went to Lowes and bought four Red tips and planted them between my house and my neighbors.  They will grow to be over thirty feet high if left unpruned.  I just googled this shrub to find it's real name, and found out that they are very susceptible to a fungus that will eventually kill them.  Oh well,  what's $73.00?  I guess I'll just have to see what happens.  Maybe they won't succumb to this blight.

I have a thirty-foot Japanese Maple in front of my house.  It's approximately thirty years old and is lovely.  However, the roots are very large and on top of the ground.  I can't plant anything there because of the roots and, of course, the shade.  I have a few ferns I've managed to plant, and they will do fine, but anything else is out of the question.  It takes forever just to dig a hole to put the plant in, because of the many roots surrounding the tree.   My husband doesn't want to cut it down, so I guess it's there for the time being.  I hope it eventually doesn't crack my walkway.

The air is starting to cool now and looking out of my living room windows into my backyard I've seen  lots of wildlife - doves, different birds, squirrels, rabbits, deer, fox, turtles, lizards, dogs and of course, the ubiquitous snake.

Last summer, my daughter opened the front door at night, when the porch light was out,  and screamed..."snake, snake in the house!"  I was in the room down the hall and, for some reason, ran and got four towels, rolled them  up and put them under each door in the hall, knowing that the snake had not had time to crawl that far.  We called the police and someone came out and helped us look for the snake but, of course, we couldn't find it.  My husband said that the snake had not come into the house, that it had gone back outside.  I think he said this so we wouldn't worry, but that didn't work.

My daughter, grandson and I spent that night in a motel room.  The next morning we returned to the house and looked again for the snake; we didn't find it.  My daughter and grandson went home and my husband I were left to look for the snake.  Or, I should say, I was left to look for the snake.  It was very hard to have to look around every step I took and very hard to try to go to sleep at night, even though I was pretty certain the snake wasn't in the bedroom.

A day and a half later, I was walking into the den and a movement caught my eye;  there was the snake by the fireplace.  I screamed and he started backing up, getting into a coil.  I slowly walked over to get the phone and called my husband and told him ..."I found it."  He responded..."found what?"  "I found the snake", I replied.  He was shocked.  He immediately came home, got his twenty-two rifle that he keeps on top of the entertainment center and shot the snake.  I don't know how this happened, but the bullet went into the snake and the snake only.  It didn't mar the floor or the wall.

I took the garden hoe that I had sitting on the chair in the den and my husband finished him off.   It was a garter snake,  five feet long.  Of course, we didn't know it wasn't poisonous.  It could have been since we have a swamp full of poisonous snakes behind our house.  I took a picture of it and have it on iPhoto.  I've sent this picture to lots of people and they are incredulous at the size of it.    I hope I never have to experience anything like that again.

Every time I step out of any of the doors in my home, I look first.  It's just something that I have to do.  I don't like it, but it has to be done to be safe.  I also watch where I'm stepping when in my yard.  I don't stay inside because of this.  I made up my mind that I was not going to live in fear of snakes.  Actually, they're more afraid of you than you are of them.  (Do you believe that?)   Do you see now why I like winter so much?

I guess I've bloviated long enough.  It's time to eat my frozen entree, spaghetti and meatballs - YUM!

See you all tomorrow - Nana