My maverick gardening ways have finally helped me to get closer to meeting the big one. Not that I'm into 'extreme gardening' or anything - I couldn't see me with rope and harness weeding a sheer cliff face, or picking exotic blooms from a swamp infested by crocodiles.
We're building a community garden which is a lovely way to pass time with a little hard labour (rewarding), sharing knowledge and chat (engaging), and breaking bread or sharing a bottle or two when the work is finished (my kind of socialising). The fruits of our labours will come later but are only a small part of the bigger picture, as the goal is really to get people meeting up, doing constructive things together and taking an interest in the wider community and all the benefits that brings.
Building materials for raised beds or similar which are ideal for community gardens are expensive and not too easy to come by unless you have a little imagination, and some kind of ute or van where something dumped or otherwise discarded at the side of the road can be 'collected' before the next man gets there. *See earlier post about the roadside recycling revolution*
At the end of a long and dusty track down near a local river I found a couple of discarded tyres - Ideal for planting potatoes or any number of rambling plants such as pumkins.
Remote dusty tracks that are seldom used, near water, in a sunny spot (see where I'm going with this?) often are a mecca for snakes. We have a few types here and all are extremely venomous.
As I was with my beloved, I was advised by that this was an ideal habitat for snakes - something I already knew and to be honest didn't need reminding about - but in my manly and of course better knowing way I humoured her by vowing to be careful and kick the tyres before picking them up. The first tyres were OK. Four empty and useful tyres found their way from refuse to recycle and straight into the back of the ute. The next one was a little further away from the track and nestling amongst some long grass, broken bottles and stones. It was a particularly large and attractive tyre and in my minds eye I could see it taking pride of place in our garden with a huge crop of delicious veggies sprouting forth......
As I stepped off the path and onto the gravel I aimed a kick at the tyre (the lovely big one) and my boot cruched on some broken glass. This noise disturbed the afternoons sunbathing of a huge brown snake - certainly the biggest I have ever seen in my life.
As it's beady eyes met mine, the world turned in slow motion.
It coiled and flexed as if to spring.
I flexed my delicious looking thigh and calf muscles, (to a snake obviously!) in a primaeval instinctive reaction to prepare me for fight or flightWe both moved as one, though luckily in opposite directions as I stumbled backwards and away from this deadly native, and it made for cover into the longer grass. OK - so not that dramatic, but a few inches more and it certainly could have been. Needless to say the tyre collecting stopped there and then.
I learned at least two things from this.
1) Consider the terrain and always look out for deadly snakes as they are very common here.
2) Listen to 'she who will be obeyed' as she appears to have a sixth sense for this kind of thing. This isn't the first time I've had a similar experience after being warned, but this was certainly the closest and definitely the biggest snake I have seen so close. My leg muscles weren't the only muscles that flexed at that time I can tell you, and my underpants nearly met an untimely and messy demise.......
They say that you can't escape destiny though, and the next day whilst digging in my garden I was stung in the face by an angry bee. Not sure why it was angry. Perhaps it was the angle I was using my spade or the colour of my T-shirt that offended its fashion sensibilities - who knows the logic of a bees brain?
I think out of the two it was the preferred option, and I certainly felt that in the garden I have dodged a bullet, for now at least.
Which was more than can be said for that bee.......
