Friday, July 30, 2010

Surprise visit

I haven't had much time for sewing lately; I've been grouting some of the floors and thereafter cleaning out the dust. Hopefully there will be time for crafting during the weekend.
Yesterday, when I was moving things around on the kitchen counter, this little fellow appeared under the toaster!


We know there are snakes in the area we live, but hadn't seen any for 4-5 years. When I settled here, we lived in the neighbor house for some months, and there we also had two snakes that came in, all the way to the third floor! It has been quite some rain lately, and I believe (I'm not a reptile specialist!) the snake tries to hide from the rain, wet and cold. I'm quite sure it came in through the water pipe from the kitchen sink, because that pipe is open where the water goes out to the tank.


Most people fear snakes. When I lifted up the toaster and discovered this guy, I could have screamed, thrown the toaster and run out, but no... It's rare to see snakes here, especially so close as this one, so I had to get my camera in a hurry to get some pictures. I'm not afraid of them, but I don't like it when they come to near, and I don't like it when they come inside the house!
We had to be in a hurry to rescue it, before it got the chance to hide somewhere else, so DH managed to get it into a bucket. We kept it there until the evening, then let it out in the free - outside the gate. Since they are not poisonous there's no reason to kill them.
Here in Mauritius they call it "couleuvre", which is the French word for grass snake.  There is no real snakes (poisonous) in the wild here. I found this info about snakes in Mauritius on the net.
Here people also believe it is a sign of bad omen to see a couleuvre around your house.
I don't believe in that, and I don't know why a snake should be a bad omen! I grew up on a farm in Norway, where we often saw snakes (poisonous) in the fields and sometimes in our garden. They never did any harm to any of us, and no "accidents"  happened after we saw them either.....

13 comments:

Claudia said...

oh my you are so calm! I live in a high mountain desert and that could be a rattlesnake! Ugh! hopefully I will never see one in my house. you are awesome!

Nat Palaskas said...

Wow, better you than me! I', horrified of snake and have a phobia of them! You are so brave Astrid - Have a good weekend - Hugs Nat

Elzaan said...

O MY! I would have screamed and run away, and let hubby take care of the snake...He is fascinated by them. We had one in the entrance to our appartment as well, but he was much smaller.
As I remember, owls are a sign of bad omen, but I can't remeber snakes being a sign of bad omen. Maybe because there are not a lot of them on the island, and not many people get to see one, that they think it is bad...? Not that I believe in it either. We had both owls and snakes back in SA, and we never had bad experiences because they "visited" us. Still, snakes are creepy to me.

Fleurette said...

We also have snakes and sometimes they come in the house but they are the harmless brown house snakes, we just put them back in the garden. Even though they are harmless I don't like them in my house, they give me the creeps!

Dirt Lover said...

I'm not afraid of snakes, but I don't think I would like them in my house, either! I'm glad you let it go outside instead of killing it, since it wasn't poisonous. Maybe it will help in your garden?
~~Lori

Terri said...

Glad to that you kept a cool head about he snake. That can't always be easy. Great photos to boot! There were always snakes in my yard growing up. They never bothered us much but they weren't poisonous either.

PJs Lapperier said...

Hmmm...en orm under brödrosten är väl inte det man drömmer om precis.........men att den har ett dåligt "omen" är skitsnack"...........kommer förmodligen från Ormen i Paradiset :o)
Nej, du.......jag tror att det är en Quiltorm.....den söker efter stoffer att vila i och må gott i........... :o)
Kram PJ

Tine said...

Pyha! Flot klaret, Astrid :-) Og PJ: En quilt-orm? Jeg må vist hellere se få ryddet op i mine stoffer!!

Michelle said...

I'm not overly fearful of snakes either, although like you, I don't want them in the house.

That said, I do give snakes a wide berth because I'm not knowledgeable enough about which ones are poisonous, except for the Rattler, which is pretty obvious. :-)

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

Knowing it is not a danger makes all the difference I have found - it would have startled me but then I too would have tried to get to my camera and then catch it somehow.
Karen
http://karensquilting.com/blog/

Sandra Henderson said...

Oh my... They are really on the move here currently. We have rattlesnakes and water mocassins, which are VERY poisonous. None in the house yet, KNOCK ON WOOD!

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry,...I would have thrown the toaster, screamed and felt like where else are there snakes. Glad you could handle it so well.

Anonymous said...

Hi, we moved to Mauritius just over a year ago and have never seen snakes on the island (except for some sea snakes). Last night we found a snake, exactly like the one you found, in the bathroom(2nd story) on the tiles.
It is a Indian Wolf Snake (Lycodon aulicus) and to be more specific it is the south Indian specimen. They are not venomous and will prey on frogs and lizards.