Don't Be Foolhardy!

  Here it is the first day of April and we are cold.  Well, cold for the Deep South and, believe me, everyone is complaining...as if that will do any good whatsoever.  While I admit it is a bit chilly, it feels good!  There are no gnats when the temperature is cool!  I will wear a long sleeve shirt if it means I will not be eaten alive by those little buggers!  Still, that cool weather should be a deterrent to more than just the gnats but, obviously, it is not.  

  Early this afternoon, the outdoors called and I heeded that call.  The old dog, Mr. PJ, has been feeling poorly, so he opted to stay on his bed instead of gallivanting about the hillside.  It is just as well.  It never occurred to me that snakes would be out with the wind chill being nippy.  Just to the side of the pier, marsh mats are laid flat after a bit of unusually high tide.  It seems that the mats are a haven for a good many critters and that includes snakes.  As I was photographing some shells, a musky odor caught me off guard.  Uh, oh.  I knew that smell.  This was no April Fool's joke!  Somewhere nearby there had to be a snake.  So...I eased back to a sitting position from my knees and waited and looked.  

  Slightly to my left, a cottonmouth moccasin was soaking up a bit of sunshine.  The snake obviously had been far under the marsh mats because it was still "wearing" a thin layer of mud but, even with that disguise, I knew exactly who was nearby.  The snake and I sat about eight feet apart for the better part of a half hour before it decided to take refuge back under the marsh mat.  

  The action of the moccasin proved that snakes are "not out to get you" like so many folks believe.  Instead, my calm behavior was met with its calm behavior.  Neither of us threatened the other so the meeting was non-eventful other than me getting some photographs.  It pays to keep calm and do some levelheaded thinking instead of being rash and doing something foolhardy.