As I write this I think about my other previous experiences with
snakes. Like the story my mum tells about the time when I was only a
few months old, sleeping one afternoon in my cradle at our home in
Valpoi. She had heard a soft thud and to her utter horror she saw a
thin bluish green snake which had obviously dropped from the roof
making loops all over and around the cradle. Snakes are not unusual in
the countryside and RUSTIC Farm was no exception. Mum says she was
terrified but dared not make a sound for I was sleeping soundly and the
cradle was covered with a mosquito net, outside of which the snake
leapt around. It was less than a minute before it bounded onto the
chairs and was out of the window and she rushed to reassure herself
that I was safe which I very much was. From her description I know now
that it was a green whip snake, a very delicate and absolutely harmless
snake.
Another time as a toddler, Mum says, I was playing with some old
cartons and boxes at the farm when out leapt a snake from one of them.
To my parents' astonishment, instead of crying out in fear as one might
expect a child to do, I promptly went on my hands and knees crawling
towards it as fast as I could, reaching out and trying to catch it.
In fact, as mum tells it, I seem to have deliberately gone out of my
way to befriend snakes as a child.
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