Sweet Peppers, Flowers, and a Deadly Snake!

Greetings from Ten Gables,

It has been a rather exciting day here. Early this morning, I decided to garden awhile, so I planted some flowers, dug up some dead things, cleaned out an area and mulched. It was really great fun and such a pretty day to work outside.

When I got tired, I went in to get water and upon returning to the porch, I saw a deadly Coral snake in the part of the garden I had just been working on!

It was the biggest one I have ever seen!

I ran back inside and called my husband who was in the office working. Afraid it would get away, I grabbed a can of powerful bug spray that I know will kill a lizard and sprayed it's head, making it get mad and it tried to run. By then, Bob had come with a hoe and the snake did run under some bags of mulch. Bob finally found it and killed it. Needless to say, I was shaking! So I immediately decided to go to the garden shop and get snake repellent which is the same as moth balls, but comes in a sprinkle can. I bought a big one and 7 packages of moth balls.

I scattered them all around the house and out into the yard about 12 or 15 feet. Hopefully this will deter snakes. I keep thinking, "where there is one, there may be a mate". Or has it laid eggs and will babies appear?

Above is a picture of

a Coral snake. It is not the one Bob killed as that one was pretty mangled, but this is exactly like it in size. It has red touching yellow bands and is very venomous. Scary!

The peppers above are some I bought at the market and are grown in S. Florida at Delray Beach. They are assorted sweet peppers and look delicious. I have been wanting to paint a pepper painting for awhile and hope to do so with these, unless of course I eat them all before I get to the painting! One of my fellow bloggers has also sent me some great photos of peppers to paint from.

Here is a photo of the angel wing begonia I bought at the garden center and plan to repot in this bigger pot. These plants get huge. There is a really huge one at my insurance company office and I am amazed at how big it has gotten. So I plan to try to grow this one as big as possible.

I really love these osteopermums. They are not hardy, but are an annual.

Maybe this yellow one attracted the snake, as it was here after I planted this plant. I still have the jitters.

Well, look closely at the photo of the bad fellow. Do be careful if you live in Florida.People bitten by the snake only have a 10% change of surviving unless treated with antivenin. You can bet I will take care when gardening. I put out so many moth balls, that I am thinking nothing will survive....we may have to leave Ten Gables ourselves to escape the strong moth ball odor!!