Follow Me and My Life in Art

Good morning dear followers, hope you are enjoying yourselves on my safari.
Today sitting out on the veranda of our tent listening to the frogs croaking in the river bed, reminds me of my childhood days.I loved looking into puddles for frog spawn to collect and watching them grow into little frogs. Luckily mum's casserole dishes made great aquariums. Not that she or the cook used to think so, I know now that they were discreetly emptied out. There was only so many frogs growing in stages allowed around the house. Even now I look into puddles for spawn, but no, I don't collect it now.
We always had some praying mantis around the house,these used to fly in on their own accord, but I would still try and catch some. These were regarded as evil due to their praying action and moving eyes. Chameleons were also feared due to changing their colour and camouflaging themselves into their surroundings. Their eyes that always followed you and could look in different directions at the same time. Many a time one of our servants would yell when dusting under chairs or windows when they came across of of "little missy's pets"!! I really liked the giant horned ones as these brought on a more explosive reaction when found.

The gardener used to collect wild tortoises for me, which even after I grew up and married, I still looked out for these around the garden.
Anything that crawls, walked or slithered was always a fascination and usually had to be handle, or loved! We once had a little hedgehog that caught its foot in a door and lost part of it.It would scuttle around the backyard getting under peoples bare feet. I think it did it out of spite sometimes. It grew up and found a mate and then lived around our garden as it had become very tame. One night we saw it had a family.

My parents and Klaus could never understand my love for the reptiles, especially snakes.

Pythons are the best neck massage I have had for some time, as you can see

When we lived in Kampala, Uganda, I worked for awhile at a hairdressesrs. A friend of mine who rescued snakes and other reptiles would quite often pop in for a hairdo. Unable to always leave an animal in the car due to the heat I would end up with a snake or lizard in my overall pocket while she was being pampered.On occasions a client or two would rise out of their chairs on seeing the reflection in the mirror of something slithering out of my pocket.I loved staying at her house at week-ends, baby crocs in the bath, cages of something or other in the spare room. Janet worked on a breeding programme for zoos and parks, and some of the rescued reptiles and animals would be re homed in one of them. We would go out to the villages to retrieve a python, or catch a reptile to save it from being killed unnecessarily, or even an injured animal. She was was known amongst the locals as having a 22ft python as a watchdog when travelling alone.I met it once coming out of the room it was kept in. She had just popped outside for something and left the door open! I ended up on top of the fridge with the largest carving knife I could grab as this huge thing slithered towards me. Yes, I nearly wet myself in sheer fright! Janet came in on my frantic shouts to laugh and tell me it had been fed and only worry if it gave me a hug. Not funny!!

Black & Green Mamba

These are a couple of very deadly snakes, not to be played with.

Gaboon Viper

This lizard I fell in love with and would have loved to bring it home from the little nature park we visited. Was told lucky we both liked each other as it had very powerful jaws and one good bite would have been the end. Oh well, they say cats have nine lives, I must be a very lucky one!