Tropical Zone Gardening: The coconut wireless - chat thread, 1 by lourspolaire

lourspolaire wrote:
A glorious Mother's Day to all you moms out there!

Yesterday was a great day for me. I was up bright and early. It was coffee on the deck at 6:15 with some of my daily readings. I was behind on my reading, but now I'm all caught up. It feels good.

I then headed to my friend Ginger's house. She was having a garage sale and I offered to lend a hand. A lot of her customers only spoke Créole and French. So, I was the international host for the event. In the process, I relieved Ginger of 3 large terracotta pots and at least a dozen medium terracotta pots. Symbiosis is a wonderful thing, isn't it?

Then, I headed to a pet shop specializing in reptiles. We were having difficulties with our pet ball python, Lucy. You see, Lucy has been raised in the lap of luxury with all the amenities and privileges of royalty. That snake has a huge living enclosure with a heated hide-out, a large water dish, a slate tile patio, a jungle gym, an infrared heat lamp and all the food she needs. Add to that Gail and I doting upon her every day and you get a good pet snake. She is absolutely gorgeous. She spends hours wrapped around my neck or draped on my shoulders in the evenings. Lately, she has found a new thing. She puts her head on my nose and just sits there, apparently enjoying herself. I include a picture of Lucy when she was just a wee little hatchling. She has grown quite a bit since then. I'll take a fresh picture soon and post it here.

Oh, I know snakes are not on everybody's list of good pets, but such is life. You are welcome to go EEEWWW. I was like that 2 1/2 years ago. Had I known what I know now, I would have kept a snake a long time ago. Live and learn certainly applies here. We are positively gaga over that ball python. A week ago, Lucy was getting ready to shed her old skin. I replaced her shaved aspen substrate by a special bark substrate that can be kept moist without rotting. You don't want your snake to breathe mold. It's not good for us and the same rule applies to animals. The moist bark did its job and Lucy enjoyed an easier, very successful shedding process.

But there was a problem. We noticed that Lucy only slept on her unheated slate patio under her infrared lamp, instead of taking refuge in her deluxe heated appartment. We came to the conclusion that she didn't like slithering and sleeping on the rough bark. Who knew snakes could be finicky? So, first order of business was to acquire a new bag of aspen shavings. When I came home, I removed the bark and laid out a new bed of aspen shavings. Two minutes later, she went into her heated hide-out. We now have a happy snake again. She has trained us very well, hasn't she? You have got to love Lucy.

Today is going to be a much more relaxed day. I have to plant a new acalypha. I may do it today, or leave it until tomorrow. I will dig up that mango cobbler recipe and publish it here later on; maybe today.

Take care, everyone.
Pu'ole, a.k.a. Sylvain.