In which Minty pities my foolishness...

One of the best things about living in a semi-rural area is the wildlife.  It's not uncommon to find a cute little frog in the washing basket or see a kangaroo hop past the back fence.  We even have a resident blue tongue lizard who I like to call Colin.  And yet, sometimes the worst thing about living in a rural area is also the wildlife.  

This week we've been celebrating Chinese New Year so we've been talking a lot about the year of the snake.  We made red paper lanterns and paper chain snakes.  So when Minty called out from the living room that she could see a snake I just assumed she meant one of her crafty creations.  Luckily I was having one of my finer parenting moments and decided I would play along with the game.  I had a flash of that annoying inspiring quote that is all over Facebook and Pinterest…

'if you don't listen eagerly to the little stuff when they are little, they won't tell you the big stuff when they are big because to them all of it has always been big'

So I stomped up stairs and boomed in my big theatrical 'pretending' voice, 'where's this snake?!', ready to leap onto the paper snake Steve Irwin style.  Minty rolled her eyes and gave me a pitying look, 'no mum a real snake' and gestured out the window.  Sure enough, slithering amongst the kids' bikes was a large red bellied black snake.  Alarming to say the least.  Our reptile visitor has since been relocated and the yard has had a major clean up.