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- Story Listed as: True Life For Teens
- Theme: Family & Friends
- Subject: Nature & Wildlife
- Published: 08/18/2016
Snake - in - the - Heather.
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One of the most enjoyable pursuits that I have in the world is to walk the moors with my dog Merry.
She agrees,
So here we are on a lovely sunny day sat on a rock and me enjoying an apple, looking down Levendale. This is one of the most unvisited places in Yorkshire.
In fact it’s not far from the only prehistoric stone circle in North Yorkshire.
Merry is in her element, a border collie, only a few months over a year old and a powerhouse of energy. There is not a spare ounce of flesh, only muscle. You can feel each rib and her belly is flatter than a floor.
She loves me, I love her.
Then as I chew away, a movement catches the corner of my eye. I wrongly think it’s a worm. When I bend down and take a bit more notice I realise that it’s a young adder. It’s quite a nice light greeny brown colour and only about 6 or 7 inches long. The faint diamond shapes on its back make it clear what it is. It is quite fearless and doesn’t bother with the colossus that is immediately overhead. I keep still (except for the chewing).
This lovely, cocky thing looks up at me and stops its wave like wriggles. The tongue is moving all the time. Then it seems to look, quite unconcerned at my presence, down the valley of Levendale. For the entire world as though it is admiring the view.
Something else catches my eye. It is a teabag (recently used) just next to the young snake. My ebullient feeling is immediately smashed. How on earth did a teabag end up here in one of the most remote and unspoilt places in England!
It is suddenly most difficult for me to comprehend how it is that myself, the adder, the teabag and my dog Merry have all come together on this lovely summer's day, at this moment and are all of us looking down this valley.
The little adder makes the most graceful of curving turns and disappears back into the heather only 2 inches from my foot.
Merry and me, well, we just look at each other and carry on along the path. We know what the score is.
(Well we thought we did.)
The teabag is left, but not forgotten.
Snake in the Heather(Ossie Durrans)
Snake - in - the - Heather.
--------------------------------
One of the most enjoyable pursuits that I have in the world is to walk the moors with my dog Merry.
She agrees,
So here we are on a lovely sunny day sat on a rock and me enjoying an apple, looking down Levendale. This is one of the most unvisited places in Yorkshire.
In fact it’s not far from the only prehistoric stone circle in North Yorkshire.
Merry is in her element, a border collie, only a few months over a year old and a powerhouse of energy. There is not a spare ounce of flesh, only muscle. You can feel each rib and her belly is flatter than a floor.
She loves me, I love her.
Then as I chew away, a movement catches the corner of my eye. I wrongly think it’s a worm. When I bend down and take a bit more notice I realise that it’s a young adder. It’s quite a nice light greeny brown colour and only about 6 or 7 inches long. The faint diamond shapes on its back make it clear what it is. It is quite fearless and doesn’t bother with the colossus that is immediately overhead. I keep still (except for the chewing).
This lovely, cocky thing looks up at me and stops its wave like wriggles. The tongue is moving all the time. Then it seems to look, quite unconcerned at my presence, down the valley of Levendale. For the entire world as though it is admiring the view.
Something else catches my eye. It is a teabag (recently used) just next to the young snake. My ebullient feeling is immediately smashed. How on earth did a teabag end up here in one of the most remote and unspoilt places in England!
It is suddenly most difficult for me to comprehend how it is that myself, the adder, the teabag and my dog Merry have all come together on this lovely summer's day, at this moment and are all of us looking down this valley.
The little adder makes the most graceful of curving turns and disappears back into the heather only 2 inches from my foot.
Merry and me, well, we just look at each other and carry on along the path. We know what the score is.
(Well we thought we did.)
The teabag is left, but not forgotten.
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