A Day At The Lake & A Surprise Visitor

Today, two of my sisters came to visit and we spent part of the day and the lake. These two photos are taken just above the dam. It was a beautiful day!




FeFe is in the green. She is the baby in our family. I have such beautiful sisters!










Nena is in the blue. She turn 80 years young a few months ago. She is the oldest of Mama's 9 kids! Isn't she pretty! No one would believe her age-she looks much younger.


Then we had this SURPRISE visitor. I had walked down to a viewpoint to photograph the lake and had just turned around and started back to the stairs when just at my feet was this long, crooked snake. Fortunately, his head was away from me, but his tail was about twelve inches from my feet. At first, I thought he was a non-poisonous black snake, but upon further checking he had some markings on him and we noticed his nose was shaped more like a viper! Bravely, I took this photo. (or more like stupidly!!) When we got to the computer to check out this markings, he looked pretty much like an adult Cottonmouth (water moccasion). I read this on the internet about Cottonmouth snakes:

There is only one North American poisonous water snake - the Cottonmouth Water Moccasin! Not to be confused at all with its many nonpoisonous neighbors, this snake is a pit viper in the same general family as the Copperhead and the Rattler. Cottonmouth snakes are poisonous and extremely aggressive. They get the name cottonmouth because when they prepare to strike they open their jaws wide, exposing the puffy white lining of their mouths. This dangerous semi-aquatic snake is truly an aggressive reptile that will stand its ground or even approach an intruder.

If this was truly a cottonmouth, I was in a really perfect position to be attacked. Then, of course, Fefe had to come down the steps to see what it looked like! Now aren't we a pair! Can you imagine the two of us trying to outrun an aggressive snake!! That snake must have had an angel closing it's mouth. Thank God we were not bitten.