Bog Myrtle & Peat

Also worth noting that I saw the biggest adder I’ve ever seen on Friday afternoon. Scoop the labrador actually trod on it as she charged down an overgrown track, and it reared up behind her. Perhaps it’s easy to exaggerate the size of snakes because we’re so unused to seeing them and our natural reaction is often one of fear and surprise, but I wouldn’t be too far wrong in saying that this adder was closer to three feet than any others I’ve ever seen.

It was lying with its tail in the right hand verge of the track and its head in the left hand quad bike track; so almost entirely across the path. I got a good close look, then decided to dash back and get my camera for a photo. The irritating thing about adders is that they appear to be totally lazy and thoughtless, but move like lightning as soon as your back is turned. I left the snake for twenty seconds and it had totally vanished.

I’ve still never managed to get a good photo of a snake (that wasn’t hanging from the talons of a buzzard), but I’ll redouble my efforts now. For some reason, I quite like them, although if that brute had managed to bite my dog, I may not have felt quite so charitable.