One can never complain that life is dull. The other day I heard a yelp from our courtyard, where my wife had nearly stood on a young common night adder. It was clearly headed for the shelter of the cottage, but we gently coaxed it out of the courtyard and into the garden — it went peacefully enough, although it did take a nibble or two at my stick. It’s a very beautiful snake, Johan Marais says it is venomous, but not critically so, but one would still rather not have it the house.*
YOU MIGHT ALSO BE INTERESTED IN : From my Hide – Sand, sand everywhere … but not a grain to use
Johan is quite a character. I remember going up to the Pilanesberg National Park to interview him and as we approached the reptile park Johan came rushing out followed by a miscellany of helpers. He scooted past us yelling something like, “Head for cover….” It turned out that one of his crocodiles had escaped and he needed it back. I eventually did get my interview with a somewhat breathless Johan.
Moving on, could birds be consciously spreading wild fires, rather like human arsonists? The answer, says a study done by a group of Australian and American researchers, is very possibly ‘yes’. The study done in Australia’s Northern Territory, has shown that birds of prey will often swoop in on the outskirts of a wild fire, pick up burning sticks and drop them on dry, unburnt areas. Their rewards are a feeding frenzy on small birds, lizards and insects trying to escape the new spreading blaze.
This is the first scientific approach to the question, but the aboriginal people of Australia have apparently known about it for a very long time, calling such birds fire hawks.
One of the avian arsonists is the black kite, a familiar site over Australia, much of Europe (I saw one in France years ago), Asia and of course much of Africa, including here.**
Now, I enjoy a beer, not often, but I do enjoy the occasional beer. I’m not a connoisseur, but have drank beers around the world, I used to brew my own and must even boast a most unexpected award at a national media beer-tasting competition. (As I’ve said before, the life of a journalist can be very trying at times). The other day, however, I read something that had me pondering beer.
I have always associated beer with grain (usually malted barley, but even mealies at times), brewer’s yeast and hops, but here was a different idea – it was a general critique of so-called craft beer types and it included some of the following comments: ‘It has citrus, floral and tropical fruit notes…’, then ‘…chocolate, coffee and toffee notes…’, and, ‘banana and bubble gum flavours… it also packs a punch with a strong hint of cloves….’. Tropical fruit, toffee, banana, bubble gum? I think I’ll just reach for a common old frosty that tastes of nothing but beer.
*Snakes of Southern Africa, Johan Marais, Southern Books, Halfway House, 1992.
**The Week: The Best of the British and Foreign Media.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Like our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter and Instagram
For news straight to your phone, add us on WhatsApp 082 421 6033
