Typical Wednesday? I don't think so.

To answer the question: "No, it was not a typical Wednesday."
But it was a good Wednesday. It started in Fayetteville. I know that seems to contradict the "good," but we really had a good time in Fed-ville. We don't often go there unless we have to, and that was the case. But once our business was done, we:

• Walked a downtown park in the historic section.
• Enjoyed a marvelous meal at the Hardware Store Cafe on Hay Street (anyone see a pattern in our dining establishments?)
• Got some bargains at Big Lots.
• I drove Judy past Ray's daddy's house, where I visited recently.
• Got even more bargains at Aldi's Grocery, one of Judy's favorite places (that Moore County doesn't have!)
• Got lime for our garden, plumbing supplies for our sink, and lucked into Chrysanthemums marked down to ONE DOLLAR a hanging basket at Lowe's.
• Got gas for $2.24, then saw it for $2.45 back in Moore County.

Pretty satisfying trip.

Returning home at nearly 5:00, I told Judy I wanted us to go for a walk over at Pinehurst #8 Golf Course to see the wetlands and check out the fall wildlife. We can only go near dusk so as not to disturb golfers, and there may not be many days left that are warm enough to enjoy evening walks. I had already decided to take one night off from church, so we didn't have to hurry home. The pictures below summarize our findings.

Before we even left the yard I tried out the camera's nighttime setting on two of my favorite trees: a dogwood and maple in our field that I dug up in the woods and planted years ago.

This is the pond that was once part of Pinehurst's "water works." Home to all kinds of wildlife.

The colors we witnessed out in the marshy areas were brilliant even at dusk.

It pays to know what poison oak looks like even in the fall. Lovely but deadly! Well, I suppose I'm exaggerating.

Zooming and having the camera set for longer nighttime exposure resulting in some unavoidably fuzzy pictures, but the beauty came through.

Now, for the excitement. Debi might have told me to entitle this post "Yes, Being a Snake Magnet is Grounds for Divorce." It seems that the more Debi chastises me for my affinity for these wiggly reptiles, the more they are attracted to me. We saw not one, not two, but THREE "boogers" before we finished our walk. One was dead, the others a bit sluggish. We were quite surprised to see any even though the afternoon had been warm.

In the fading light, we wouldn't have even seen this rascal if he/she hadn't been on a white cement golf path. By the way, Debi, Judy spotted it first, and she was as cool as a cucumber.

I was convinced it was a cottonmouth water moccasin, but I'm not so sure now. I broke off a four foot branch and riled him up a bit from a "safe" distance. Judy is SO patient with me! He/she put on quite a good show, coiling, striking, assuming a threatening position. I tried to get a video, but the light failed. Judy even threw a couple of sticks at it, but it wouldn't perform again at that point.

That's not the whole story. The picture below shows (as Judy theorizes) Snake #1 may have had dinner plans for Snake #2. Snake #2 was definitely a non-poisonous, harmless water snake. Snakes do eat smaller snakes, and that may have been what was about to happen when we came along. Good theory.

At that point we were just glad to get back to our car without any more encounters with a live snake (we did see one that a golf cart had apparently crushed). Snakes and dark don't go together very well, even for the Snake Man.

Judy got organized for Harris Teeter's Triple Coupons, we played our favorite card game, Five Crowns (I know, you've never heard of it), and watched episode four of a five-part British thriller. It's called The Final Enemy, and is a bio-tech nightmare about when Britain basically becomes a surveillance society and personal privacy is a thing of the past. The show has been part of PBS's Contemporary Mysteries on Masterpiece Theater.

Typical Wednesday? Not around here!