Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist)

© irene waters 2016

© irene waters 2016

The Australian Blue Tongue lizard gets its common name from the blue tongue that the lizard uses to frighten its attackers. Sadly it often doesn’t frighten them and the blue tongue suffers at the paws of cats and dogs and the blades of motor mowers as they hide in the grass rather than run from a threat. There are six varieties of this Blue tongued skink in Australia meaning that most Australian back yards have at least one living in it. I know I have at least two in my garden. Normally they eat snails and beetles, sun in the day and move very slowly. If they are cornered they will bite but are not venomous. The bite will be strong enough though to break the skin and cause a bruise. A housewives tale says that the bite will never properly heal and break open every so often. I have never been bitten so I don’t know the truth of this but I think it more likely to be an urban myth.

I was invited by Judy Dykstra-Brown to take up the gauntlet and participate in a 7 day nature posting challenge. As part of the challenge I am to nominate a person on each of the seven days I post a photograph. They are under no obligation to join in but wonderful if they do.

Today I invite Mark Lambert from Mark Lambert’s photography  to join the nature photo challenge if he would like to.