LIZARDS

It’s the time of year for reptiles of all kinds to be out and about, and so I’m being very mindful that the creature rustling in the bushes may be a harmless lizard – or a brown snake. So far they’ve been lizards only. Skinks galore, and a few bluetongues. You can’t really tell, but this fine fellow was huge. I wondered if it was an old one, for I spotted another, much smaller, whose scales were really glossy and shiny and new-looking. We also have geckos – again, one large and one small – who come out at night and cling to the flywire screen at the kitchen window. They’re lying in wait for the moths that come fluttering to the light.
There’s something very endearing about geckos. They have such dear little hands, for a start, and their soft pinkiness seems less coldly reptilian than scalier creatures. Their bodies curve into a variety of graceful gecko poses and their quick dispatch of their prey means there’s no hindquarters and tail half-in and half-out and a sinister bulge as there is with snakes (I speak from experience – my husband used to keep pythons.)