Of fire ants and snakes

Yesterday, while Mrs Ted and Eddy went to lunch with Grandmommy after church, Little Ted and I went for a cycle run in Memorial park. Little Ted loves to be pulled around the park by Ted; of course he thinks he is cycling but really he is dead weight! Regardless of our different perspectives we enjoy a cycle run together and stopped to take this picture:
Thistle growing amongst the Indian Blanket

Thistles are supposed to be Scottish but here they are growing in Texas. It's enough to make a body homesick, but not me. We moved straight on to another lesson in how to recognize, and therefore avoid, the pesky fire ant population of Memorial park. Little Ted, being but four years old, still thinks it might be fun to stomp on the fire ant mound but my ancient wisdom prevails when I point out what happened to Daddy's foot when he inadvertently did some stomping of his own!
So on we cycle around the pond or lake or whatever it is called in these parts. The sidewalk is still flooded at one point and as we drove through it it crossed my mind that there might be water moccasins in the area. (Not that I would know one snake from another) Anyhow as we did our second circuit of the "water feature" guess what? Yes a snake slipped out from the side of the path, swam over the sidewalk and disappeared into the lake. It was only 2 or 3 feet long and Little Ted missed it altogether but I can now say that I have indeed seen a live snake in Texas. May all my encounters be at the 10 foot away mark!
Here is the place I saw the snake although I have no photographic evidence of the actual beastie.
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