yesterday was a very sad day in Big Falls - Charlie our male puppy went to live in a neighboring village. He was given as a wedding present to a sister in our congregation. Her and her husband will be living in San Jose (only a half hour away.......................=), but we already really miss "the big guy" - his sisters are a lot mellower without his instigating influence though.

Josiah (aka JJ or - as I call him, "double J") - the one brother to go with the six older sisters, had a kind of bad day - getting whacked in the side of the head with a clothes iron - it was a minor injury but anything that requires a bandage is SERIOUS when you are 3 years old

What a wonderful family and what great friends - true characters each and every one (as you can no doubt tell). Adelita's uncle Carmello (her father's brother) also graduated on the same day. 

our great friend and wonderful spiritual sister graduated from high school last weekend - Miss Adelita Ack is part of a wonderful family (picture to follow...................=) 

this is the last of this type of orchid on the place - the rest are all done blooming 

these are just a bit farther along 

I have several of these type of orchid that are just begining to bloom 

this white one is on a small plant and kind of resembles in shape and size the white lilac (except there is only one blossom per plant.....=( 

this is a new one - it is from a succulent kind of thing that also has a pink kind of a pod thing - (don't you just love the technical terms ?) 

I got a few shots of some blossoms today - most of which you have seen before, but I never get tired of taking the pictures, I hope that you enjoy looking at them 

Here Rosie tries to generate a little activity - but by now the lizard was pretty tired of all the excitement.

Taking pity, I decided that another order of Executive Clemency was due and gathered the little guy up and took him to the bush and let him go. Other than a tail that was about 3 inches shorter than at the start , he didn't seem too much worse for the wear, just tired of all the attention. 

Even the kids got into the act - here Lucy investigates as Rosie looks on (of course Stout carefully keeps track - it is after all, "his" lizard) 

Stoutie had quite a little bit of fun playing with the thing (in a rather gentle way - I thought) 

Stout seems to have turned into a real hunter - this morning he managed to corral a lizard and was quite proud of himself 

pretty colorful display 

in the mean time this black cowled oriole stopped by for a short and very melodious visit 

Poor ole Roger had a face ("had" being the operative word) that only a mother rat could love.  

Generally a "live and let live" kind of a guy, I finally decided that I was going to draw the line at large rats, and as I prepared to try to dispatch Roger Rat with my trusty pellet gun, he made a break for it (again, sorry no pictures). Stout and his three blind puppies chased Roger into some weeds and we thought that all of the excitement was over, so we sat down upstairs to check our email........................................little did we know..................................

Suddenly Kathy jumped up from her computer and let out a truly blood curdling scream - Roger had shinnied up the loofah vine in an effort to escape the puppy pursuit and ran over her foot. Growing weary of all the excitement I ran for the broom and did what I should have done at the begining - I hit a home run with Roger Rat - he will cause no further excitement.

Such is life in the jungle

I woke up to a little bit of "high drama" this morning - as I headed down to make coffee, Stout the wonder dog was very interested in the base of the refrigerator, so I rolled it back a bit and a very large rat ran out from under it - which Stout promptly chased to the base of the stove. All of the excitement aroused much interest in the puppies (sorry no pictures).

When I moved the stove Rosie promptly grabbed the intruding rodent and just as quickly let it go (bad move on Rosies part, but she is kinda new at this "hunting" thing) - Stout again took over and and the rat ended up running up the nearest banana tree (actually a blogo - but whose keeping track). This picture is of Stout attempting to "stare down "Roger Rat"

wiggle as it might - it was (and is still) "caught" - the spider in the background looks on -
I'm not exactly sure how this is all going to work out - even if the skink dies of old age, it would seem that the "eating" part is just plain beyond the spiders ability - I'll keep you posted...=)

UPDATE - last night during our "most exciting ever" series of thunderstorms I was inclined to issue an order of Executive Clemency - the skink was cut loose and the "what will become of him" question has moved back to the more mundane realm of skinkdom

this "skink of some kind" had a very bad day today when it became entangled in my pet (seven-legged) spider's web
 

a greater kiskadee uses the plum tree as a launching pad in its quest for MORE BUGS - and Belize certainly has more than an ample supply of bugs

this is the "bug of the day" no clue what it is, but the yellow spots are a nice touch 

this picture is for Kathy's mom - it's a pretty classic profile, I'm sure she will get it at a glance

lousy picture of a bird with an amazingly beautiful song - a clay-colored robin