All Creatures great and small

Living in a house with no glass in the windows (never gets cold enough to need glass and if it rains we just close the shutters) and doors that are always left open, there is little distinction between indoors and outdoors. As such all of nature can be found inside the house as well as outside. We have a large collection of lizards and iguanas (although I have no idea what is the difference between the two) skittering over the walls – they are mostly just a couple of inches long. Some of them are a pale creamy colour but my favourites are a dark velvety brown with a thin creamy stripe down their back. They are great at eating up the bugs. The frogs are also good at that. There is a sizeable population of frogs in the water tanks about 50 feet from the house and they sing all through the night – and some of them persist into the day too. The frogs don’t often come into the house although at Christmas there was one hiding behind the Christmas tree and last night we found one in the washing machine which is ‘in waiting’ (ie in anticipation of the current washing machine to give up the ghost) outside the front of the house. We tried to catch the frog last night but he was remarkably slippery and eventually we gave it up and decided to get his this morning. Only this morning he was gone – either hiding around the back of the drum or he has walked (hopped?) out the same way he walked in (although how he did that is a mystery).

The other less desirable occasional residents are the cockroaches. They are by no means the biggest I’ve ever seen and continual exposure to them has rendered them a lot less scary although when they come scurrying out from the cupboards or drawers they still make me jump. Osh calls them beetles and I’ve decided not to disabuse him of their real name for fear that there is an inbuilt human reaction to the word cockroach. For the time being he is not in the least bit frightened of them rather just fascinated by the way they continue to wiggle their legs long after they have, erm, snuffed it.

There are mice and rats around although I’ve never seen any live evidence of either – it is a long while since Nicky has seen a rat – the last one was dispensed off pretty sharpish by Daniel who has proven to be a sharp shooter with the air rifle which they keep to ward of wild dogs – and rats (!). Fear not, the rifle is kept well out of Osh’s reach and he is so far unaware of its existence. The mice are occasionally invited to a tasty supper of cheese whereupon they meet their maker.

By far and away the most irritating visitors are the mosquitoes. Hundreds of the blighters that buzz away at your ears and leave you covered in the bites in the morning. We have mosquito nets over the beds which keep the worst of them at bay but they can get through the smallest of gaps. Fortunately the lizards are rather partial to beetles and mosquitoes and pay their way by munching on them and Osh has proven to have the same reaction to bites as me – that is a small red bite that quickly fades. Coming close in the irritation stakes are the fire ants. Oisin has developed a passion for them - following strict warnings from Nicky not to go near them, not to dig in the dirt for them and a couple of house invasions.

The most beautiful guests are the humming birds – although I’ll confess that they don’t come into the house. They feed off the nectar on the flowers and trees growing outside the house and I shall never tire of watching them hover in mid-air. They look like rather large flies until you spot the long, slender beak.

The chickens occasionally wander into the house but then scatter in all directions if you attempt to go near them. And the dogs wander in and out in a perpetual bid to replenish the dust and dirt that I spend all day sweeping up (one snag of having a house full of boys and dogs and no glass at the windows!).

Erebus moths come in sometimes. They used to be found on the walls of the class room when I was at school in Venezuela and I am terrified of them. They are large (the size of small bird) and black and folklore in Caracas has it that the dust from their wings blinds you. This, apparently, is utter hogwash but I still don’t like them.

And then of course we have the spiders. All the ones I have seen so far are spindly things and not in the least bit scary but a couple of nights ago Daniel (who has no fear at all of anything creepy or crawly) found a monstrous spider carrying a huge egg sack. Even Daniel claimed it was the biggest he’d ever seen. Needless to say I didn’t take advantage of seeing a whopping spider and it was spied in another building so I’m not waiting for it to crawl across my face in the night!

Photos coming as soon as I can get blogger to upload them!