The weekly post (ha ha) This weekend, I participated in Baynanza, going out on a canoe with a group Balu volunteers with, the Wildlife Research Team. The mangroves we were paddling through were just gorgeous.. Very peaceful and pretty. And all the crabs we saw!

Saturday night was Matt Hoe's birthday party. I always love get-togethers at the Hoes' and this was no exception. Yummy food, great friends, kids to pick on, sangria..

Sunday morning probably would have been a wash, but Balu had already rented equipment to go diving, so I acted a trooper, took some Excedrin, and went out to Datura. Oh, and am I ever lucky I did! Turns out that Bill's friend Paul who met us there has a boat. We got to do a boat dive! I never go on boats anymore, so now it's such a special treat.. And, apparently this Paul fella dives quite a bit and welcomes people aboard. So, yay! We saw a 6-foot long moray eel and the always-present tons o' fish, crabs, etc. It was gorgeous again all weekend, the water is steadily warming up (although I'm still wearing two wetsuits).. Ahh, life is good. :) I could've done another dive that afternoon, but sadly wasn't feeling so hot so chose to go relax at home instead.

I was talking to Mark last week and he commented on the fact that I haven't been updating my blog lately, or something to that effect. I thought for a minute and said, "Well, I guess I don't have much to say. Although I did find a couple really cool spiderwebs in the yard." He laughed. "I'm not being funny," I said. "Oh, yes, but you are." Ha ha. So anyway, I charged up my camera and here goes: The Most Boring Photos Ever. Except to Me.

I bought a succulent a month or so back. And it's still alive..

And flowering even!


How gorgeous is that?

A dove has built a nest in the grapefruit tree in the backyard. I showed it to Balu when I noticed it and he said that we could check it out from the roof. I brought my camera, but unfortunately couldn't get such a hot picture because that chick on the right seemed very nervous. I was worried it'd try to fly the coop before its time to escape me, so I had to take the pics from pretty far back, despite the fact that I could probably have reached the nest from the roof.



I planted sunflowers a week ago and they're all sprouting now!


I love to see things like this growing and doing well.


I have a pretty little ivy plant in my shower on the windowsill. It's a great place for a plant because I will never, ever forget to water it there. Lots of ants have taken up residence there. Unfortunately, sometimes they go down in the bathtub and die a horrible death in a deluge of soapy water - once I noticed they were there I had to lay a ground rule that they were welcome to live in the plant, but that I could not be dealing with worrying about saving all the ants from the tub before each day's shower. I usually stand by that rule, but sometimes I get coerced by a little ant looking hopeless and whose antennaes are sticking to the tile and I intervene and rescue. When I went to do that the other night, using a leaf from the plant, I got another surprise: I have baby snails in my plant! I've seen three so far. They're super tiny.


This is one of the bigger guys.

And now my cute little crab. I found him while kayaking at Oleta State Park.. or Recreation Area or whatever it is. Anyway, it was just a few weeks ago. There were little fiddler crabs everywhere. But, like, the smallest ones I've ever seen. Half-my-pinky-nail sized. One caught my eye by moving a bit funny. I investigated and discovered that while it had both its claws, it only had legs on one side. Now, I've kept crabs as pets before, including one that only had three legs (that's out of eight), so I know how to care for them and that they'll grow their legs back with the next molt, so I put this little girl in my water bottle and took her home. I made her a little enclosure with a coral cave to hide in. She lives in my bathroom.

I thought I'd have her for a few months, but less than two weeks after I brought her home, I discovered her old exoskeleton laying in the sand. And there was a brand new, perfect little crab - with all her legs! So she'll be going back to Oleta within the next couple of weeks.



Here she is, tucked into the crevices of my hand and resting against the band of my ring.



And now the spiderwebs that inspired this Phototour of the Small Things that Make Me Smile Every Day But Will Probably Get Me Made Fun Of. Both the X and the circle design are part of the webs..

  ¶ 10:55 AM