All creatures great and small!

Hello! First of all thank you to everyone who has let me know that they have looked at the blog. I had attempted yesterday to write this post but due to very poor wireless network I gave up after my 7th failed attempt, sorry...

The top picture is the view from my back door early yesterday morning just after sunrise. It is so beautiful here and very pleasant to sit outside with my cup of tea at breakfast time!

The weather over the past couple of days has been lovely. Blue skies, warm and sunny so no need for my big green umbrella. I have taken advantage of the good weather to get my washing done and as you can see I have long ago left behind my washing machine. The chair is not for me to sit down on for a rest, althoughI could be tempted to sit with another cup of tea as washing clothes is thirsty work! Also I have to remember to put on sun cream so I dont get roasted when I'm outside.

The weather is quick to change here too as you can see from these pictures taken last Sunday - blue skies to heavy rain in a flash and so a quick dash for cover was called for.

After the heavy rain I was fascinated as the birds crowded round the sand that had been spread on my path. They are not normally bold enough to come so close to the house when I'm in, so a closer inspection was called for. I saw something that I have not seen since I was in Kenya. Coming out from small holes in the ground were what I think are flying ants. As they crawled out to dry off and fly away, the birds were picking them off and having a field day!

One satisfied chicken!

(Sunday is not normally such a good day for chickens)

Last week I shared with you about the close encounter we had with the elephants at Vwaza. This week as I have been going about my house and garden I have met creatures at the other end of the scale. Welcome to my world...

Here is one of the many geckos I happily share my house with. They eat the flies and the mosquitoes that eat me. Geckos are amazing hunters and can eat other insects that are really quite big in comparison to the size of their mouths!

Here is not such a welcome visitor. I spied it yesterday as I was hanging out my washing. It is an orb spider that had made it's tunnel type webs under the eaves of my house. I got help to remove it as it is not so friendly a creature as my gecko. It was beautifully coloured but sorry, I didn't want it around my house.

I also met this large snail, it would be a brave bird that would attempt to crack this snail shell. Slightly larger than UK garden snails, wonder if it would eat my grass??

Just to let you see that I get some lovely visitors in my garden too! Here is my neighbour who comes to play in the sand on my path, he had just made and decorated a beautiful birthday 'cake' for us to share.

I officially started work this week and here is the view from my office window. The playground of the pre-school is outside my window so I can hear the children really enjoying their time at nursery. They make me smile a lot, it's good to hear children being allowed to be children and having plenty of time to play outdoors.

I was part of the training workshop for the trainers of pre-school caregivers. These are super folks whose enthusiasm and committment to their jobs is amazing. I was so encouraged as I spent time with them and look forward to working alongside them as part of the Early Childhood programme at the Synod.

This is a picture I took in Vwaza at Easter. It is a favourite of mine at the moment and reminds me of God's faithfulness in leading us along new paths and also keeping us as we walk along well trodden routes. I hope that you know God's leading and faithfulness whatever you will be doing this week.

Blessings

Fiona