Critters

We are living much closer to nature than we did back in the metropolitan DC area.
For example, last night I heard the distinctive slapping sound of a frog hopping around in our kitchen. So I scooped him up and put him out the front door. He will be back. I have lost count how many times I have removed a frog from the house.
The other day, I lifted up the toilet seat (checking for spiders under the seat before I sit is a habit I acquired on a trip to Botswana, when I encountered the infamous spider, from now on known to me as the toilet spider) and saw a dark lump in the toilet. Well, this turd jumped. Another frog.

We also share the house with all of the sparrows with in a five mile radius. Maybe that is a slight exageration, but the walls are alive with them. When they return to roost in the eaves of the roof each evening, we can hear them twittering and jockeying for position in their night-time hideout. Occasionally, one of the falcons who hang out in the back yard will dive by to try to catch one. There is a crash and scraping of talons as the falcon slams into the house, trying to catch the swallow before it disappears into safety. The aerial acrobatics of the swallows are delightful to watch. I would much rather the falcons stick to eating snakes.

Speaking of snakes, we have those too. Last week, Noah found a black and yellow snake next to our front porch. It was a harmless variety called culebra de penarol. Birds, frogs,snakes,what's next? Oh, spiders. One beautiful morning, we were sitting on the front porch having our coffee when a huge hairy thing dropped down from the roof on a thread of silk, about two feet from me. It was pretty cool, but I was thankful it dropped where it did and not onto my head.

Here is its portrait:

I have unfortunately discovered that arachnids are not the only many-legged things that visit us. That discovery came by way of a 2-3 inch long dead centipede in the shower. Creepy crawlies are cool outside, but not so cool when found in the house, especially in a part of the house where one is usually bare-bummed!