PREDATOR

It all began with my friend Molly. When our boys were very young she, in spite of her true feelings of bugs and spiders and creepy crawlies, would carefully remove spiders to free them into the backyard rather than squash them and throw them away.

Five years later we are in a place literally crawling with spiders. I admit that I have squashed two of the brown huntsman spiders who were in the house uninvited. When I was painting some recently acquired patio chairs a large “friend” joined me. The kids were nearby encouraging me to catch it. Now it resides in our bug home.

The neighborhood kids joined Anthony and Audrey in catching flies, crickets and such to put in with the spider. Then they found it a friend thinking they might mate. Instead the original spider jumped on its visitor, bit it, and ate it.

Two days ago the kids caught two ENORMOUS black spiders (wood spiders) and put them in the box. They hypothesized that the largest of the black spiders would eat the brown spider and maybe the other black spider.

The hypothesis was proven false. Yesterday the two black spiders were fully deflated (drained?) and the brown spider as vigorous as ever.

They have learned other things along the way too. Spiders shed their skin. Some spiders build webs to catch prey, others hunt without webs. It doesn’t matter how big a spider is, it can still kill and eat something much larger than itself.

PREY

It is that time of year again!

Anthony is off to his first day of 1st grade.  He has a spectacular experienced teacher and several good friends in his class.  Audrey is starting a pre-school program at a school off base.  She will go half-day Monday through Friday and is VERY excited about making new friends.  As I take the requisite “first day of school” picture I am reminded of so many years of pictures taken on our front porch in Iowa or backyard in Texas.  I now know why there are almost always two
pictures, one of us looking quite somber and the other of us giggling.  I am glad to have a digital camera where I know immediately if I got the shot or not!

We think and talk of our friends in the States often.  I am missing the crisp morning air of Lubbock, the anticipation of the corn maze cookout, hay ride to the pumpkin patch, tailgating at the EE building, and trick-or-treating.  But, I am looking forward to camping trips on the beach and much more diving while the kids are in school!

is that time of year again!

Anthony is off to his first day of 1st grade.  He has a spectacular
experienced teacher and several good friends in his class.  Audrey is
starting a pre-school program at a school off base.  She will go
half-day Monday through Friday and is VERY excited about making new
friends.  As I take the requisite “first day of school” picture I am
reminded of so many years of pictures taken on our front porch in Iowa
or backyard in Texas.  I now know why there are almost always two
pictures, one of us looking quite somber and the other of us giggling.
I am glad to have a digital camera where I know immediately if I got
the shot or not!

We think and talk of our friends in the States often.  I am missing
the crisp morning air of Lubbock, the anticipation of the corn maze
cookout, hay ride to the pumpkin patch, tailgating at the EE building,
and trick-or-treating.  But, I am looking forward to camping trips on
the beach and much more diving while the kids are in school!

Shuri Castle has been completely destroyed four times, three due to fires, once and most recently due to war.  According to stories around here, during the battle for Okinawa the U.S. Army commanding general ordered that the Marines stay away from Shuri Castle.  The Marines were receiving the bulk of publicity for the war in the Pacific and the general wanted the Army to get some recognition for their efforts.  Unfortunately for the Army, the Marines waited and waited as asked, then went ahead and took Shuri Castle.   The present castle has been rebuilt, but the previous castle was only as old as the mid 1700’s.  I am hoping to get out to visit some REALLY old castle ruins before Alice has to leave for the states at the end of August.

For our day, we drove to the nearest monorail stop, parked in what we hoped was a tow-free zone, and rode the rail end to end out to the airport then out to the Shuri Park stop where we grabbed a bus, met some new friends, and hopped off the bus just in time to walk to the Castle.  The kids collected stamps for an activity page while we learned a bit about the Ryuku culture and architecture.  Then we caught another bus back to the monorail stop, back to our car which was still parked where we left it, and drove to Jack’s Place for some teppanyaki.

The kids, and the adults, were worn out.  It was another great day!

All of the pics from Alice and Glen’s visit are in one photoset – you can click here to see them, including the pics from our day.

The kids are still talking with amazement about their experience with the sea turtles.

Life is rough living in paradise, but someone has to do it!

Does NOT serves baby sea turtle soup!   The food and drinks were fantastic, the conversation even better.