Village visit

On Saturday after spending time at our land we went to visit Victor's family. Here he is with his Mum (and the great bananas she gave us), his sister (who is very pregnant) and his Dad (who recently had a bad fall but seems to be fine now.)






It is nearly Songkhran, the Thai water festival and New Year. Our nephew, Banjo, is preparing himself by practising with his water pistol! (Or do you call that a water rifle?!)



Victor's Mum proudly showed me the nuts on their macadamia tree. Last year it had only 3 nuts but this year it was full. Victor's brother, Somnuk, works on an experimental macadamia farm and he planted this tree.
I got quite a surprise when I took the photo of Ranee to suddenly hear chickens above me!

Sunday 6th

Here is where the house was up to on Sunday...
We transplanted this little tree from Victor's village home. It's obviously pretty happy because it flowered within days! As you can see, the windows are in. Below is looking out of the 2nd bedroom (through "the arched window"!) - this will be part of your view when you come to stay with us. The staircase is nearly finished. The 3 big corner posts (only one visible in this photo) were made by Chi from branches of our teak trees! The upstairs ceiling is going in today, so this will be the last view you get of our insulation. (I hope...)
The doors to our balcony. I am so happy with the balcony.
Things seem to be going slowly now. Everything has to wait for everything else. The ceiling people came and put in the structure for the ceiling - that metal grid you can see. Below you can see the electrician who came next to put in the wiring. Today the ceiling people are back to do the ceiling. Then the electricians will come again to put holes in the ceiling and put in lights, plugs, etc. We're getting there!

Fireflies

I've been inspired by Jenny's comment on my last post to do some research. Here's what wikipedia told me...

BUT FIRST! If you want them to remain faeries then look away now!

Lampyridae is a family in the beetle order Coleoptera, (well done Jenny) members of which are commonly called fireflies, lightning bugs or (ambiguously) "glow worms" due to their conspicuous nocturnal (or, more accurately, crepuscular) use of bioluminescence to attract mates or prey. Fireflies are capable of producing a "cold light" containing no ultraviolet or infrared rays, with a wavelength from 510 to 670 nanometers, pale reddish, yellowish or green in colour, with a lighting efficiency of up to 96%.
There are more than 2000 species of firefly found in temperate and tropical environments around the world. Many species can be found in marshes or in wet, wooded areas where their larvae have abundant sources of food.

I love our land!

Last night we were at our land until quite late (trying to sort out the electricity). As I walked towards the car to leave I saw the huge night sky and my good friend Orion! How wonderful! It's not quite as good as the Australian night sky but I look forward to getting to know all the unfamiliar bits.

And then, I thought I saw a shooting star out of the corner of my eye. But when I turned to look it flashed again. And again. And again. A firefly! We have fireflies! I'm so glad!
I first saw fireflies 14 years ago on my first visit to Thailand with Tom.

This is the view from our bedroom. I'm starting to get very excited about really living here every day. We had heavy rain a few days ago and strong wind so the air has been very clean. Hence the good views and clear night sky.

Youth visit

Last Sunday the youth group from our church came to visit our (unfinished) house. Here they are singing songs in our upstairs.

And here are Victor and me looking pretty pleased with ourselves!

And our trusty workers looking on.

(The little girl is staying for a bit during the summer school holidays. She's holding her dad's hand. She's delightful.)