A Tiny Lizard, and...

Ellie found a tiny lizard in the bathroom this morning. It was about two inches long, including tail. She cornered it and caught it--by the tail. Naturally, the tail came off. By now in something of a tizzy and not knowing what else to do, she dropped the tail in the toilet bowl, where it continued to wriggle pathetically, disconnected from its owner. She shrieked. The tail's rightful owner cowered in a corner. I arrived, helpless as usual in such situations. I'm squeamish. Hate to touch creepy-crawlies. With more courage than I have, Ellie picked the little creature up whilst I emptied the plastic trash container and held it out to her. She dropped him in, and I took him out to the Buddha garden and let him loose--still tailless, but otherwise quite chipper. He scurried off in the direction of our small Buddha statue and disappeared.

So much adventure for a Tuesday morning. Then the tree guys arrived. We are fortunate to have a virtual park of trees and shrubbery behind our house, but the climate seems to favor their growth; in half a year, they grow immensely, expanding from each side of the yard toward the center until it seems barely half its size. Alvaro and his crew come in to help us twice a year. Here's the man himself, perched in one of the two tall eucalyptus trees that tower beside our balcony. (That's Hollywood you see, in the distance). The picture actually gives little sense of the height at which Alvaro's working. The long, slender trunks of these trees reach up to a height of, I'd say, forty feet. It's quite a sight to watch him shinny up this sheer length of tree trunk before he even reaches the branches. We're happy to note that he has a system to rope himself in securely, in case of that moment of inattention when he could slip and fall.

Back to my editing work this morning. I hope to have my work on the text completed in the next couple of days--after which I should have more time to return to blogging...