27 February 2014

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This is a goose egg.   You know the saying, “That’s quite a goose egg you’ve got there” for a large hematoma (bleed) in your scalp?

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Hmm…. I never had a “goose egg” as big as a real one.   We had a bunch goose eggs under the geese down at the pond  – but after 30 days, Austin suspected they were all duds.  He candled them a few days ago – they WERE duds.

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So he blew them out.  Now he and Monica are planning to do some egg art with them.

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He thinks he knows why the eggs were all infertile.  Geese mate for life, and all the geese we’ve got are brothers and sisters so they are not interested in each other.  I think I like geese better than dogs.

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WHAT IN THE HECK IS THAT DEPARTMENT

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This weird stick – about 7 feet long – was leaning up against the back gate on our kitchen-porch when I got home from the States.   Turns out it is the upper part of the trunk of a “balabala,” i.e. tree fern.   I’ll pull this photo back up some time when I can do a little photo essay on tree ferns,  They are actually quite important in Fiji.

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SITTING AT THE SIGATOKA TOWN BUS STAND

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I decided to grab a photo of the bird,

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And saw something interesting just behind it.

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Bare feet in town.

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All these were snapped in the course of 5 minutes.  School kids and a few older folks.   Public barefooteness is pretty common even in Suva.  Junia’s mother, God bless her, was barefoot in town about half the times I saw her.  Once somebody walked away with my shoes (flipflops, my ONLY shoes) from a meeting on a Saturday evening, and I had to go to town barefoot myself to buy another pair.  That was probably eight years ago, and I can still feel the MHCC escalator under my feet.

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CUSTARD APPLE

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Here Junia is picking a custard apple right beside my house.   This tree was hiding in a whole bunch of foliage that Austin thinned out about a month ago.

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This fruit, also called “sweet sop” and “corazon,”  has a fresh, sweet and perfumed taste, but is unfortunately really mealy.  More than mealy – grainy.   If anyone knows any way to enjoy the taste and by-pass the texture, please let me know.

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WEIRD PLANT OF THE MONTH

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This was in the yard of one of Austin’s friends in town.  It has little flowers growing out of the plant’s blades.

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Austin was, of course, delighted by it and took some cuttings.   So by and by we’ll have the little stranger here as well.

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WEATHER NEWS:   It looks like the storm may miss us.  Hope so.

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And to all my Baha’i family and friends – HAPPY AYYAM-i-HA.

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