Monks and Scorpions

The chickens seem to like the compost pile. I am as likely to see them there as anywhere. A couple of days ago, the chickens woke me up early in the AM- quite a ruckus out at their house, including chicken screaming, or whatever it is called. I expected to see feathers flying and maybe a python...but they shut up when I went out there. Maybe they were just hungry or something. They started up again as I walked off, and stopped when I stopped and began to walk back to them. Reminded me of our neighbor's 3 geese who who would walk up the road to our place-when my mom would chase them back down, they would obediently retreat. As soon as she would turn around to go back home, they would all turn around and fuss at her until she faced them and then they would resume their walk back to the farm. Quite comical. My mother named them after her mother and 2 aunts, Ethel, Ruth and Myrtle. There was an eerie resemblance, at least in their temperment when the three were together. :)




On a trip out to the compost pile last week, I was greeted by a rather ferocious-looking denizen of Asian forests. It was about 8 inches long. When it heard or saw me, it quickly buried itself in the leaves before I could get a good picture, so I will use a stock photo taken at a park here in Thailand. I tried to scare it up out of the leaves, but it just burrowed deeper. Not knowing how poisonous it might be, I let it be. I read up on it later, and found out that it looks much more dangerous that it actually is. The sting of this bad boy is only about as serious as a bee sting.

On another trip down the road, I got a couple better pictures of the monk "encampment." I have also seen some of them washing out in a rather public location by the road. Other than that, one does not notice them except over the loudspeaker at 6PM. One morning, they decided to broadcast at about 5:30 for some reason. I asked Jay, our resident former monk, what that was about, and he did not know. For more information about the paticular Thai version of Buddhist monkhood (is that a word?) visit http://www.thaibuddhist.com/ .

I suppose if I got out of the house early enough, I would see them on their rounds collecting food from the community.

I have been sleeping almost normal hours. I think my brain has finally joined my body here in Asia.

I am dating this post earlier in the week, because that is where it belongs.