Feliz Natal

First of all, Naice and I would like to wish a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to one and all. Thanks for visiting the blog and I hope you’ll keep reading in 2009.

Now, as promised, here’s the picture of a fine example of the world’s largest beetle, titanus giganteus, photographed in our garden in December. The beetle measured just over 8 inches including its feelers, and reputedly it can break a pencil in half with its jaws (why it would want to do this is beyond me, but there we are). It even flies. We were suitably impressed.

There are also a few other photos here snapped at odd occasions over the last couple of months: an unidentified creepy crawly (answers on a postcard please…); a nice lizard snapped with the camera an hour or so before it was really snapped by Kelly; a young sloth that deigned to visit last week and hang around above our chapeu de palha for a few days; and a little tree frog who appeared next to the house.