Our New Garden

While there is still no OFFICIAL word, apparently the house is ours. Yesterday Susan took me back to the house to measure the rooms and choose paint colors, then to a furniture store to choose furniture. I'd say it must be ours...don't you agree?

The kids came along this time. They were SO excited. They got to choose their rooms. They had already chosen on paper, but I wanted to be sure. Once they saw the rooms, they chose differently. They are each very happy with their choices. They will each have their own bathroom which I think will be a good thing.

While I did all the boring measuring and took more photos, the kids explored the yard. Once I was finished they had to lead me on a tour of their many finds.

There is a bird's nest in a bush outside the main door.
In the back there are stone steps leading to a large grassy area. I love these steps, as does Anna.

There is this little thing, which doesn't look like much in a picture. I think it has the potential to be a small pond, if it holds water. Or perhaps we can raise mosquitoes in it!

The pathway along the back of the house.

The back patio.
A nicely sculpted bush, which is maintained by the "yard boy".
There is one thing noticeably missing: color. There isn't a flower to be seen! But that is okay. The stone steps and moss covered walls seem to me the most amazing foundation for a wonderful garden. As of this moment I feel like I am not going to want to leave after 2 years. Of course, there was the little issue of the lizard in the living room...

The Taipei Zoo

I am not keeping up with my photos or presenting them in chronological order. That bugs me; I hope you don't mind!

Last Monday - (THE ONLY DAY I'VE SEEN THE SUN IN 2 MONTHS!!!!!!!!!) we went to the zoo. Nothing new to say about a zoo really. They had flamingo's, so I took pictures for Mindi:

We all had to wear sun glasses so as not to be blinded by that strange bright light in the sky.

The zoo entrance. I took this picture because of the plant in the bottom right corner. I have a plant like that growing in a pot at home. Not quite so huge. Actually, not even close.

While we were looking at the flamingos I heard a sort of screeching sound. I told the kids they must have peacocks, because I know they scream. We went around the corner to find the source of the screaming. It wasn't peacocks though, it was:

Monkeys! My favorite part of any zoo! I took a billion and 2 pictures, which was about a billion too many.

Of course I also took two billion and 5 pictures of plants and flowers. The Taipei Zoo is quite beautiful. The walkways look like this:

And there are flowers such as these:

Yes, the orchids are planted on tree trunks. There is so much foliage along the trunks of the trees in the zoo that you wouldn't necessarily know that the orchids are not part of the tree.

There are also palm-type trees with these things:

I don't know what they are. They sort of look like pine cones, except they are about the size of pineapple.

There are several types of beautiful evergreen foliage:

And even cactus! (Cacti, right?)

The kids played around on some hippopotamus sculptures.

Then the kids used my camera to take pictures of the real thing.

Aren't they lovely?

It was a great day to bask in the sunshine.

We eventually got pretty tired from the walking, so we boarded the zoo train to return to the front gate.
I had to take a picture of the name of the train: (double click the picture if you can't see it.)

It was a good day.

Taiwan Flora and Fauna, Part 1

I kinda like flowers. So here are pictures of some of the flowers I've seen around Taiwan so far. I'll let them speak for themselves.

(One little comment, since this isn't a flower. It's an aloe vera plant. I was thrilled to find it growing "in the wild". I've only ever seen them in pots before. It's easy to thrill me!)