Japanory

Tokyo Insects and other Wildlife

October 2008

Another photo-prompted post.

This is the time of year for some great insect sightings.

Look at this magnificent praying mantis. I presume it's a female due to her distended abdomen.

She watched me as I zoomed in for her close-up, her neck swivelling in a slightly unnerving fashion.

This is the Japanese Hornet - Vespa Mandarinia Japonica – it's about 5 - 6cm long. I had one in the house but my photo didn't come out well. I've included it anyway so you can get an idea of the sheer size of the thing.

And a turtle sunning itself by a lake in Shinjuku Gyoen.

And OK, this is certainly not a wild animal, but a photo of my cat, Raymi being uncharacteristically affectionate and cute. He only wants cuddles when it's raining outside, which isn't often here!

Snow Monkeys – in Summer

Saturday 23^rd August 2008

It's time to head home to stifling Tokyo from our short break in the cool mountains.

Rather than set off back the way we came, I insist on travelling a different route because I really want to see the famous "Snow Monkeys" which apparently reside nearby (according to the tourist guides).

It turns out they aren't that nearby but some considerable distance away over a series of really high mountains. Tim took a bit of persuading to make the detour but as I said, "I visited a dam for you, please let me see the monkeys"! He knows how obsessed I am with wildlife so he agreed.

Thank goodness Tim enjoys driving, especially over mountains with hairpin bends on every corner. Higher and higher we went, until we were swathed in the clouds. But wait! They aren't "sky clouds", as we discovered when we opened the car windows. The stench of sulphur assaulted us immediately. These are not any old mountains, they are living volcanoes! We made it through unscathed and found the town which goes by the intriguing name of Jigokudani, meaning Hell Valley. It took us a while to find the Jigokudani Yaen-koen - Hell Valley Wild Monkey Park (what a rather off-putting name!).

Snow monkeys are Japanese Macaques which range wild throughout most of Japan. Road signs warn of their presence in much the same way we see cows on road signs in the UK and Australians have their kangaroo signs. Macaques are not friendly and have no fear of humans, often raiding homes and shops in rural areas. Having been chased by a troop of Long Tailed Macaques in Malaysia some years ago, I know they can be very scary en masse.

These seemed placid enough though – perhaps Japanese Zen has affected them.

Rhiannon is very nervous about being so close to so many monkeys, until she sees this little one. Kawaii!

And then these two.

The park is home to a series of hot springs. It used to be a village but everyone moved out once the monkeys learned to use the springs to warm up in the freezing mountain winters. Since then, the area has been home to just the monkeys. One was bathing, but as it's August, obviously the Snow Monkey name is a misnomer.

A sign at the entrance warns that although these monkeys are wild, they are used to humans but under no circumstances should you take any food or drink into the park. Of course, someone did (not us, I hasten to add) and was immediately set upon by a cheeky juvenile who stole the paper bag of food the visitor was carrying. The young monkey was then roundly scolded by an older monkey and the spoils of the raid confiscated by her. While she was attempting to open the cellophane packet the juvenile sneaked up behind her and snatched back the treasure. All hell broke loose at this impertinence and a keeper came out of a hut with a catapult! He fired a few pebbles into the fighting troop and they dispersed, leaving these to inspect the remains of the bag for any last titbit.

This visit well worth the extra long detour in my opinion. I'm so glad we made the effort.

Kurobe Dam and Butterfly Magic. Hakuba – part 2

Friday 22^nd August 2008

Lots of photos

 

Today Tim wishes to visit a dam.

Yes, you read that correctly, a dam. I can't believe it. We've travelled all this way, to stunning countryside, and he wants to see a monstrous concrete construction. But I humour him as he has done a lovely deed sorting out this short break.

It wasn't too bad. And the weather was gorgeous.

From Wikipedia: The Kurobe Dam or Kuroyon Dam, is a variable-radius arch dam on the Kurobe River in Toyama Prefecture on the island of Honshū, Japan. It supports the 335 MW Kurobe No. 4 Hydropower Plant and is owned by Kansai Electric Power Company. At 186 metres (610 ft) high, it is the tallest dam in Japan. It was constructed between 1956 and 1963 at a cost of 51.3 billion yen. The project was a difficult engineering feat for the rapidly growing post-World War II Japan, and claimed the lives of 171 people.

We walked across the dam and looked over the edge. It was a heck of a long way down! Apparently during the tourist season the officials let huge amounts of water rush out to provide a spectacle of sight and sound with rushing white water and the roar of its power filling the valley. We must have visited at the wrong time.

A small train took us through a dank tunnel to a station a little further up the mountain where we walked in woodland for a while admiring the view through the trees of deep emerald water.

We'd taken a picnic with us and were looking for somewhere to sit and eat it when we were suddenly surrounded by delicate and strikingly beautiful butterflies.

Almost immediately one landed on me. Not to be outdone, Rhiannon tempted them by putting some squash on her finger and within minutes one came to her too. Not only did it land on her, it stayed calmly on her hand for well over half an hour while we continued our walk through the dancing butterflies to a pretty clearing for our picnic. She was ecstatic – now she thinks she really is a Princess like all the Disney characters she idolises.

After our rest we said goodbye to the butterflies and continued on our way to a cable car (called a 'ropeway' here) which would take us to the top of the mountain.

Once again, the views were magnificent.

So all in all, what promised to be a dreary day, turned out to be rather magical.

Something Strange Down the Drain

Saturday 5^th July 2008

Tim's outside washing the car.

Our cat – who usually makes himself scarce during the day – was loitering around a drain grill near the driveway. He was watching it intently. Something was down there. And it was something alive as otherwise Raymi wouldn't have been so absorbed. Incidentally, Raymi doesn't miaow – he squeaks. A ridiculous noise for such a big cat and gives rise to his nickname Squeaky Fluffybum.

Anyway, he was squeaking at whatever was down the hole. He wanted it. Whatever 'it' was.

Now, as we live in a big city, you'd think it was probably a rat. But no…

Tim very bravely lifted up the grill and scooped this out.

He didn't have a clue what it was so yelled to me, as I am, in his mind, the font of all natural history knowledge. At first glimpse I thought it was a bloody great scorpion, but on closer inspection it appeared to be a small, very cross crayfish.

Raymi took one sniff and scarpered! And Tim popped it back down the drain.

Insects in Japan

Saturday 14^th June 2008

We have fascinating insect life here. But I won't mention the cockroaches that live in the house...

Just a photo prompted post – I'll probably find some more insect photos in due course.

This is what greeted me this morning hanging on to the screen door. It's a gorgeous fresh green stick insect measuring about 5" long.

How wonderful to live in a place where something I used to keep as an exotic pet lives wild.

I caught it and popped it into a small tank we have lying around for this purpose so Rhiannon could study it for a day or two.

Then we let it go.

Guam – Some Extra Photos of Wildlife

As I had 'flu and wasn't firing on very many cylinders at all there aren't the usual number of photos of my holiday.

But here are a few random ones so you can get an impression of Guam's wildlife.

We couldn't really travel off the beaten track at all because almost all of Guam is a US air base or something, so most of the island is out of bounds. Numerous establishments catering for the forces surrounded the hotel and town – places like strip clubs, topless bars and so on. Not something I particularly wanted to explain to my child.

And guess what happened when we went back through airport security on the way home? Yup! You've guessed it – yet another full search. We were not amused and vowed not to visit anywhere owned by the USA again.

Anyway, here are the extra photos:

I have NO idea what this was. I notice this little pile of sticks and it was moving! I presume some sort of caterpillar or other bug walking along the slightly larger, darker piece of wood.

 

A wader of some sort at Talofofo Falls

 

A butterfly - you really needed to know that, didn't you?!

 

A small green crab - I nearly fell in the sea trying to take this photo!

When we finally arrived home, we found one of Rhiannon's spherical goldfish had died and was in the process of being eaten by its tank-mate. Surprisingly, she wasn't as upset as expected but more fascinated by the hole that the other fish had made in its belly!

Guam

Friday 8^th February 2008 – Friday 15^th February 2008

Once again we were pulled over by the US security heavies for a full check, just like in Hawaii. This was getting ridiculous and Tim complained loudly. Naturally it made no difference at all but at least he didn't get arrested. Apparently it's all "completely random, sir"… err, don't think so!

As I have 'flu I don't really recall much of this holiday.

I do know that if I didn't have 'flu I would have found Guam to be the most boring place in the world.

As it was, I found myself a hammock next to the pool, plugged myself into my MP3 player and listened to my Japanese language course. And promptly fell asleep. Tim and Rhiannon played happily in the almost empty pool and didn't think to wake me up. So I got very sunburned on the first day.

Obviously I wasn't up to much those first couple of days so we ate in the hotel and I fell asleep in bed while Tim and Rhiannon watched TV. They are on their ideal holiday!

The beach was really tiny – about four feet from sea to edge and none of us fancied going in it as there was a lot of weed and potential jellyfish around. Both Tim and I had been stung by a Portuguese Man o'War in the past (on very separate occasions) and didn't want to repeat the exceedingly painful experience with unknown nasties.

A double-decker tram / bus shuttled between the hotels and "town" so on subsequent days and nights we took this to find other restaurants. These comprised TGIF and the Outback. And that was about it. Oh, we did try a Japanese restaurant one night but it was so appalling that we all felt rather sick. The tram was fun though. Open-topped, it whizzed along the road with Rhiannon standing up and me shouting "duck" to get her head down just in time as we passed under Frangipani trees. She thought this was hysterically funny. We gathered fallen Frangipani flowers to decorate and scent the rather drab hotel room.

We hired a car for a few days just to get around a bit more. Some nice views, beautiful turquoise sea.

This is called Bear Rock

To Rhiannon's delight, we discovered a sort of upside-down lighthouse. It was set into a massive bomb crater in the sea and you climbed down the spiral staircase to a viewing gallery to see the most gorgeous reef fish that obligingly came to the windows so I could take pictures of them.

The bomb crater thing gives an insight to the darker side of Guam which I'll write about in the next post.

The Adventurer Returns!

Friday 25^th January 2008

Tim went to collect Mum from the airport after her jungle adventure. Because I had the school run to do, he had to take the increasingly decrepit Landrover mentioned here. Not a stylish way to collect his mother-in-law! But better than nothing.

As he pulled into the driveway of our house, we heard – from inside the house – an ear-splitting screech followed by a massive clunk. At first, I thought he'd hit the other car, but no – a piston had sheared off completely and shattered a path right down through the engine (or something like that - I can't be bothered to check now). The Landrover was no more. It had ceased to be, expired, was bereft of life and a now very ex-Landrover. Oh dear. But what incredibly lucky timing! If that had happened at any other time today, goodness knows what would have happened – I may have had to drive on a motorway! The horror!!

Mum asked Tim to put her suitcase into the kitchen. What an odd request, I thought. Then I remembered where she'd been – and having lived in the jungle myself, know how migrants can sneak into bags and cases. When I returned from my South American travels, I was so shocked by something gruesome I found in my camera case I lobbed it right out of the third floor window and collected it several days later when thankfully the gigantic grub had disappeared.

Sure enough, "things" escaped from the case – we sprayed them all with insect killer and hoped for the best. Then shook the empty case outside and left it there for a few hours to de-louse itself.

Mum had had a fabulous time and stated that this was one of her best ever trips. Which, considering all the places and things she's seen and done, was high praise indeed. She regaled us with hilarious stories of her travel companions, food and discoveries. She had found a potentially unknown-to-science orchid. Which meant the very eminent botanist hosting the exploration didn't know it, so she painted it – she's a botanical artist – and sent the details away to Kew for identification in due course. It turned out to be known-to-science, but incredibly rare. Shame, we'd been working out Latin names for it.

She stayed with us until 31^st January and we fitted short shopping trips in between the school run. We spent a lot of time laughing at the little dogs here, in their pushchairs and outfits. Hardly any dog is seen outside without clothes on and it's rare to see anything larger than a poodle. She was in fits of laughter after seeing a group of four dachshunds, fully clothed and wearing sunglasses. yes, you read that correctly - there are cool shades for dogs! Leads that flash in the dark. And one event she still talks about today is seeing a group of primped fluffballs wearing frilly dresses prancing along the street; a dachsund - unfettered by clothing for once - passed them by, turned and barked at them as if to say "honestly, have you seen that state of yourselves? Have you no doggy pride?!"

Then, one day while we were walking and talking about these creatures she said "now, that's what I call a real dog". I turned to see what she meant and was absolutely smitten by a beautiful medium-sized red foxy-looking dog with a curly tail. It was gorgeous, and yes, it looked like a REAL dog. I had to find out what breed it was but my Japanese isn't up to asking that sort of question... I will have to search through Google. And so an obsession began...

Anyway, Mum's getting to grips with Tokyo now, so is able to get around on her own, leaving me to work and deal with Rhiannon.

However, she did give me a bit of a scare one evening when she didn't return home when expected. I had no idea where to go to look for her, she had no mobile phone (and wouldn't use it even if she had one) and I wasn't entirely sure how she would get back if she really was lost. It was dark and well past dinner time when she sauntered in.

I was able to say "Do you know what time it is???!!! Where on earth have you been? I was worried sick!" Oh, how the tables have turned!

She'd returned up a different road and found herself an artist's department store. About six floors of pure heaven to her and therefore had lost track of time.

Too many "what if" scenarios this week!

On the morning she returned to the UK, I went for a relaxing facial – I think I definitely deserved it this month!

Sealife Park – Oahu, Hawaii

This was a trip especially for Rhiannon. Utterly obsessed with life in the oceans, she had seen signs for the Sealife Park and desperately wanted to go.

However, for me, it was deeply distressing. I completely detest the idea of dolphins (and most other animals, to be honest) being kept in captivity and forced to perform for the public. Seeing dolphins in places like this actually distresses me to the point of tears. The things we sacrifice for our children, though.

I refuse to go to zoos. Wildlife parks are a little better and the only "zoo" I have ever truly enjoyed was my hero, Gerald Durrell's, Conservation Trust in Jersey.

I kept my ideals to myself as much as possible so as not to spoil her day and took a few photos for her to remember.

While we were waiting for the "show" to start, Rhiannon went down to the horribly small tank to see the dolphins up close. One of them noticed her through the glass and came to take a closer look. She was thrilled although rather scared by the sheer size of it.

She was very pleased to have seen the creatures up close and personal, as it were.

I was just pleased to leave.

Hawaii – Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve

Another trip to another beach. Well, isn't that what Hawaii is all about?

http://www.threebestbeaches.com/uspac/hawaii/2008/12/hanauma-bay-nature-preserve-oahu-hawaii.html

This one is a specially created nature reserve (or Preserve, as it's called) and you do have to pay to get to it. From high up on the cliff the curved beach is magnificent. Apparently the bay was created from the crater of an ancient volcano that collapsed. Judging by the size of the bay that volcano was enormous.

Before being allowed onto the beach we had to watch a film about the nature there and how to protect it. Then we climbed down the path to the beach and found ourselves a nice spot amongst the crowds. A small café provided refreshments throughout the day and we had a lovely time in the warm, shallow, wave-free waters looking at all the pretty fish and doing a spot of snorkelling.

Once we had enough of the sand, we climbed back up the cliff and sat in the picnic area at the top of the cliff for a while with a drink. Suddenly a movement in a nearby hedge caught my eye. It was a mongoose! Then another one. Soon a whole band of them were darting in and out of the hedges. They appeared to be gathering nesting material rather than pinching scraps from the picnickers.

 

They kept me entertained for longer than the fish and I had to be dragged away in order to head back to the house.

Sight-Seeing in Hawaii

Driving around, just seeing what's to be seen. Mostly photos in this post.

This is a beach...

 

This is another beach. But not just any old beach - this was where That Scene from the film "From Here to Eternity" was filmed!

 

This is supposed to link to the scene from the film but I have no idea if it works as the post I see just shows a big yellow box...

The sea was really rough (so the waves in the film were accurate!) but I was thrilled to see turtles bobbing around in the waves.

 

A road...

 

Some greenery

 

A lookout point where there was a blowhole - impossible to catch on film!

That'll do for now. More tomorrow!

 

 

Summer in Japan

Thursday 9^th August 2007 onwards…

Returning through the beautiful and efficient Narita airport was far less stressful than the UK travesty.

Tim met us at the gate and drove us home.

It's HOT! Oh my god it's hot!! Thankfully we have air-conditioning. Raymi's ears are a state so I booked a vet's visit for him in case it's something worrying. (Turns out he has an allergy to mozzie bites, same as me, and the only cure is a) keep him inside and b) regular steroid injections. So we leave it as they don't seem to bother him too much).

And the cicadas… LOUD! And constant. Now I like the sounds of a real jungle, but this is something entirely different. For a start they aren't tuneful. There are no trilling frogs to provide the melody. And they are LOUD. Did I mention that?

Towards the end of the month they start dying and Mum asked me to collect one for her so she can paint it when she returns at Christmas. (That's paint as in "artist" not "decorate the dead bug" - just thought I'd clear that up as someone I told about this got confused…) I started off by keeping it in an opaque Tupperware tub, but forgot it was in there so made myself jump each time I opened it to see what was inside. So I moved it to a clear one. The 35mm film shows the scale.

 

 

Jetlag this way around is harder to get through - I wake absolutely ravenous at 3am and find it hard to function for some time. Rhiannon wakes very early too. But after a few days, she sleeps about 14 hours straight, lucky girl! Unfortunately, this was on the day that we had people come round to replace our ridiculous oven... with a new one that's exactly the same. So I had to wake Rhiannon up before I wanted to.

Tim has two outings arranged for us.

One is to take Rhiannon to DisneySea - a watery version of Disneyland, apparently. I haven't been.

The other is to an O-Bon Festival one evening

Things We Did in England - Part 2

At the end of July we hired a car and drove down to Devon for a change of scene.

Luckily, I have a base there and so we stayed in Exeter and did touristy things. We visited a beach on the north coast (brrrr!), hiked on Dartmoor (my spiritual home) and met up with Devon friends.

Near the house is a river and Rhiannon was delighted to see this bundle of super-cute ducklings. There is also a swans' nest but the cygnets are large now and begging for food with their parents. Rhiannon called them "swanlets" which I think is far nicer and very endearing.

We finalised the shopping expedition and stocked up on kid's  clothes; a nice winter coat for school, socks, tights and so on that are impossible to find in Japan. Sainsbury's was also ransacked and I treated myself to a huge pot of real Clotted Cream and stuffed myself daft on scones and meringues slathered with this delicious taste of "home". (I grew up in Devon, in case you were wondering!) 

Another memorable trip was to the Miniature Pony Centre where Rhiannon had a wonderful time patting and hugging the dinky foals and riding around a ring. She seems a natural horse-rider so in the future perhaps we'll take this further. I haven't ridden for years; quite fancy a hack. One pony was fat and tiny and had a dreadful trot - how I laughed to see Rhiannon bobbing around like a demented toy! It reminded me of the wonderful Thelwell drawings.

 

 

Then it was time to get Tim back to Hampshire ready for his trek back to Japan. Naturally, Rhiannon was sad and tearful about this - she's very much a Daddy's girl - but we'll be heading back ourselves soon enough. Once again, he made me promise to return too! Bless him - as if I'd give him up to stay in England - crazy thought. The fate of his friends is obviously very much at the forefront of his mind.

Rather than allow Rhiannon to dwell on his leaving, I take it upon myself to drive all the way back down to Devon the day following his departure. What a nightmare! It was a very stressful trip with a whinging child and aggressive British drivers.

Back at our Exeter home, I let her run off some steam at the local park, got some fish and chips and, when she was finally in bed I relished the absolute peace and quiet of a Devon night.

Knowing my total lack of any sense of direction Tim bought a GPS before he left, so I programmed in a trip to somewhere I remembered going as a kid - Becky Falls.

OMG! I had totally forgotten about the Devon roads! Sooooo narrow, with enormous hedges on either side with the chance of turning a corner and meeting either a local car at top speed, a flock of sheep in the road or a huge tractor. To think I used to bomb confidentally around these roads as a teen is terrifying to remember.

Becky Falls has changed a lot in… erm… thirty odd years and is now a complete "experience". We had a fantastic time and made a note to take Tim next year. There are beautiful walks around the area with a small quiz to encourage reluctant children to continue walking; they have to collect stamps hidden around the trail in order to receive a small prize at the gift shop.

 
 
Tim called to let us know he'd got home OK. Our helper had been living in to look after Raymi (the cat) and Tim reported all was well apart from Raymi's ears which were bitten raw from mosquitoes. He also said he'd got some outings planned for our return - wonder what that could be?

We spent some time with my Devon friends and had a lovely time.

Then another horrible drive back to Mum's for a last bit of gardening, and to return the hire car before making our way to Hellish Heathrow and back to Japan.

 

 

 

An Eventful Day which Required a Certificate…

Monday 11^th June 2007

I made Rhiannon a Star Certificate today. She deserved it.

Firstly, she was stoic about Tim heading off to Seoul this morning. Usually she gets upset but she's getting used to the idea now that Daddy has to travel away sometimes for work. Mainly though, it's because he's promised to bring her (another) present from there!

Then when I picked her up from Aikido after school she proudly brandished a real certificate for "Making a Good Effort". I think it's so important for children to be rewarded in this way. It encourages them to continue trying, makes them feel very special and boosts their self-esteem. When I was a kid, the thinking was that no rewards or recognition were required (for whatever dumb reason), so even though I was a pretty good athlete, I have nothing to prove that.

The rest of the certificate said this…

She told a boy to kiss her and he did

She played football with the big boys

When she fell over and cut her knee, with blood, she didn't cry at all

She helped rescue a mole from Raymi and Ginger by being very brave and chasing the cats away.

Then she helped mummy catch the mole and find it a new home and set it free

I shall explain:

After she showed me the Aikido certificate in the car on the way home, she shyly whispered that she had something to tell me and would I be cross?

"Of course not", I said, rather nervously, thinking, "oh no! What had she done? Got into trouble, sent to the Head Mistress?"

No, - she had indeed, dared a boy in her class to kiss her during play time, and he did! I wish I could remember who this boy way, but I can't. I tried not to laugh…

Next on the list - more boys! We could be in trouble in years to come…

There are a couple of boys who live next door to us and regularly play football outside the house. Rhiannon often presses her nose up against the window to watch, but lacks the Japanese language skills to talk to them and (usually) the nerve to ask if she can join in. They are some years older than her with the eldest being about 13 or so. But today, with her confidence massively boosted by the day's events she went out and they very kindly allowed her to play footie with them.

Now she's also the world's greatest drama queen when it comes to any injury; a bruise causes a meltdown and demands for a plaster, so you can imagine the palaver she creates when she gets a proper cut or graze that produces blood. Not today though! She fell on the tarmac and got a good scrape with a lot of blood that needed a real pad, not just a teeny plaster! And as the certificate states - no tears!! Being brave in front of the boys…

They went indoors after this to do their homework and Rhiannon got her skipping rope out to continue her playing outside.

Suddenly, she came running in shouting that Raymi (our cat) and his little stray friend - who we have unimaginatively named Ginger - were "being weird down the alleyway - I think they might be fighting". I could hear no fighting sounds, but went out to see what she was talking about. Sure enough, the two cats were being "weird", but it didn't take me long to work out what they were up to - they were chasing some kind of creature and playing with it. They were running up and down behind our linked-neighbour's house.

The only way to rescue whatever it was they were after was for Rhiannon to squeeze through the hedge separating our gardens and chase the cats away. I wouldn't fit. So I went down the other side of the houses armed with a plastic bucket to head the cats off and discovered a mole! Alive and unhurt, thankfully. I retrieved a scared little girl from the narrow alleyway and she helped me guide the mole into the bucket. This was the first mole she's ever seen, so we had a little natural history lesson, said a very firm no, we couldn't keep it as a pet and asked her where did she think it would prefer to live?

Just down the road is a route to an ancient, unused and dry waterway circling Shinjuku-Gyoen garden so we took it down there where Rhiannon scrambled down the bank and set it free in the little wilderness.

I must admit to being surprised at finding a mole in the middle of Tokyo! And I was very proud of Rhiannon today, hence the certificate.

Culture Shock

Still May 2007 but I'm going by photos now, rather than my diary as I think it's more interesting...

My days usually go like this:

Am rudely awakened at silly o'clock by my daughter who has no concept of time. If she's awake, then everyone else must be woken up too.

I am not good in the mornings.

Get dressed and drag myself downstairs for a cup of imported tea. And am somewhat revived but still extremely unsociable. Anyone in their right mind should avoid me in the mornings.

Provide breakfast for child. Chivvy child along in order to eat breakfast in less than 2 hours.

Start shouting at child to get ready for school. Why this takes so long, I'll never know. If she gets up at 5am, why is it always last minute out the door? Super dawdler when it comes to getting her out.

School run. Stress out finding a place to park in the overcrowded carpark. Car got scraped one day in there - most parents drive huge people carriers, even if they have just one child. (Please ignore the previous post about Landrovers - I don't drive it).

If it's a Tuesday, then I get a super caffeine hit at Starbucks and a lovely, calming gossip with my friends before returning home to a lovely clean house, courtesy of my delightful helper. Tuesdays are nice days.

On every other day, I come home and work, work, work before repeating the school run / car parking fiasco again. I'm a freelance writer and also do a lot of editing, proofreading, formatting, uploading on to the website and heaps of miscellaneous business stuff. I often work very late into the night, especially around deadline time once a month.

While working I listen to British radio through the PC, sometimes on Listen Again which is odd when I hear old news stories; sometimes live so I hear shows I'd not hear in the UK due to the time difference.

So it's easy to forget where I am in the world.

Until I walk outside and see something like this on a bush.

 

It's a stunning butterfly and about the size of my hand! If anyone can tell me what it's called, I'd be very grateful.