A Lizard Ballet

Dateline: Venice, Florida

  The month after Hurricane Irma, we arrived to a near-miraculously undamaged house. I hugged my young orchid tree as I'd said I would. The screen on the back porch that Floridians call a "lanai" had a few more holes in it but it wasn't much worse than it had been before. Some trees were down in town and neighbours shared hurricane stories but none too dramatic. All agreed that we were extremely lucky that Irma lost power to such an extent and thank you, St Joseph and Notre Dame de la Chabanne for taking care of our little house and thank you to kind friends and neighbours who sent reassurances and photos! 

  The lizard extended family seemed undaunted - on the contrary, they had multiplied. They were busy scurrying self-importantly all over the place. Here's one of our small friends up on the netting.  He appears to be clinging to the only bit of visible hurricane damage, a section of rubber sealing that came loose.

That curl in the tail is a dapper touch.

The team have done a great job of decimating the insect population. Keep up the good work, lads!