Curious House Guests

Our list of surprise guest appearances grows by the day here in Alfonso.  All very pleasant encounters with farm and forest creatures and the kids are delighted to meet each and everyone of them.  It's a great live learning experience for the kids.  We teach them about animals, insects and the colors they come in and we try to document as much as we could.   More importantly, we also teach our children how to respect and set them free.  Here are some of our curious house guests - the ones that came even before family and friends did.

Introducing, the green crested lizard otherwise known as bronchocela cristatella, a rarely seen creature endemic to the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries.  This little guy suddenly appeared in our backyard and started out brown and agitated before turning into a bright green color.  And that's because he loved posing for photos.

I never got used to how gregarious my husband Jinggoy could be when it came to animals.  He just loves every kind and doesn't hesitate to touch or hold them even if he knows they come from the wild.  I tried to give a gentle reminder, "Ok, babe, we know what happened to Steve Irwin, right?" but that fell on deaf ears.  Next thing I knew, he was posing with the little guy taking selfie shots.  Later, the little guy didn't even want to leave him and was funnily looking back at Jinggoy despite being set free on a tree nearby.

We also see a lot of lovely dragonflies in various colors and sizes but mostly the tutubing kalabaw kind.  We've seen the magenta one, green, turquoise, yellow and white one - yes there's a white one.  I love how they all play around and hover over the pool in the summer.  

Take a look at this unique beetle as well with seemingly engineered lines.    

Or this grasshopper.  Mind you, we have the gigantic kind.

This next one's for the books and I need someone out there to help me identify what this creature really is.  It looks like a scorpion-spider of some sort.  Do you see its claws?  We saw a pair of them in the backyard and of course, this one, we didn't show to the kids.   Strictly for adults only.

Living in Alfonso really does give us a closer connection with nature.  We love the night sounds of birds and the crickets.  They are all so relaxing to listen to and we do sleep a lot better except when we hear Homer, our Boston Terrier, snore.   In the morning, we always wonder what we would discover next...and you really never know.  Just the other day, we had a quail right outside our private garden and that was priceless.

Keep exploring!
Mutya