Beauty and the Beasts

I just got back from visiting the States and experienced some major hot weather near one of the military bases while visiting with my son and his wife. It was a great visit, but I am glad to be home now and am back to organizing all of our own stuff. 

The flowers around our yard are beautiful and thankfully do not take too much care. I know this, because I have totally neglected them since I got here. I think they might actually appreciate the fact that I have not disturbed them, since I do not have luck with flowers.

Ant hill with thousands of ants.

While I was away, I did NOT miss the beasts. This picture does not do justice to how many biting ants actually live in this mound, since you cannot see the tiny creatures in a photo without using a super zoom. These ants are very small and black, but they bite like the Fire Ants in the States. I do not know how many times one of us has stood too close to one of these mounds and have done the "biting ant dance" trying to escape the armada of ants crawling up our legs. The good news is that they seem to be moving farther away from the house now that we are living here full-time. 

We had to cut down a large part of the guanabana tree that was rotten. A ton of little beasts were under the bark eating the branch away. Rick finished just in time for the rain to start...yay. I was super helpful and watched him do the work!