Nice to be back again with you all.
Have had a lovely week with my dear friend who I trained in nursing with. We were able to get out and about quite a bit and enjoyed showing her the sights. Plenty of photo's taken.
We have known each other more years than I like to think of, and have got up to many a escapade or two. Will write about some another time.
This was my friend who came to visit in Africa and spent one of her nights petrified. Our two cats were chasing a gecko ( little lizard) around the room and jumping up and down over the bed. She did not like anything that creeps or crawls so this was no fun, especially for us with all the shouts in the middle of the night. Another time an army trail of safari ants walked up the wall, through the room and out the door.

These can eat anything that gets in the way, so we had to go outside and pour some oil around under the windows to keep them away. There was a time when I was only young and playing with a friend and fell into a swarm of these ants. I was immediately picked up and dropped into a bath of water, when they bite it is very painful. These ant are not to be argued with. In favour to the ants  they can be very helpful when doing first aid out in the wilds. If you have a bad cut or an accident, and no plasters or bandages available, let the big ants pincers bite you across the wound, then break off the body. This will work as stitches until you can get medical help.

Whilst she was here on holiday this time I went to pick some roses for her room, our garden is a mass of scented blooms. One of the branches was very heavy with blooms and had broken off so I went to cut them. Something under my hand felt rather odd and made me move it quickly away. Well, it was first thing in the morning, no specs on and slightly bleary eyed. The time I go out to feed the birds and fill up the bird bath. On focusing back under the roses I saw a whip snake, a little sluggish as the sun was not quite hot enough yet  to warm it up. Not sure who was the most surprised. Our dog usually seeks out anything odd in the garden but had missed the snake. It did give me time to run inside the house and get my camera, and shut the dogs in the house.
As you can see from the photo the flash made it a little annoyed and I saw the inside of the mouth!!

 Like the viper we once had in the garden, the dustpan and bucket came out and with Klaus's help got the snake scooped up and into the bucket to be put into the field next door.I don't like to kill anything if I can help it.
Now I make sure I have a good look around before putting my hands or feet around bushes. In Africa this was common practise but do not expect to have to do it here, which is rather silly really as we do have snakes, thankfully only the viper is the one to be wary of. This will probably be the only time we see one this year. Well, hopefully not in the garden.

The picture of the week is some beautiful roses.

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Back to art this week. We went to have a look at the boat I was painting, guess what, it's been put back in the water. How inconsiderate of the fisherman. I have not finished it yet, mind, I don't think he re-painted it either, must have just done some repairs!! Thankfully I work from a photo.
I have started on the cut down palm stumps the boat is resting on, and putting some of the material and rubbish that was  around. I won't make it quite so messy though!

See you next week.