Friday, May 12, 2006
3-8 May - Fausto and Ana-Laura's home, Aldeia do Vale
While at the Colloquium Conference, we stayed with Fausto and Ana-Laura and their sons, whom we have got to know over the last three or four visits to the city. They have recently moved to the Aldeia do Vale, a "closed condominium" development on the outskirts of the city noted for the beauty of the surroundings and for its ecological approach to maintenance. (For snake and pest control there are free-roaming emus, for example.) So the days with them were delightful for a quick blast of life with a young family, for rest (because Andrew wasn't preaching at the conference) and for walks with wildlife all around.
Emus.
Life goes on at the Aldeia do Vale. People do their thing, and the emus do theirs. You can tell who is visiting, because they actually take notice of the birds, and even photograph them. The emus ignore all the people equally.
A Capped Heron (Garça real) I think
On my first day of my first visit to Brazil in 1997 I was being driven to visit a construction site in São José dos Campos when I saw a Burrowing Owl. Owls that are out in the day time were a novelty for me, as were owls this small, this cute and this owlish. We have seen them in many places since, but never in such abundance as in the grass verges and parkland of the Aldeia do Vale. Most of these shots were taken in late afternoon sun.
This full scale defensive display was quite alarming, to say the least. These owls are not large, but can make themselves so!
A yet to be identified humming bird feeding a few yards from Fausto and Ana-Laura's home.
Spiders The orb-web spider at lower left was taken with the moon for background. What looks like a brown British house-spider on the right is actually the dreaded Brazilian Brown Spider, which lurks in wardrobes, and in clothes and shoes in wardrobes, ready to give a bite to blow your arm up like a football or even (so they say) kill are small or weak person. In six years, it is the first time we have seen one.
While at the Colloquium Conference, we stayed with Fausto and Ana-Laura and their sons, whom we have got to know over the last three or four visits to the city. They have recently moved to the Aldeia do Vale, a "closed condominium" development on the outskirts of the city noted for the beauty of the surroundings and for its ecological approach to maintenance. (For snake and pest control there are free-roaming emus, for example.) So the days with them were delightful for a quick blast of life with a young family, for rest (because Andrew wasn't preaching at the conference) and for walks with wildlife all around.
Emus.
Life goes on at the Aldeia do Vale. People do their thing, and the emus do theirs. You can tell who is visiting, because they actually take notice of the birds, and even photograph them. The emus ignore all the people equally.
A Capped Heron (Garça real) I think
On my first day of my first visit to Brazil in 1997 I was being driven to visit a construction site in São José dos Campos when I saw a Burrowing Owl. Owls that are out in the day time were a novelty for me, as were owls this small, this cute and this owlish. We have seen them in many places since, but never in such abundance as in the grass verges and parkland of the Aldeia do Vale. Most of these shots were taken in late afternoon sun.
This full scale defensive display was quite alarming, to say the least. These owls are not large, but can make themselves so!
A yet to be identified humming bird feeding a few yards from Fausto and Ana-Laura's home.
Spiders The orb-web spider at lower left was taken with the moon for background. What looks like a brown British house-spider on the right is actually the dreaded Brazilian Brown Spider, which lurks in wardrobes, and in clothes and shoes in wardrobes, ready to give a bite to blow your arm up like a football or even (so they say) kill are small or weak person. In six years, it is the first time we have seen one.
# posted by Andrew and Cora @ 9:28:00 am 
