My new house, just minutes from the ocean :) power deposit paid, everything’s on, cleaned it top to bottom last night, rent paid, and every bit I pay on it means it’s closer to being actually MINE. This year is starting off awesome. I’ll be posting lots of photos of the progress as I decorate, paint, etc :D It’s going to look like Pee-Wee’s Playhouse exploded. I bet you’re all SO EXCITED! :P Well, I am. :B

Photos from the walk through paradise my family and I had today :) Tumblr just cannot do these photos justice, so I uploaded them at their larger size to my Flickr, HERE: ~Tropical Paradise~ I’m amazed every single day at the beautiful, tropical world I get to live in… sharing this walk with my family at one of my favorite spots on this Earth was such an experience. I hadn’t been there for years, and it was even more lush, green and thick with life than I remember.

We saw so many things that I didn’t get to photograph, either because I was enjoying the experience too much to think of it or I couldn’t get a good shot due to not being allowed by the park to leave the boardwalk (alligators being in the water and all). But there was a massive and intricate orb weaver feeding in her web with a much smaller male above her… massive butterflies everywhere… several mystery bugs which were too flighty to identify… and Christmas lichen (cryptothecia rubrocincta) which is very reddish-pink in color and grow best in places where the air is damp and clean. It is used as a dye in Brazil. It was a really beautiful, surreal thing to see covering several of the trees. Must get photos next time we go, even if I have to risk an alligator attack! :P

Jonathan, Josh and I went to the Botanical Garden by the college day before yesterday. I fell in love with this place… not only is it a beautiful, subtropical paradise, the walkways are miles long into nature and they dwindle into barely visible trails where most people don’t venture. MANY lizards dwelt here.

Jonathan found a land leech, and I’ve never seen him happier :P I found Surinam roaches, several millipedes, rare white orchids, a banded water snake, and a beautiful orchard orbweaver (leucauge argyra - thanks Queue!) though the one photo I took didn’t turn out as I’d found it right as it was getting too dark to focus on.

So many smells in this place. Being very scent-oriented, I had to smell everything… soil, rotten logs, flowers, creek water, plants, sand, fungus… everything had this enchanting spicy scent, sort-of like pepper, but sweeter. In the very back of the garden was a lake that smelled so much like my childhood. It made me reminisce going to the lake to fish with my mom and grandpa. That slightly fishy, murky water smell. I love it so much <3 I thought of my Papa many times while exploring this place. I’ll be sure to add this to my ever-growing list of favorite places here :o)

Sketchin sketchin…. working on perspective. Tropical bug-hunting is the best… though I’m not sure how comfortable it would be in full-clown ;oP

Most epic thunderstorm last night at around 1 a.m… we blew bubbles in the dark and splashed around in the puddles as the gutters were overflowing with cool rain water. Caught a lizard, listened to the rustling of the palms in the breeze and saw more fireflies. I love this place <3