The garden

Today I moved into the house allocated to me - I'm not sure I'll stay here, it's too big for me and too isolated and I'm not sure I'll get used to it. The best thing is the garden - although it was raining today so I didn't spend much time outside. As I walked across the lawn a LARGE bird took off from the other end of the garden and flew over my head - it had a curved beak, and the closest thing to it I can see in my chart of African garden birds is a Hadeda Ibis; it was a magic moment - reminding me, after all the hotels and malls of the past two weeks, that I'm actually somewhere exotic (for me). The garden, and the birds, could swing me on the house. And yes, there's a lemon tree.

A man I met at a reception the other evening told me that in Africa you're never more than four metres away from a snake - they're everywhere, certainly in every garden, but usually you don't see them because they're very good at hiding and they avoid humans - but if he visited my garden (he said) he'd find a snake for me in ten minutes, because he knows how to look for them. That's interesting to know, but I don't think I'll be looking very hard; in fact I probably won't poke around in the undergrowth at all, now...