Time flies

 17th July

Nearly a month since I last posted. Mostly everything is OK but the big news for us was when our lovely tenants, Bex and Matt, in Brighton told us that they were moving out on 1st August to go and live on a boat in the Marina.

Fair enough, they've been great, trouble-free tenants for 5 years. Now we needed to think again. We decided to select a Letting Agent and that leads to the need to get the flat up to spec with all the required mod-cons and safety certificates etc. So we set the programme in motion, brought forward our planned trip to the UK for September, signed the contracts and agreed an availability date for new tenants of 10th September.

Which was fine until yesterday when Bex and Matt's boat purchase fell through! How this pans out we wait to see.

Other than that, this week we've had our old friends Roy and Veasna from Cambodia visiting and another old friend from 1980s days, Colin, arrived from Brighton. It's been fun socialising with them.

The weather remains changeable. Most days stay dry and around 34 degrees. Evenings and nighttime there are often thunderstorms and torrential rain. We take umbrellas and occasionally have to wade through flood water to get home. But all in all rainy season has not been the continual wetness we were half expecting.

I do like these little mantises.

Work continues on the Nam Khan river banks - but at least they left the flame tree!

Storms sweep across the valley with sudden ferocity

Rainwear needed for gardeners

The new pond has settled in well and now that the tadpoles have matured into frogs and hopped off, the fish are able to reproduce without all the fry being eaten

We hatched this beauty in our bathroom - but not before the caterpillars (oleander hawkmoth) had completely defoliated our pinwheel jasmine! Fortunately they grow back quickly

In the evening the petrol station closes but leaves gasolene outside for passing motos to help themselves. I guess there's an honesty box

Our neighbour is fond of snake for Sunday dinner.

First visit to Luang Prabang for Veasna. Roy was here with us about 10 years ago.

I was concerned about these soft-shell turtles for sale in a "pet shop". But our friend Mike, who is a wildlife protection officer, tells me they are captive bred and not endangered. Mind you, he said, they could be as rare as hen's teeth and nothing would be done about it.

Old friends from 1980s Bournemouth!