Mangos, more mangos and even more mangos

Sunday 8th June

My favourite breakfast - overnight oats, chia seeds, raisins, mango, banana with a dash of lime juice. Mmmm

When we first viewed this house in early 2024, Da promised us lots of mangos from the three trees in the garden. Imagine my disappointment the first year when we had about four fruits in total. I felt thoroughly cheated! This year, however, has more than made up. Every morning we're sweeping up mangos, trying to think of new uses. I never knew there were so many different types: different shapes, sizes, tastes, colour and times of ripening. We're just coming to the end of the season now and the last ones are the big green-yellow ones above the pond.

Really happy to get on well with our neighbours, Josephine and Simon, and Damian and Da. This was our catch-up meal on returning from the UK. 

The fiddleleaf frangipani is just coming back into flower after a dormant period.

We agreed to cook D&D a typical English meal as thanks for looking after the garden. It hasn't happened yet but we've been practising - with limited available ingredients. No Bisto!

Bread and butter pudding with, sort of, custard.

Trevann's birthday happened. Seventy-seven! Lao massage followed by rock gig with FFGS, Railyard and Wagon plus plenty of BeerLao.

FFGS (French Fries and German Sausage).

Back to more mangos!

The new house upstairs is almost complete and an auspicious day was chosen for the house blessing ceremony. Family, friends, neighbours and construction workers all gathered for monks chanting, candles etc. Followed by full-on party with karaoke, beer, food and more beer. Luckily we didn't have far to go to stumble home!

Trevann got to sing.

The outside of the house is no great beauty but it'll be lovely inside when lived in, with fabulous views.

This is a beautiful butterfly - but its caterpillar is a major pest for citrus growers apparently.

Our photographer friend Anita came round for lunch and took a pic of us in the garden

Looking over the back of "our hill" to the next valley you can see the constant construction going on. More and more houses. It's a thriving town...

I fed the cats next door for a weekend and took the opportunity to snap a pic of our house from theirs

Our garden at night.

I find the building techniques fascinating. Bamboo wigwams to hold the formers for the concrete pillars.

Then the concrete is pumped through these giant red cranes.

All buildings start with these pillars.

We get beautiful clear skies at this time of year. It's the "green season"

The poor old Nam Khan river continues to be converted into a canal. It used to have verdent green banks with trees and flowers. Sad.

Tree surgery Lao-style. One guy climbs the tree in flipflops with a machete. Simon and other guy pull with rope. They were just cutting a few branches to avoid electric wires.

It's also jackfruit season.