Quiet Surprises

God has a way of surprising us quietly - in ways we least expect. Sometimes those surprises are profound and others are just quiet reminders of the Creator’s blessings and presence.

There have been several occasions since moving to this house where I have spotted things in God’s creation which I did not necessarily expect to see now that we were no longer living in the bush and were now in the village context where trees are fewer and yards are swept to the dirt.

But not only have there been some times to still spot things I thought I would not see, but there have been new critters and bugs to see. Here are some of those for you to enjoy, and with me, once again praise the Creator!

A few weeks back I was reclining on the bed looking out the window, from where I can see the top of the wall of the neighbour’s yard across the lane-way…and I saw a movement. Something was scurrying across the top of the wall. I looked more closely and….

I had only ever seen the male lizard (the more colourful one with the brighter blue head and yellow tail) while living in the bush house, but here were a Mr and Mrs….with Mrs playing hard to get!  Periodically they would both pause their running up and down along the top of the wall - guess they both just needed to rest and catch their breath! They were really fun to watch.

Then of course there have been still some butterflies - no not as many as the bush house but still more than I expected to see and have visit this garden. Here’s one from a couple of days back.

Then today there was another surprise - a huge colourful spider I had not ever seen before up under the edge of the carport roof - relaxing in the middle of his HUGE web. From tip of front leg to tip of back leg it was about the size of a saucer!

I had to ‘look him up on google’….only to discover ‘he’ is probably a ‘she’ - as unlike the lizard and much of the animal kingdom, the female is the large colourful one and apparently the male is smaller and not as colourful! 

So she is a Banded-legged golden orb-web spider or scientifically  a 'Nephila senegalensis’. She too was fun to watch - and wow could she move fast when she spotted a bug of some kind about 30cm from her centre-web lookout position. And after grabbing it and reversing as similar quick speed back to her centre spot, she enjoyed her afternoon tiny snack - holding it with her little orange ‘hands’, and then went back to her relaxed position awaiting the next unsuspecting bug!

And I once again was caused to stand in awe of our amazing God and Creator!