Grumpy's wife

Thursday:

We have two kinds of weather at the moment, blazing hot or stormy. Neither is particularly good for gardening (but great for the garden) and the grass has got very long. I went out the back, considering a bit of a mow by the pool, but I could feel the hair on my arms crisping up so decided against it. But I was pulling a few weeds as I wandered around when there was movement beside me and I jumped about a foot into the air.

It seems Grumpy has found himself a wife! She's hiding between the rocks in the shade of the passionfruit vine. She was probably sunning herself on the paving tile before we startled each other.

I wasn't very impressed with Grumpy, he stayed still while I watched but the moment I turned away he scuttled off behind the shed, leaving her alone to face the human. I know almost nothing about lizards but I'd already decided that Grumpy was male and this new one is bigger and more blue/grey, (he's more brown) so that is good enough for me to label her as the female (and maybe pregnant because she is fatter!) Wouldn't it be lovely if they had a family.

I'll have to think of a name for her. I'm not going to call her Mrs Grumpy, how old fashioned and sexist!

I had a swim by myself this afternoon because I knew we wouldn't have time after school (but I might suggest an after-dinner swim if it's still hot). I say "swim", I mean I mostly sat in the water or moved slowly around. The only place in the shade in the water at that time of day was in the grotto, a sort of cave under the waterfall which has a ledge under water to sit on and another ledge out of the water that you can put things on. The water feature sticks out all around, so to get my book there I held it in my mouth and dog-paddled over! Dried my hands on my hair then sat and read in the shade, rib deep in cool water. It was lovely.