Wild pigs stampede through the fruit tasting tour

A herd of pigs was rooting around in the Breadfruits as I walked into the orchard with 12 fruit tasters. We got to within 30 metres before they stampeded. Luckily they ran away from us - some of the pigs were huge, and there were lots of piglets.

Our two dogs - Kimmy and Mia - took off after them. It all seemed to happen in slow motion - the dogs were loping, the pigs were trotting. And it was EXIT - Stage right. Then ENTER - Stage left. Pigs first, followed by dogs. EXIT - stage right again. It reminded me of a Keystone Cops movie with the police chase.

And the next afternoon they were there AGAIN! Our neighbour has started shooting them and is killing 3 or 4 a day. They are making a huge mess in the orchard turning over the soil looking for worms.

Door squashes treefrog

The green tree frogs are back in the house after a long absence. I was so excited to see him on the back of the toilet door. Some of the fruit tasters needed re-assurance to visit the toilet - we had a few frogphobic people last week. He settled in well, going out at night to hunt and then returning with muddy feet and making footprints all over the toilet wall.

He was hanging out right on the edge of the open toilet door next to the hinges, and then the door closed. His eyeball got caught in the space and got squashed in the socket - it's still there, but it bulges a lot. It looks like you could just push it back in, and it would be OK, but Digby's sister is here - she's a vet - and she said the nerves would have been detached so the eye no longer works. So one eye looks like it is out on stalks watching things coming from behind.

So now we have a disabled frog. He seems fine - he still comes and goes - but I am worried about how his predatory skills have been damaged and wonder if he can catch enough food. At least we will be able to distinguish this frog from all the others.

Digby checking out the local fruit markets in Dili, East Timor

Digby teaching the program facilitators about grafting techniques at the Caritas headquarters of Oecussi 

Alison standing in the foreground of a view of the mountains of Oecussi. We spent 4 days in these mountains visiting remote villages to meet local farmers and teach some grafting workshops. 

Some of the farmers at the grafting workshop held at Nefomtasa in the province of Oecussi 

Digby presenting a grafting workshop to the farmers from the village of Nefomtasa, in the remote mountains of Oecussi. Cornelio, the program co-ordinator, is working with Digby, and translating into the local language