Watching You Watching Me

    

    A few years ago I wrote about a little unexpected housemate I encountered  in my home at the time.https://devilslayingamongstotherthings.blogspot.com/2014/09/meeting-my-room-mate.html?m=1

    In my house now, in the last few months  one of her distant cousins has set up home with us. We had suspected for a while that a gecko had moved in, after catching fleeting glances  as she darted behind the fridge/freezer or, dishwasher. ( For the sake of the story I'm genderising as she.)

    But, she has grown comfortable in our environment and has now made home behind our sideboard. The lizard realizes we do not pose a threat to her. How do I know that? Each night at 18.20 p.m. on the dot she climbs out of her hideaway and sits in full view. I'm not sure if it's a, watching you, watching me scenario. No connection to the Bill Withers song.

   A few times this normally nocturnal creature has freaked me out a little, but she does a good job of keeping unwanted insects at bay. Because of the warm climate here, mosquitoes, and ants are a common pest in the home.

   She is a little camera shy, but I did manage to photograph her the other night when she was roaming around. Unfortunately, the flash did scare her and she darted behind the print on the wall for the rest of the evening.

   However, she must have went home in the hours of darkness, as she appeared same time, same place the following evening.

Whatever you're watching, or doing this week enjoy!

 Care for the Lowest

 

I would not enter on my list of friends

Though graced with polished manners and fine sense,

Yet wanting sensibility the man

Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm.

An inadvertent step may crush the snail

That crawls at evening in the public path;

But he that has humanity, forewarned,

Will tread aside, and let the reptile live.

The creeping vermin, loathsome to the sight,

And charged perhaps with venom, that intrudes,

A visitor welcome, into scenes

Sacred to neatness and repose, the alcove,

The chamber, or refectory, may die:

A necessary act incurs no blame.

Not so when, held within their proper bounds,

And guiltless of offense, they range the air,

Or take their pastime in the spacious field:

There they are privileged; and he that hunts

Or harms them there is guilty of  a wrong,

Disturbs the economy of nature's realm,

Who, when she formed, designed them on an abode.

The sum is this: If man's convenience, health, 

Or safety, interfere, his rights and claims

Are paramount, and must extinguish theirs.

Else they are all the meanest thing that are

As free to live, and to enjoy that life,

As God was free to form them at the first,

Who in his sovereign wisdom made them all.

Ye, therefore, who love mercy, teach your sons

 To love it too.

By William Cowper