Rainy season has returned, which always seems to bring various bugs. June bugs and beetles from tiny to huge have been around for a while. Sometimes there are little flying insects. Sometimes there are big ones with wings that don’t seem to fly. The strangest ones are the brown flying bugs that seem to shed their wings. The next morning you’ll find only wings everywhere.

If you hate bugs you might find it challenging to live here, but it’s extremely rare that I’m driven inside by bugs who won’t leave my light and screen alone, or that I’ve been bitten or stung by anything. If you find bugs interesting though, you’ll have a great time here.

A little June bug, and something that looked like a huge ant but I think is related to the other non-flying winged insects that appeared one night

Here are a coupile of the winged but non-flying insects. They seem to show up at night and the next morning you find their bodies all over, especially under lights.

Here is another one of our visitors. It is said they bite or sting but I’ve never had a problem, and they are slow moving and totally nonagressive.

What a beauty of a moth!

While I’m here, I have a few other odds and ends to share.

We grew a pineapple! Our veggie guy sold a pineapple to my neighbor, twisted the top off and planted it outside our fence where it finally made a fruit. It smells heavenly!

Home grown pineapple

Do you think Joel needs to get back on his bike? We have been busy with the band, sleeping too late, and I’m sure we could come up with more excuses. We rode today though and it felt good to be out. I also spent some time working in the yard which I need to make more time for. Now that the rain is back everything is growing again.

A happy weed

I tried gardening yesterday too, but it lasted about 3 minutes before it started raining. Apparently this guy was hiding out under the trash can I use for gardening.

That was a scorpion before Joel whacked it with a broom.

Last but definitely not least, I was running around with my neighbor one day. It is common to throw yard trash in the nearest vacant lot, so we were exploring the yard trash and came home with some plants. A kind reader identified this one as a vanilla orchid. It’s been climbing up the guanábana tree for quite a while, maybe 3-4 years. I was eating breakfast this morning and happened to glance over and saw this! A flower! I’m not going to hold my breath that it will make a vanilla bean, but you never know. Whatever it does, I’m happy to see the flower.

The vanilla orchid flower!

Life in Panama. Mi vida difícil 😁