Settling into our new home in Goa

Goa is beautiful! We love it here!

It has taken me so long to get back into the blogosphere because there has been  so much transition.   Agarwal Packers and Movers (reputed to be one of the best moving companies in India – don’t believe that!) lost our stuff, damaged quite a bit, seriously delayed the shipment and gave us much grief.  No compensation.  No apology.  But that’s that!

The house we moved into is absolutely perfect for us but was in need of much repair, in fact we are still working on it and there is plenty more to do!  But we love it!  Then my Macbook’s motherboard got fried due to a voltage surge.  Apparently this is a common problem in Goa.  ‘Wish I’d known that earlier!  Anyway, the good news is that it’s back and I’m back!

This is the very first time our family has lived in a house in India.  It’s usually been an apartment.  It is just wonderful to have a yard!  Small but our own.  The children are so happy!  They have seen so much more nature since we’ve moved here.

Behind our backyard is a compound that is all jungle.  It’s an old, run down, barely visible Portuguese style villa and must have been beautiful in its day.  Now it is in ruins and the compound looks like a jungle.  There are two Chikoo trees.  I have never known them to grow as tall as these and their fruit is sugary sweet.  Birds of all sorts can be seen here; Mynas,  noisy Jungle Babblers, elusive Barbets, decked out Kingfishers, Shy Rufus Treepies, darting sunbirds and cooing doves (to name a few).

It is so very lovely to look out my kitchen window and see greenery and bright hibiscus blooms.  The call and twitter of the birds is a welcome change from the noise of rumbling, honking trucks and cars.

 Brandon is in reptilian paradise!  He loves catching frogs, toads, lizards and geckos and let me tell you, there are plenty around!  

Another big happiness for the children was our wonderful neighbor’s dogs.  Adam and the children are crazy about dogs!  When looking for Brandon, it is not unusual for me to find him keeping Dexo and Brownie company!  

We’ve had some amazing backyard discoveries  But more about that later!