Bulbophyllum lasiochilum 'Black'

The latest of my orchid species to come into flower.  A prolific little beast, so far this little plant has a total of 12 buds/flowers developing.

New Dragonfly

The bright orange Dragonfly is quite common, but this is the first time I have seen the purple one!  The camera can't capture the irridescence of it but it certainly stands out!  When I was trying to get close enough to photograph it, it would fly off, but kept coming back to the same place.  After three hours, and many excursions, its still there!

Hello Hoya

OK, its not an orchid.  I am not completely single minded on the plant front.

Many will have seen Hoya's before.  They are fleshy creeping vines with umbels of small white/pink, waxy, star shaped flowers.  You have probably seen them hanging in pots in many gardens looking like the one above.

I stumbled onto one here that is a little different!  Attempts to identify it suggest it goes by the name of Hoya imperialis.

New Visitor

This moth decided to rest on my wall for a while.  I couldn't get a shot with anything else in it to give perspective, but the wings were about 100mm (4 inches) tip to tip.

New House Target

With the house that I was trying to buy off the list, I have gone back to one I looked at earlier.  I have made an offer but it is a bit uncertain because the house is part of a "Phuket Divorce" where a foriegner and his Thai wife are parting ways.  These events are very common despite how much publicity there is for the problems of these foreigner-Thai relationships.
Everything is in the Thai wife's name and she is clearly trying to find every way to make the best of the situation (for her that is).  It has quickly become clear that there is a lot happening with this woman than the husband knew about and I won't be suprised if there is more to come.  I have found out that the other house he bought for her is now the security for loans that he knew nothing about.  I wouldn't be suprised to discover that this one also does not necessarily belong completely to her either.  The only way to find out is to do a full search on the title and that will start now.

The Way To A Man's Heart Is Through His......

Given my failure to buy the previous house, I am now trying to buy a different one.  The risk is that it is part of a "Phuket Divorce".  Despite the fact that everybody knows about these events, it is talked about and written about all over the web and all through the local papers etc., it still happens amazingly regularly.  It goes something like.......
Older man comes to Thailand for a holiday and meets beautiful (often much younger) Thai woman who will love him forever.  There is the teary goodbye at the airport with the plans that he will come back to live their wonderful life together, and he heads home.  He then starts sending money for her to get everything set up for his return.  Often it ends there because when he says he has everything ready and is coming back, suddenly he finds she has disappeared.  In other cases he comes back and they set up house often get married.  It seems then that the demands for money start escalating until he finally catches on that everything may not be as it seems.  When he starts thinking that maybe he needs to escape, he realises that the house and land is in her name only because the Thai law does not allow foreigners to own Thai land.  Legally he has no rights whatsoever.
With these events so common, how is it that it keeps happening?  When the whole thing is so well publicised, its hard to blame the women for taking advantage of the situation.  I think the best way to describe the overall events is suggest that "the way to a mans heart is through his stomach", but "the way to a stupid mans bank account is about 30 cm lower".