Nature close-ups

One highlight of the retreat was seeing two Western Blue-Tailed Skinks. These are beautiful little lizards with metallic-blue tails that really catch the eye in an otherwise green-and-brown forest setting.

Oh, and another highlight was seeing a tarantula :-). It was quite large-- perhaps 6 or 7 inches including the legs. It was fascinating to watch it walking down some steps outside the retreat center. It would hang its body and seven legs over the step, just suspended by one leg. But it wasn't quite big enough to stretch to the next step, so it would hang for a few seconds and then just... let go, and drop onto the flat surface of the step. Magnificent.