"I thought we were going to have a typhoon party..."

Two tropospheric assaults are heading through the western flanks of the Pacific, and we just happen to be in the way of one of them. The little curl that is appearing in the projected path is curious, but by all accounts we will be in for an old fashioned typhoon either tonight or early tomorrow morning. As I type the winds have picked up to "audible" and the rain has maintained at "drizzley but potentially bad 'cause, holy cripes those clouds in the distance look horridly dark". It is bound to get worse...

In non-meteorological news, I (solo) just returned from another jaunt to the south to do more field work. Every two weeks I plod southward to count, measure, plant, count, plant, count, climb, collect and other things that keep me busy and dirty in Taiwan's epic karst forest. At night I get to go for a night walk and spy the curiosities of the evening world, and this trip granted me some nice photo op's that I thought I should share. Above is a civet nestled in a tree while it tried to avoid me seeing it, and below....

 Lizard, Gecko...two competitors for the cutest critters of the forest floor.

Centipede, green snake (thats both its colour and its proper English name)...two competitors for least enjoyed encounters in the forest. Actually, the snake is no cause for concern. But, I was told that the night before I arrived at the field station they spotted a banded krait in the dormitory kitchen.

 My seeds are growing up! Four week old Ficus benjamina seedlings making their way in the world. Some of these lucky folk will make it back to the forest, the others will forever be a memory and a number in my notebook.

 Now, as we wait patiently for nature to toss us around and break windows and bend trees, it is time to get back to work. However, upon my suggestion that tonight would be a great opportunity to catch up on Chinese studying and some work/planning, I was greeted with the quip that titles this post. Party for every occasion, apparently?