We hope that everyone is well and keeping busy!

It’s a dry and sunny Sunday afternoon here. Simon and I have just come back from a lovely little walk up to the Windmill and investigating a new road that appeared which neither of us had been down, so that was interesting.

The last couple of days we’ve had torrential rain, thunder and lightning,  I’ve still been out cycling as it was cool and have enjoyed the empty roads 😀

The week was busy, starting with the arduous job of cleaning, measuring and taking photo’s of all of out ‘Adopt a Coral’ corals and then updating the data & website.  It’s a lot of hard work that we have to on a quarterly basis both in / out of the water.  We’ve over 100 corals to upkeep, so it’s take some time.  A great job for my Intern to help out with.  He can truly see the hard work and regular maintenance that goes into our ‘Adopt a Coral’ program.   This was the first time that we hadn’t forgotten/missed any photo’s/measurements of corals.  Usually I’ve forget a couple LOL

Diving in this monsoon, has it’s bonuses.  You’re going to get wet anyway, so it’s a good time to get those underwater jobs done.   We’ve tidied our artificial dive site by consolidating all the rubble under the domes.  This in turn provides a nice little habitat for all the small fish and invertebrates.  We’ve cleaned all of our coral nurseries that were getting overgrown with ascidians, algae and sponge.  We’re going to, when it’s not raining, make some new structures and deploy them ready for when we get the OK from the DMCR.   Also on the agenda we are going to move some of our Giant Clams that are have been in cages for the last 18 months, onto the natural reef and also select an area of reef in need of rehabilitation and start some simple research on coral transplants.  Lots to get on with, as well as teaching.

This morning Simon was up early making a lovely looking pie and pitta bread ..he’s so talented.  He cooks and I clean up the mess 😀   I did buy some banana’s, so I think it’s time for me to bake a banana loaf 😀

LOVE TO ALL
XOXOXOX

End of another week.   It’s been pretty good diving but the weather hasn’t been the best.  Heavy storms over night and then drying up by late morning and then heavy rain in the afternoon.  Can’t really complain as I’ve not got soaked on the way home yet 😀

I still have my Eco intern for another week.  He’s a lovely chap from Hong Kong and is pretty funny.  Even though he only started diving in the last month, he’s a pretty good diver.  Still needs learn about spacial awareness but he’s good.

We’ve been out collecting coral eating ‘Crown of Thorns’ which has tested Darren.  Not only does he have to measure, note the depth and count how many arms these starfish have (research purposes) I pick them up with some large long tongs and then put them in a sack which he has to dive about with 😀  So all n all, he’s been put through his paces LOL

Earlier on in the year, we had a couple of groups from India that made bottle nurseries, well we finally got around to putting them on the long tail and deploying them at Junkyard.  We’ve not put any corals in them yet, as we are still waiting on approval from the DMCR to do anything. 
Moving these small but very heavy cement nurseries was hard work but we’ve now made a path from Junkyard to the natural reef, so hopefully, people shouldn’t get lost ;-D 

We also deployed a new clam cage and moved some of our giant clams.  Our old cages were very tired and had lots of holes in them which Mr Trigger fish loved as he was able to get in and eat some of the clams.  Annoying when we’ve been been looking after the clams for over 18 months.

Hi everyone, we hope you are all well and enjoying life.
Well, we are back in Koh Tao after spending an amazing month with Rosie and the gang on the farm, in the UK.  Our month’s break was well needed as both Simon and I were going a bit island crazy.  You all might think it’s wonderful living and working on a tropical island, diving most days, sunshine all year round but believe me, it can wear you down ;-D  The last month or so on the island we were going through vigorous training, justifying our work, submitting proposals to the DMCR (Department of Coastal Resources) in order to get approval of all our reef restoration efforts of which we’re still waiting for the OK ..

Funnily enough, it’s a running joke that whenever we come back to visit, it always seems to be my Birthday no matter what time of the year it is 😀  This time was and I was thoroughly spoilt by everyone.  Big Sis and husband Rob drove up from Sussex for the day which was brilliant and brought me the superb scuba cake as well as some of the best shortbread she’s ever made  😀   I adore Jans shortbread!

This picture was from the Little Bay Restaurant in Croydon when we visited Si’s Dad.  Live opera while you eat.  A very funny and enjoyable evening!

One my prezzies from Si was a trip to London to:

‘Jeff Wayne’s The War of The Worlds: The Immersive Experience.  A combination  of immersive theatre, virtual reality, augmented reality, holograms and other cutting-edge technology; giving audiences the chance to live through the Martian invasion of 1898

A superb day out, which we shared with Roy, Simon’s brother as it was his belated birthday prezzie

We were also lucky enough to spend a week in Devon with Si’s family in Croyde.  A stunning part of the country where we walked for miles along the coast geocaching along the way.  The weather the week we went was supposed to be horrible but anytime we’d go out walking the sun was shining down, so we were so so lucky.  We even got Aunty Pat on a 3.5 mile hike, not bad going for a 78yr old ..that sounds old but she’s about 28 at heart

Back in the water now.  We’ve only missed diving the last few days we were in the UK.  It certainly is good to have a break.  I’m sure our ears are grateful.  It is good to be diving again, water is warm, visibility is so good.  Nothing worse than coming back to horrible diving.

It was so lovely see everyone.  Thank you to Rosie & Fiona for ferrying me around, Iona for the amazing cooking lessons and to everyone else for just being lovely 😀

Rosie, Charles, Rob, Tom & Mupps, we don’t quite know what we’d do if we couldn’t come home to the farm, so Thank You for putting up with us.

MISS YOU ALL!

XXXX