Well, perhaps not actually in it, although he’s mentioned octopus fishing from time to time — I’m sure many readers of Language Hat have wondered about Siganus Sutor’s life in Mauritius, the French-speaking island near(ish) to Madagascar. Sig, who is a structural engineer as well as a polyglot is obviously too busy to write his own blog, so I thought I could post some photos he’s taken of their local wildlife, including the foot-long local snails. I’ll post more if he sends me more. Here’s what he sent me:
In the garden we have loads of toads. Snails too. An odd tendrak (a kind of hedgehog) visits us every now and then. Every afternoon we have two bats that hang themselves in one tree in front of the kitchen door and at night their cousins often come and make a hell of a noise. (Either they are fighting for our litchis or longans, or they are mating. I’ve never dared go outside in the dark to check.) We have parakeets flying past, and bulbuls in their hundreds too.
(I hadn’t heard of Longans or tendraks. Apparently it’s tenrec in English. AJP) 
Close up:
Martians call snails courtpas, literally “do-not-run”. They are not quite one foot long.
I wonder if there is only one snail in that foot-long shell, or if it’s an apartment building. Either way, I’d like to see the resident.
A Bad Guide 
Mauritius, the French-speaking island near(ish) to Madagascar
I for one would have rather written “Mauritius, the French(ish)-speaking(ish) island near(ish) to Madagascar”. But being judge and party is usually not the best position to be in.
I’ll post more if he sends me more.
That’s not too difficult to do. However, I cannot but wonder who would be interested in all that.
Either way, I’d like to see the resident.
The subprime crisis being what it is, most of them retracted in their shell. But I’ll see what I can do to convince them not to be too coy.
However, I cannot but wonder who would be interested in all that.
I would, so would both the people who read my blog. Then there’s the several thousand over at Language Hat. We don’t get to talk to very many Martians. If you show us foot-long snails in your back garden it’s the next best thing to going there.
It’s hard to imagine that snail as a foot long since there’s nothing in the picture that would indicate size. It looks like our half-inch snails.
the bats, though, we don’t have anything like that. Our bats are mouse sized, and I mean animal mouse–they’re not as big as a computer mouse.
I for one would have rather written
That’s what happens when you don’t have your own blog. You have to be content with what other people do. For Pete’s sake, Kron don’t tell him how easy it is, or he’ll stop sending you pictures and use them himself.
I cannot but wonder who would be interested in all that.
The point of blogging is not to write what other people are interested in, it’s to write what you are interested in so they can get interested too. Or just to have a home page as an introduction to yourself so people can have a handle on your identity. Unless you blog for money, in which case it’s different.
That’s why I suggested a cement blog.
Our bats are mouse sized
These bats look like little monkeys when they start going up and down the branches. It can be fairly fascinating. We do have small bats too, that are called chauves-souris bananes (banana bat), don’t ask me why. There’s one Mr Durrell (the brother of the other one) who wrote a book about the bigger, golden bats.
Bats are our friends, they eat mosquitoes. I’ve never seen them hide in plain sight like yours, though.