Welcome to My Garden Journal

Today feels like the perfect day to start this journal - the beginning of a new month, deep in Trinidad's rainy season, when the natural world is at its most vibrant and dramatic. What started as casual observations of the wildlife around me has become a daily source of wonder, humor, and genuine surprise. It turns out that when you start paying attention, every backyard is full of personalities with their own agendas.

Meet the Human Family

Let me introduce you to the main human characters in these stories. I'm staying with my niece, Reana, and her husband, Niraaz, who have graciously opened their home to me since February. They're the official property owners, though, as you'll discover, that title is heavily disputed by several other species who've established their own territorial claims.

Reana's mother (Meena) also lives here, adding another layer of family dynamics to our household. She brings her own perspective to our daily wildlife encounters and often has the most practical observations about our various non-human neighbors.

My older daughter Surayya is also here with me - a talented tattoo artist who's slender and stylish with gorgeous honey blond curly hair. She's completely her own person, fiercely independent, and busy developing her tattoo business while navigating life in Trinidad alongside the rest of us.

And me - Joie - the visiting aunt who came for what was supposed to be a temporary stay and has instead become the household's unofficial nature documentarian. My background in educational research has given me a keen eye for observing behavior patterns, though I never expected to be applying those skills to ground dove real estate negotiations and beetle inspection tours.

The Canine Committee

Our household includes five dogs, each with their own personality and approach to wildlife management:

• Kane - A 3-year-old Rottweiler who's black with honey brown legs and spots below his neck and around his mouth. He sports a blue collar and has mastered the art of living his best life through belly rubs and all-day sleeping sessions.

• Luna - A mastiff over 10 years old with an orange and black coat that reminds me of a tiger. She's incredibly loving and really, really loves belly rubs, but don't let that fool you - Luna is also an avid huntress who corrals all the other dogs for nighttime hunts across the property.

• Sable - At 10 months old, this cane corso mastiff is dark chocolate brown with milk chocolate variations creating tiger-stripe patterns like Luna's. She's mischievous, demands to be the center of attention, and like any baby, tastes everything - wood, plastic, concrete, paper - despite having tons of dog toys. She's absolutely adorable.

• Lady - We're not sure of her breed, but she's white with a beige/yellowish hue and completely adorable. She loves sleeping under the car, and when all the big dogs are away, she runs up to me wagging her tail, waiting for giant hugs and belly rubs.

• B.B. - This little doll was the last one to befriend me. She's black and white (think Chik-fil-A cow pattern) and appears to be mixed with a dachshund - short, long, and wonderfully rambunctious. B.B. is proudly a meataterian with very specific dietary preferences.

The dogs serve as our early warning system for human and wildlife activity, though their effectiveness varies depending on their individual interests, Luna's hunting schedule, and whether Kane is in the middle of one of his legendary nap sessions.

The Aquatic Resident

And then there's Claude - my blue beta fish who's thriving in his large fishbowl in Garage East. While he may not participate in the territorial negotiations happening overhead with the ground doves, Claude serves as the aquatic representative of our household and has claimed his own prime real estate in the garage ecosystem.

The Property: A Stage for Natural Drama

Our house sits on a property that has become a fascinating case study in human-wildlife coexistence. The layout is key to understanding the stories that follow:

The House serves as the central hub, flanked by two garages that have become prime real estate in the local wildlife market. Garage East and Garage West offer different amenities - strategic location, varying levels of human foot traffic, and diverse architectural features that appeal to different species. Garage East has the added distinction of housing Claude, my blue beta fish, who's thriving in his large fishbowl and serving as the aquatic representative of our household.

The dragon fruit trellis provides an elevated observation deck with excellent sightlines across the property. It's become a favorite meeting spot for aerial residents to conduct their daily business.

Various garden areas and trees throughout the property offer dining establishments, nesting opportunities, and territorial boundaries that shift depending on seasonal negotiations between residents.

What's Coming

This property is home to some remarkable characters who've established their own complex social and territorial systems. There's the Ground Dove Empire that has executed a years-long strategic takeover of the garage roofing systems. There are beetle inspectors who occasionally tour the facilities on mysterious business. And countless other residents who pop up with their own stories, agendas, and territorial claims.

Each day brings new observations about how these creatures organize their lives, establish their territories, and navigate their relationships with the human residents (who, let's be honest, often seem like the newcomers in these established wildlife communities).

I'll be sharing these stories as they unfold - the daily negotiations, territorial disputes, surprising partnerships, and moments of pure comedy that happen when you start paying attention to the politics of your backyard neighbors.

Welcome to the ongoing chronicles of a house where humans might pay the bills, but everyone else makes the rules.

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Next up: The Ground Dove Real Estate Empire - a years-long takeover story that will make you rethink who really owns property around here.