meandering minds…

to head to Florida to have a massive meeting with our tutors.
This will be like culture shock. Florida has CARS. And traffic. And traffic lights. And street names. And stores. Lots and lots of stores. And more stores. (And I am planning to go to a few, too!)

But as I was packing, for some reason, I was getting excited about Japan. I can get excited about Japan at the drop of a hat, so that’s not new. And I looked back through my photos. You know, if I had a Concorde, I’d go to Japan for dinner. Every night. I think it would take a very long time for me to get bored with eating there. We’ll be teaching in September for Homeopathy Japan, and its founder Torako Yui, and it is an absolute honour.

So here are some shots of Japan, as we prepare to leave for Florida. Tomorrow’s shots will likely be of Florida, and I’d bet the food doesn’t compare. Though Japan has cars and traffic and stores!

This is an intersection I love, as I leave Shinjuku for Ginza.

And the arches at the entrance of Ginza.

At our hotel, the Keio Plaza, I tend to have the same wonderful breakfast each day:
(that’s green tea, yogurt with mango pudding chunks and lychee pudding chunks and craisins, a bit of egg and ketchup, pineapple, cheeses, nuts and dried mango and apricots. I don’t eat like this at home, although I guess I could.)

This is the main classroom. It is a techno-geek’s dream world – I love it! There are video screens for people toward the back and sides, so they can see what we’re writing or projecting at the front, and another screen for them to see us. There are cameras shooting us so the lectures can be simultaneously broadcast to all different parts of Japan. And the best part – there are wonderful students, and graduates, who come year after year. It is so great to see them each time, and to meet new people too. They are brilliant and eager learners and followers of truth.

When I am in Shinjuku I head to Odakyu and visit Marriage Freres, one of the best French tea blenders on earth. These small bags are about $45 each, but the tea is exquisite. I won’t need any this year, since I have a pretty good stash, so I’d better not go there or the temptation will overcome me. Their Earl Grey French Blue? Just glorious.

After we teach we’ve been fortunate to visit the home of Dr. Yui in Atami, a seaside town. Her housekeeper is a wonderful chef! The beds are divine – we pass out the moment our heads hit the pillow. The view is beautiful.

The attention to detail is incredible. We walk into the house’s entry, take off our shoes. When we leave, the shoes have been turned around for us to slip into. If an umbrella might be needed that day, there are umbrellas. It is just a sane and lovely way to live.

And the best part, or one of the best parts? The onsen. We always use the onsen in the house, which is cedar and relaxing. Last visit we decided to try out the outdoor onsen, and we all ready for it. When we arrived – we learned it was SO SO hot that it wouldn’t be practical. Oh well! Maybe this year! It wasn’t a disappointment though, the cedar onsen was great.

The food is fresh, delicious, and the presentation is always gorgeous.

It is wonderful there, and we love our visits. We relax, we get to explore, eat, and most of all – appreciate precious friendships. We look happy there, eh? (I am very happy there!)

Well, tomorrow – Florida!

Update: Well? Has anyone played with the program? Make a cool picture? Have some fun?

It was fun discovering this site on Rudi’s son Eric’s Flickr page this week. It is a place where you can go and fool around with interesting brushes and create great art! The url below, not Eric’s Flickr page.
Give it a try!

http://mrdoob.com/projects/harmony

Sure, you can go to Eric’s site to see amazing photos of his and his wife’s gorgeous son, and watch him grow almost from day to day, and to enjoy movies, too.

But I doubt that’s as much fun as creating your own drawing. I mean, Nicola is an amazing and wonderful little man (and, thankfully, a Sulphur to pay back his Sulphur dad, Rudi says). How could he possibly compete with this artistic rendering of a flower that I made for Rudi? Not easily, I tell you.

And this lovely rat, that I made for Kelsey:

High art, exquisite. And Eric made two drawings, too. I know they can’t compare to mine, but he put forth a good effort. I am afraid to show them to you, since they say all rights reserved and stuff, and I am not sure what that means. But perhaps he will be okay if I post a link to them.

Here’s a clown:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixelbuffer/4430694152/

And an alligator:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixelbuffer/4433819668/

Yeah, I know, his are no comparison to my drawings at all. But he’s still a young man. He has time to mature his art and one day, if he plays his cards right, he will be able to draw flowers like mine.

Note to those in the know – Eric has just done the re-design of the nastiest, most cluttered and un-navigable website in the universe — ours. homeopathy.com will be one step closer to sanity as soon as Eric’s design is in place, and it won’t be a moment too soon!! Thank you Eric, your work is seriously appreciated.

Not a drug mule, a puppy mule.

Royal Bahamian Potcake puppies, to be exact.

Judy, who runs potcake.org, had put a note on an Abaco email forum asking if there was anyone heading to Florida who might be able to accompany (carry the paperwork, get through customs) ten wee potcake puppies. It was almost too exciting – we ARE going to Florida! And I COULD and would, and would love to accompany ten little pups!

It was all arranged with the airline we’re using, who have helped rescue the pups in the past (Cherokee Air) and I imagined smelling new puppy smell, and rubbing tummies and scratching ears and snuffling and snuggling each one of them in turn.

But today we had a concern – my flight would only handle one carrier of about four pups. Six would have to risk being poisoned in their holding location, and ‘cake rescuers were worried and upset. What could we do? I couldn’t sew them into the lining of my HCH jacket!

Well, Locair came through, another airline flying in and out of Marsh Harbour. The said they’d transport the two carriers and ten puppies. And better than that – one of their employees fell in love with one of the pups, and she is adopting! I just love a happy ending.

If anyone is ever interested in one of the most loyal and brilliant breeds of dogs and would like to adopt a puppy, please talk to Judy at potcake.org. There are more than ten who need homes, or nine. She’d be happy to help. One of my patients outside of Toronto picked up her potcake, Chili, about a month ago and the family is in love with her. I am sure it is mutual!

This is what happens when a Chili Potcake sees snow -

Seriously – if you’re thinking of a dog, there are none better, more brilliant, loyal or calm and kind, with a mid-size chassis. Give it a thought.

* none of these photos are mine – the first two are from potcake.org, and the third is from Chili’s mom, since I require photos weekly.

We received a photo today of little Meadow, new daughter of Paula and Lee whom we welcomed a few weeks ago. I took the photo, played with it and sent it back to the new mom and dad. I like it. Meadow is such a soft, smooth, gorgeous little girl!

And what do you do with an old guy who has back pain?
Besides love him?
And SCENAR him from time to time?
And let him lie in the sun between patients?

Speaking of old, Maggie is over 15 now. She sleeps a lot. But she still loves to eat, and loves her food. She loves going outside for a drag (she’s never been a walker, she prefers sniffing every 1/4 square inch of this earth. Her ears have been pretty deaf, though I could swear recently that she has heard a few sounds. And her eyes are pretty good. Other than needing a nail trim, she’s pretty cool. And she loves sitting out on the deck once in a while, sniffing the air. She’s probably trying to figure out where the heck she is now, since she’s lived in eight houses so far. I wish we still had access to the doggy chiro. I think it would really make Maggie comfortable.

In this photo, the view is to Maggie’s left, but apparently the smells are straight ahead.

Hope everyone has a great St. Patty’s Day today! I wish I had a corned beef. I found the most succulent recipe last year… and this year – no corned beef!

You might wonder how people know how to get to where they’re going, when there are no street signs. The streets have names, but most people don’t know them. There are no mailboxes, no mailmen. There’s a post office in Hope Town proper, and I guess if someone has mail word would filter down to them eventually and they’d go pick it up.

So how do people know how to get where they want to go? Well, with one real main street, it isn’t too difficult. But then businesses and people will put up their own signs to help out.

For example:

From the top down, and left to right:

Sea Spray Resort and Marina

hometownfishing.com

Native Collections – Bahamian-made (somethings)

Abaco Inn

Sweeting’s Grocery (which recently has closed)

Sugar Shack – ice cream, t-shirts and more!

Sugar Shack – deli, ice cream, t-shirts and more (and they do make a mean tuna sandwich)

Sammy from Miami – apparently here for spring break, and trying to help his buds find him, if only they can read the scrawl

PB’s and Gene’s Place – now, why do the arrows point both ways? I will have to find out the answer to that one, because
PB’s Place is LEFT. PB and Gene are musicians, and PB’s Place is the first little cottage we rented here on Elbow Cay.

Here it is – to the left, and on the left:

yesterday, and has been for a few days, that I wanted to share the colours with you. Their depth and richness is magnificent, so beautiful that you could gaze at them all day, watching the changes as clouds pass overhead.

This one was shot at the Abaco Inn:

I hope you can enjoy the greens, aquamarines, turquoises, aquas, indigos that we do, if these photos do the ocean justice.

It was a glorious day today, a perfect day to head to the Abaco Inn for the art show. The sun shone brightly and the winds didn’t seem too strong (but they were!) and we were excited to see if we could find more art for these blank walls. Especially since:
1. Rudi is in love with the original of “George Wins Bingo,” which he was ready to buy on the instalment plan, and
2. Capt. Jack’s bought the original of “George Wins Bingo.”

So, off we went. And there was some nice stuff, some normal stuff (there tends to be a lot of lighthouse paintings, for some reason) and jewelry, wooden items, and more. Here’s the Abaco Inn today. Well, not the Inn, but the view from the Inn.

Walking around was interesting enough, but one of us was in a bit of pain and kept sitting down. So I kept sitting with him and telling him the paintings I liked, and we’d head off to see them and check the price. I loved one of sea grape leaves by Donna… someone, but the price was higher than we can spend right now, so we passed.

And we looked at the giclee of “George Wins Bingo,” because there has been one at the Abaco Inn since 2008 or so. And we measured it, and got the price, and came home. Rudi was hurting. This is Rudi, leaving.

And we worked, had some tea, lay in the sun for a while, had a sardine sandwich, got our rogers email fixed, worked some more. And around 4pm Rudi said – he had been on the Kim Rody website and saw the painting I loved, which I hope you will one day see (on my walls!) — how big was the “George Wins Bingo” at the Inn? How much did they want? And off he went to compare the price to the cost of ordering one directly from Kim. Ordering from Kim means we’d have to wait until she is back in November to get it, though. And Rudi saw this big, empty space on the wall above the buffet in the kitchen, and he can envision ONLY “George Wins Bingo” in that spot.

So – off we went to the Abaco Inn to pick up their giclee of “George Wins Bingo.” Or, should I say OUR giclee?

There he is, above our buffet. If you look into the back row of people, you will see George with his arms elevated, for he has just won at bingo. To his left is Kim, the artist and his daughter. And George passed away this winter, so this painting is all the more special to her, and to us.

what a renovation! « meandering minds….

UPDATE – the photos of the homeowner, Mr. Curl E. Tail, have been found and added to this post now. Phew! I knew I had them here somewhere!

We’ve been told that plastic rusts here.
And then to make sure we got the point, someone else said that even paper rusts here.

So we live with some degree or worry about screws (even stainless or galvanized rusts) and the new galvanized ceiling fan going up in the outdoor room, and some little metal staples holding the internet cable to the outside of the house, and the light fixtures, and… everything.

And then we have great weather, months of great weather (save the stronger winds and chillier than normal temps), and we can’t imagine what people are talking about. Our view is crystal clear, how could anything possibly rust?

Remember last week the window cleaner was working his butt off (before he hurt his back) cleaning the windows spic-and-span (and I DID walk into one yesterday morning – OW!)?

Well, in the past 36-48 hours – wow! The winds have been coming off the ocean and blowing SALT everywhere! All over the house (which is why people wash their houses here!) and, while we’ve been asking for the screens to be installed in the windows (anticipating opening the windows and not getting that one fly that enjoys our house) – though people say no, don’t out in screens, don’t open the sliding doors and use the air conditioning, or the fridge and the stove and everything else will rust – well, yeah, we can see that now!

Now I know why.

Our formerly crystal-clear view is now pure salt and humidity.

And when you-know-who feels better, we will have to wash our house, and re-do every single window.

Happily the skies opened up tonight and helped us out by washing the bulk of the house for us (and filling our cisterns).
But we may have to re-think the screens… though we’ve heard it’s a great way to harvest the sea salt – just knock it off the screens!

If we have missed winter this past few months.

Driving to the store…

Or to work..

Or the long ride to the haircutter’s…

Or the chiropractor’s…

And…

Well…

To be honest…

Yeah, I have! Though WE haven’t.
(the Royal We)

I tend to idealize winter. I love to see snow, and Rudi has installed outdoor lighting in all of our houses so I can watch it fall from the sky at night.

And in my fantasy/idealized worlds no one has to drive in snow. They can all stay home, make hot chocolate, put another log in the woodstove and stir the big pot of soup on the top, and run outside to make snow angels and snowmen and to get rosy cheeks and rosy noses. There are snow days for the teachers and the kids, and for everyone who has to commute to a job. Families can be home together… in the snow.

There’s a lot of great truth in my ideal winter. I’ve been blessed enough to live it.

But the harsher realities of winter, having to wear coats and hats and mitts and boots and scarves and to take an hour getting dressed and undressed just to run to the store for juice, and back home again; shovelling, shovelling, shovelling; slip-sliding in the car, and wondering who is slip-sliding nearby; not knowing if you should drive the (what turns into) two hours to see a play downtown, because it could well be cancelled by the time you arrive; booking a trip to paradise, and sitting at the airport on the plane in line for de-icing, and wondering if you will make your connection; sitting in an airport in Florida for 21 hours because the entire eastern seaboard has been shut down because of the snow — well, it does have its downside.

It’s been pretty emancipating this winter to wear only flip flops or boat shoes, and to have as the main weather worry if you should wear your fuzzy jacket AND a windbreaker, or just the windbreaker.

or crippled with back pain, the poor guy…

How does he keep up his strength, to work all day, talking with patients who have no idea he’s in pain?

Ah, good tea and sunflower seeds! That’s the answer?

Well, and these:

Hmmm…
Kinda like little energy packets, I guess. And the SCENAR can’t hurt, either.

So who gets the seeds?

Wha? Who, me?

A Tasty Recipe: Funnel Cakes! – Tasty Kitchen Blog.

Ha! Great timing – look what Ree just posted on Tasty Kitchen! Would you try these at home? I am afraid of hot oil, since I “roasted” six peanuts in oil (about 4″ of Crisco) when I was young, and when it caught fire and I threw water on it and it exploded, we got new kitchen flooring and new paint. But – it would be fun to have funnel cakes on demand!

In 2007 I’d taken a picture of the “Lizard Lodge,” a small house in front of the house named “Crow’s Nest” in downtown Hope Town.

It was a simple structure, sufficient for any self-respecting curly tail lizard. Not too ostentatious, but it had all the comforts of home.

And I DO have a shot with the lizard who lives here… be darned if I can find it tonight, though. I will add it if and when I find it. He is, without a doubt, one spoiled little bugger!

UPDATE: Here he is!

Now I am wondering if I have seen him lately.
Here he is with his surfboard.

And what do we come across on a stroll through Hope Town this week? This curly tail has expanded, and added some pretty cool things to his property! A lighthouse! Two airplanes! A sports car! A Bahamian flag! And something every home should have on its front deck – a canon!

Spoiled little bugger indeed. As are, I guess, the cats that come to visit!

Yes, there was another fair this past Saturday – for the Wyannie Malone Museum. Rudi will eventually volunteer there, historian that he is. Wyannie Malone is the Loyalist woman who took off with her children from the US, loyal to the crown (and fleeing those wild revolutionaries) and settled our wee cay. Her descendants are here to this day.

There were crafts people, artists, funnel cakes and more. You may one day see our antique glass fishing net ball, a lovely turquoise, that we bought from an Albury from Man O’War.. or our Bahamian-made straw tote that we filled with rolls of beach towels. And here are some of the goodies being sold at the fair (okay, one vendor’s cool stuff):

I bought one of the cloth necklaces. They were very cute, great colours. And then I saw the purses. I hate purses, but Kelsey would have gone crazy for them. A yellow:

And another, in pinks:

And aquas:

The best part of our day was meeting Kim Rody, and enjoying her art. Rudi found a huge and wonderful piece, an original, of her dad, George, winning at bingo at Capt. Jack’s, lighthouse in the background. He took a quick look and pronounced the price very fair, and told Kim he wanted that painting.

She was surprised, and asked – really??

I picked up on her level of surprise. I asked Rudi to check the price again, to see if he’d missed a decimal point. He had.
But he still loved the painting, and asked if he could buy it on layaway. Kim said he can do that, but that the original now will hang at Capt. Jack’s, and that we can have a giclee print in any size we’d like.

We’ll see how that plays out. There’s another art show at the Abaco Inn on Saturday, and we have a few bare walls (though with an open-concept home, there aren’t many). And so we bought a giclee print of this piece, the original being six feet long and hanging in the Hope Town Harbour Lodge. It is a view of the harbour, but painted from the vantage point of the top of the lighthouse. Most Hope Town scenes include the lighthouse, so this is 180-degrees different. And it now hangs in our entry, a colourful welcome to our home.

It is amazing, for someone born in 1950 I never would have expected this.

But it was true. So we had to buy him one, let him try it for himself. I explained that a funnel cake is Dutch, Pennsylvania Dutch… and he explained that the Pennsylvania Dutch were German. Anyway…

They loaded on the sugar, and he went in for the kill.

Hmmm….

“This tastes like a beaver tail!”

Well, no, I think beaver tails are 1000 times better, and funnel cakes are GOOD.

http://www.ottawa-information-guide.com/beaver-tails.html

You be the judge. I guess you’d have to have been on both sides of the border to decide.

And forgive me if they are terrible – my lower back is in spasm and I am being SCENARed.

This is the set of rocking chairs we have outside the bedroom area, for our dottage. It may come soon.

And then a little set outside the kitchen, a lovely location for your morning coffee (except we don’t drink coffee, and I don’t do mornings).

And then the pieces that have served us well in the living room for 12 days.

And the living room with its real upholstered pieces (forgive me, but that window washer is in this shot too):

You may notice beach towels in the background – we just bought a cute straw tote to keep them in, all rolled up by the door at the ready. And there’s a little lamp on the sofa table I will have to show you – it now has sea glass in it. And the bird, of course. It isn’t really as cluttered as it looks.

The furniture feels like the cushions have been filled with cement, but people assure us they may soften in a decade or two.

Yes, he works constantly. Well, he might not call it work, since it is love, and arises out of his desire function. And it is my desire to shoot him.

I did get furniture today. Amazing story, which I will share with you when I get a photo of the furniture that I like! The ones I shot quickly today needed flash (which I hate), and I look at them and say – that’s no centered. Why didn’t I move the vacuum? Etc. So – I can try again tomorrow.

So that’s not totally unusual – trashing the dining table with printers and paperwork and computers and teacups and things. But this one is –

In conversation with Steven Decker, eating his soup, and not wanting to miss a single word. Wow. He’s a stronger man than I. At least his knees sure are.

to talk about the weather, no matter where you live. I can’t say I remember discussing it in NJ 1/10th as much as we do in Canada. And this winter we’ve been discussing it in the Bahamas, often. It is about the coldest winter on record, and it is difficult for people whose houses aren’t generally insulated, and who don’t have central heating (and often don’t have space heaters).

This has been an interesting weather week. It began with a gentle breeze, and a gorgeous sunset, whose reflection turned the ocean pink.

And then we had a prediction for a thunderstorm, which is fine since the rains would have filled our cisterns. But instead – we got wind. Serious wind.

When it is windy and blowing toward the east, the Atlantic is interesting to watch. Each wave has to work harder to come into shore, fighting against the wind the entire trip.

The winds have been so intense that our living room furniture, which was supposed to have been delivered Wednesday by the cargo ship, couldn’t get here, because it was too dangerous to dock the ship. So it was supposed to come Thursday. Now it is supposed to come on Friday.

Rudi was most fascinated by the waves today. They’re hypnotic, and looked a bit like little surfers were somewhere in there causing this great wake. But it was the wind, which can be pretty powerful in these parts at times.

The land you can sort of see way in the background is Tilloo Cay, a whole ‘nother wee cay that is off the end of this cay.
And, of course, that’s Kelsey’s house to the right.

We could use some living room furniture, since we’re having dinner guests on Saturday night. Let’s hope the seas lie down soon. It can’t be easy for the folks having to cross the Sea of Abaco on the ferry this week… let’s hope they have strong stomachs!

Photo note – I shot these with my 70-300 lens at the 300 end, and used 800 ISO. I am amazed at the serious noise (grain). Interesting!

We had an excellent group this year. Rather than our around-25 students that we’d had the first two years, the economy intervened and sent us only the most lovely, most brilliant of all. It was providential that it was a small group because not only was it that much more intimate, we could host the students in our home (into which we’d moved about 18 hours earlier).

From the kitchen to the outdoor room…

They were engrossed, engaged. Their questions excellent.

Their enquiring minds among the best.

And this guy? Well, on any good day (and most bad days) he is phenomenal, brilliant. (No, he cannot talk without his hands.) His talks on evolution and emanation; dissolve, diffuse, dissipate; particular challenges for women in their spiritual evolution, the meaning of 2012… just incredible. As they say – you had to be there.

We enjoyed discussing the ground-breaking thesis that Aleks had written for her DPh. We’re excited to be publishing it in the Heilkunst Journal later this year. It will illuminate Dog, examine their relationship to Man, and the evolutionary thinking in this piece (as opposed to the older, emanationary thought that is so prevalent) will move mountains, shift minds for decades to come.

I also got to shoot Gayle, and I think she will use this photo on her website, and in the HCH and CIHA directories. That was great fun on a very windy day!

Okay, you’ve seen CoCo at the HTVFR Fair, and not too much of Lisa (I will shoot more of her in August at summer school) and that about wraps up winter school!

I’d posted a few photos of the turtles we’d met in the blue hole down the street.
They were green and murky, and a bit of a mess.

So I decided to tweak them a bit – first in Aperture 3:

And then in Photoshop CS4:

Another one in Aperture:

And in Photoshop:

Those done in Photoshop are pretty islandy! I was thinking of doing them in watercolours, but – why? They’re already pretty interesting. And I bet I’d only ruin them if I try to paint them.

Anyway, what do you think? Too extreme, intense, weird?

I know it was seriously exciting for us, and anyone who was with us will attest to the excitement level. And we never imagined!

It started out with our deciding to pick a hermit crab in the crab race. We’d never seen a hermit crab race, and had no idea how it worked, where they raced, how they determined the winner. But we paid our money and picked our crab. Our man, Kasey Pain.

Troy had the crabs in the bucket so the kids, and some silly adults, could choose. Then he released them. It was later in the day and they mostly sat there, in their shells, napping.

And napping…

Now, our #9 is the bigger orange one in the upper left. He was still resting. And #7 took off! And he headed for the first of two climbing obstacles!

And here he is, already at the first edge!

When #2 begins to think about competing! (Here he is thinking.)

And then he saunters off!

There’s our man, still resting up.

And Chris cheering them on, with Troy focusing intently, wondering if #2 has it sewn up so early in the race.

#2 is on the first rail!

But wait! #7 is way up there, on the opposite side of the track!

And – can it be?? It is our man, #9, who has decided he wanted to be a serious contender!

He climbs up the side!

The rest of the crabs wake up, and spring into action!

And it is neck and neck! (Do crabs have necks?)

And they’re getting intense, serious, competitive.

Number 7 is going over!

Number 2 is on his tail! (Do hermit crabs have tails?) And our man brings up the rear.

Then #7 and #2 were over the first obstacle!

And racing to the second!

But – don’t discount our man! He refused to let a fellow racer stand in his way!

Is he fast enough?? Looks like #7 is on the top of the second obstacle!

That doesn’t deter our man, the strong, silent #9!

#7 decided to mosey around the outer edge of the second obstacle – while our man went up… and over!
Would you believe we were too excited at the end to take the photo of his win? (Okay, it was me, I was too excited to take the shot, but Rudi was excited too.) Seriously! And we won money! But we gave it back to the HTVFR. The excitement of the race was all the reward we needed.

I hope your blood pressure didn’t get as high as ours did in the re-running of this race.
No hermit crabs were harmed in this race.

Congratulations to the gorgeous Paula and Lee on the birth of their daughter, Meadow Afonso Jamieson.
One year after their beautiful wedding at Winter School, their love becomes three.

It is fun, every year it is great fun. We have a bit of an issue with the silent auction… well, by we I mean I have an issue. Rudi has a smaller issue, a more affordable issue.

This was a great brass ship’s bell. We were bidding on it, or Rudi was, plus he also was bidding on a smaller one. When the price got too high, he let this one go.

And then he lost out on the smaller one too, by a hair. Now, a real silent auction aficionado would stand nearby, to ensure that they were not out-bid, and they’d raise the bid $5 or so at a time…

But our real goals are two:
1. bid on the item we really want (although Rudi really blew this one!)
2. bid on things you don’t want, so that other people have to re-bid, thus getting more money for the Fire/Rescue people

We didn’t want this diving helmet:

We DID want the telescope. We were picturing where we’d put it, how we’d check out the ships at sea and Tiloo Cay, which we can squint and see from our windows… and so we were bidding. Rudi would bid, and this Tami person bid. I bid, and Tami bid. She was tough. And I get pretty competitive, I am not that good at losing. So when I bid I take it up quite a bit. But there she was, bidding still.

That’s her bidding. I pretended I was shooting something else. Anyway, I got the bid to $400 (and this telescope was probably not worth that much, plus we really don’t have $400 but, well, you know) and it stuck for a LONG time. Mine was the last bid on the page. To bid more someone would have to flip over the paper and write on the back, or on a new page, and that would be obvious… so we waited. And discussed it, and Rudi said he was not sure of the quality of the optics (we used to have a phenomenal telescope) and so we let it go, and because we’d taken up the bidding it went for about $425 or more!

Ah, and the good news is that Rudi, bless his dear little heart, bid on a Wedgewood plate (okay so far) of the Mayflower (the MAYFLOWER??) and thankfully, we lost it to the next bidder. Phew! I could NOT imagine what I’d do with a beige and brown Mayflower plate.

The young fire guys did a demo (obligatory fire-putting-out demo):

And CoCo enjoyed breakfast. I learned later, in my navy jacket, that the pastels were temporary, and now half of the art you see on the bench is on my jacket.

And we checked out the bake sale, you know, to help with the fund raising.

And brought home that BIG cake in the top right corner, a guava cake. It has been delicious. We invited CoCo and Gayle and JoAnn and Ridge to eat it, but they didn’t eat it all, and we had it for breakfast and lunch and a snack today so far. It is a big cake, did I mention that? And it is great.

Spotted on a golf cart at the fair:

Tomorrow – if you are lucky, I will show you the hermit crab race. I have to say that this was the silliest, yet most exciting thing we’ve done on this wee cay in the past four months. Stay tuned.

In a small community, and especially a tiny island community, half (or more) of your neighbours will be volunteers in one form or another. And Saturday was the Hope Town Volunteer Fire Rescue Fair, an annual event to raise money for the HTVFR folks so they can buy equipment and live to fight another day.

We were surprised to see so many people we know are volunteers.

The group is posing in front of a new truck, Sherlock. But my favourite (and Maggie’s favourite) will remain – Maggie:

These “fire fruck,” as one little boy called them, were parked all afternoon for kids to climb on them, in them, push buttons, pretend to steer. They were elated.

A passer-by had the perfect fair food, two chili dogs and the newer Bahamian beer, Sands (the older Bahamian beer is Kalik):

And CoCo, with Pherrol, the total sweetie who is keyboards in the house band at the Edge, and the head chef at the Hope Town Harbour Lodge. Kelsey wants his job.

Okay, perhaps later. Our power has been off for about 12 hours now and the oii internet, our back-up, is painfully SLOW. It is giving me errors when I try to upload photos. So – stay tuned.

Okay, at last!
CoCo, our student, and Pherrol. We went to listen to the band last night, and Rudi’s main question was – how do the band members keep their hearing? We had to leave after an hour, and our ears were ringing for another hour.

More from the fair tomorrow, I think. Or, not!

Well, I am not sure how tiny it is since we didn’t dive it.

Nestled on a private property here on Elbow Cay is our very own blue hole. That’s pretty cool – you can read more about blue holes here: http://www.motuiti.com/BlueHole.html and you can watch the National Geographic special on them in a few months.

A real blue hole can be miles long. We know this one goes out to the ocean, from this mid-point inland.

We just heard about the one here on Elbow Cay when friend Sarah mentioned that she’d taken her wee charge there to feed the turtles some lettuce (and she said they like lettuce more than bread). So we went to explore. Apparently everyone knew about this one but us. And our new neighbours, who were as thrilled to see it as we.

So we have two big turtles. You can tell them apart, right?
I bet neighbour JoAnn paints them. Not them exactly, but I’ll bet she will do a painting of them. She’s an artist.

It began with a chat with Aleks, one of our brilliant graduates, to discuss her most excellent thesis. And it moved into lunch at the Abaco Inn with our best surprise of the past two weeks — really wonderful neighbours.

The Abaco Inn is on White Sound, with a great little beach and a pool on the ocean. It has good, basic food and I’ve always loved their ahi tuna encrusted with sesame seeds. No, I ate it too quickly to shoot it.

A wonderful spot to spend some time with good food and great conversation.

It was so windy today, and chilly even, that we sat inside. And Ridge and JoAnn are just too much fun. We’re so totally lucky to have met them, and will now look forward to their visits. Their house is directly across the street from ours, though it has been rented until August. For the next while, when they want to visit they will rent other accommodations. It will be pretty nice when their house is their own again.

(yes, he is silly!)

Judy, who manages the Abaco Inn, suggested some “chocolate stuff” for dessert. It didn’t have a name. It was chocolate stuff. We thought it might be chocolate STUFF. But it was chocolate sludge, with whipped cream. I suggested vanilla ice cream, which they will have on the weekend to top it off. It was GOOD. A very nice quality of chocolate, and sludgy, rich but not too much so, and all four spoons were used for tasting, though Rudolf polished off most of it!

It was a lovely few hours that we will be happy to repeat in the future.

And I leave it to you to decide in which order these photos should go! Did this lovely young lady force her wiggly puppy into submission for a good final shot, or did we get a good initial shot and then the wiggly butt was ready to wiggle away?

and -

and –

This is a Royal Bahamian Potcake Puppy. They’re magnificent dogs!

http://www.potcake.org/

It isn’t finished yet, and I didn’t fully stage it, but here are some shots.

The kitchen:

The backsplash still has to be installed, but otherwise it is in good shape. Of course that fridge is a temporary one, which will go into the downstairs apartment when my real fridge comes. But the new granite is gorgeous, and works even better than our initial choice!

And the bedroom, when you walk in from the great room:

From the headboard looking toward the living room. The master bath is to the left through that open door.

And from the door to the bathroom looking out the French doors to the deck. I didn’t stage this at all for you, left the chairs all jumbled against the house where they were last night huddled against the wind and rain. There’s a vacuum showing and stepladder (I can’t reach much in the cabinets). But this is home.

One day I will show you the great room. Probably when we have furniture! The couch and loveseat come next Wednesday and the tables the following Wednesday. Little by little we move in.

Stay tuned!

to shoot things. We are all moved into the house now, there are still some finishing touches to be done, but they are small enough that our builders let us have the keys to the doors. Actually, no one locks things here so they didn’t know where they are, or which keys are for which locks, so they just brought us a pile.

The view from bed (a Tempur-Pedic! our first!) this morning was grey, and we had rain most of the day, off and on. That’s a good thing here as it fills the cisterns, meaning we can bathe! And drink, and clean dishes and things.

Winter School is a smaller, more intimate group this year with wonderful great students/grads. 50/50 students and grads. We were excited to welcome them to our home, even though we did it on about five hours of sleep. Tempur-Pedic here we come! (One of our students had said if her house were burning down, she’d strap her Tempur-Pedic on her back and save it, so we figured it might be a good investment.)

Here are the folks at the dining table.

I will get some more shots of something as the week wears on and we gather strength and stamina. I think moving gets harder as you get older. I moved about 13 times in 17 years with my first husband, and 11 times (either the office or our home) in 13 years with Rudi. I used to find it exciting and loved imagining decorating the houses, deciding where to put the Christmas tree, etc. but now I don’t need that kind of excitement, it comes from elsewhere.

I did want to leave you with a shot of a lovely island girl and her new potcake puppy. They’re a match made in heaven!

Dangers Of The Black Poisonwood Tree « TropiCat’s Blog.

I thought y’all might like reading up on this poisonwood stuff (though this is a fun blog to peruse anyway) so you can know more about its suffering.

My feet are healing, but tend to wake me at 5 am and bother me again around 5 pm, and that periodicity is interesting. The itch is such that if someone told you that setting them on fire would make the itch stop, you’d seriously consider it.

The photos in this article are graphic. One of my builders sat on a poisonwood stump. The sap is black. He had a black Sharpie in his back pocket, and assumed it had leaked. Wrong! We don’t even want to try to imagine how that felt!

I will be working on some photos for you today the best I can. Yes, we are IN OUR HOUSE. And sleep was wonderful last night! Today is the first day of Winter School and we have a small group of dedicated students arriving at 9:30 to get into some great learning! There WILL be photos.

Well, tonight was D-Night, as we get the house cleaned up (yes, our builder would do it, but we want to be helpful too!) by cleaning out the cabinets and getting the fridge and dishwasher and stove all set up. And figuring out if “hot” is toward us or away from us. (It is toward us.)

The window washer was there working very hard for the past few days, off and on, getting off the salt and sawdust and miscellaneous ickies off the windows, inside and out. He is a very hard worker. I think I will keep him in mind for other projects.

The stove looks nice. I am anxious to get to work using it!

The fridge guy was there as well, peeling off the shipping film (what a pain that is!) and setting up the shelves. We also ran the dishwasher and it has no manual (we actually looked for one!) so we will learn about all the settings online.

(In case he looks a bit familiar, he is the twin brother of the window washer. I think I will keep them around – I bet they’d be a lot of fun!)

And sitting the entire time over the French doors onto the deck from our bedroom – this guy. If anyone knows anything about him, let us know please? I googled and got nowhere. But I have a fever, and do pretty weird things when I am hot and bothered.

Stay tuned for the continuing saga. If the internet is working I will have some photos to share. And after church, with our grad Gayle – guess what we’re doing?

for a number of reasons. (Okay, it wasn’t a quickie. But I tried.)

(Those are Shae’s orphaned hibiscuses that JoAnn put in the conch.)

1. We leave at 8am on the ferry to the big island, for last-minute shopping for the house, bird seed, and more.

2. I have poisonwood, which is similar to Mezereum disease. It is on both ankles and feet and everyone yells DON’T SCRATCH IT and I go in the shower and run scalding water on it and burn it and scratch it and open it up (and probably spread it) and then pour on rubbing alcohol, which helps for a few hours.

3. I have the cough Rudi had last week. It is surely ASH, and is in Spongia at this point (for those who know) and definitely came on with some Aconite shocks and frigid cold. I am working on a fever, will do Mez and Spong and Cocc (I have been up after 3-4 hours of sleep to scratch, or to practice NOT scratching).

Anyway, more tomorrow, stay warm and well!

Here’s some materia medica for you:

Mezereum (thanks to Vermeulen)

Vesicles [[4] itching violently and burning like fire] and shining, fiery red areola; itching after getting warm in bed; [6] temporarily better wine and coffee. [NB: I could try wine, but I'd rather pour it on my ankles!)] Itching at night, after scratching; swelling when itching worse. Feeling as if millions of insects were creeping on him.

Spongia (thanks to Morrison)

Cough, usually dry, usually worse before midnight, often of a harsh or barking or croupy character.
Dry cough resembling, “a saw going through wood”, or a “seal’s bark”.
Croup, worse before midnight.
Cough from tickling or irritation in throat or chest.
Cough better eating and drinking, especially warm drinks.
Cough worse from cold drinks.
Cough, better eating sweets.

But it may soon be time…

There has been celebration, in anticipation, all day! The sky-writers have been out in force. Those silly cosmic rats!

And it looks like the phone line is going in eventually, but it seems a sooner eventuality…

The wiring will go in, and it will help our neighbours to realize a three-year dream of having a phone in their house (yes, they’ve been waiting that long)!

The finishing touches are being put on the pergola and railings for the upper road front entrance:

Is that a pergola? I should google the official meaning to make sure. We hope to grow passion fruit vines up and in and around there. Makes me hungry.

Tomorrow Rudi will go to the house and wash it – on the outside, to get the salt off it and off the windows so we can see out. Between heavy salty winds and construction dust they need some help. We won’t go inside because the painters will be there in force – there is actually paint now – and they will be doing their best to finish off the painting that could have been done a week ago if the main Benjamin Moore place hadn’t run out of the base we needed.

The plumber came and it is nice to see faucets (the right ones) and the granite (the new right one) countertops and the under-cabinet lighting in the kitchen and things are just little by little coming together. Sunday afternoon is our move-in goal. Let’s see if we can make it!

The Complete Patient – The Business of Your Health – Journal – Could Wyoming’s Proposed “Food Freedom Act” Be the Beginning of Fresh Thinking on Raw Milk and Food Safety?.

You’d think that in 2010 intelligent adult humans would be “allowed” to do their own research and decide which food on which to spend their hard-earned dollars?

Not so. The Nanny State must take care of us and make sure we don’t make the “wrong” decision.

Mother Nature is very creative.

That’s a float hanging from the wonderful old tree, a metal one, which would have been used to hold up fishing nets. It is a basic one, not too fancy, but when man mimics Mother Nature sometimes it works well.

This glass float is all the colours of the Sea of Abaco, and is gorgeous! People used to find them just washed up on beaches. I think there’s more styrofoam going on these days, and plastics, unfortunately, so the odds of finding one like this is small.

But then there’s coral, and you can just imagine the wee creatures that make this all happen.

Here’s another -

And another -

And this? Those colours are magnificent! The shape, ripples, curves and curls… just beautiful.

The cable guys brought the PVR today, and got our neighbour all hooked up for their cable too.

Our contractor had his guys finish the phone line preliminaries, so that a phone line can be run, perhaps on Tuesday. Perhaps not (we are learning to go with the flow).

The granite guy came over this morning from the big island and got the kitchen and powder room granite installed. The granite for the master bath is sitting in the yard. We’re hoping he comes to install it and to cut the holes for plumbing, which would mean the plumber could come this week too.

I think it looks much better with the cupboards:

Though now I think the “biscuit” sink doesn’t look great, but you know what? Go with the flow!

Rudi was a busy guy. He had to dig up and toss out an invasive Hawaiian Sea Grape plant. The native Sea Grapes are wonderful, and we need them to thrive.

He’s a bit shy. C’mon Rudi!

Back to work!

He does work very, very hard.

Rudi had to pull the high soil away from the coconut trees, and help prevent their premature death by suffocation. Or something.

And he rescued an adorable little coconut and transplanted it on the other side of the lower road entry to the property, to one day match the coconuts on the opposite side. I should shoot this little guy in a year, so you can see how quickly things grow here. Someone please remind me!

Boy are they a good team!
Got creates the seed, Rudi plants them. God grows them. Then I shoot them.

It has been a few years since Rudi had his gorgeous English gardens at our big property, but I was looking at some of the photos tonight and realized we still have the gardens with us.

Here are some of the flowers…

An Allium after it has burst forth:

A Daisy:

An Iris after a rain:

And Rudi’s favourite flower, a Peony:

The church in Hope Town is lovely, and it is situated so the congregation faces the Atlantic Ocean. There’s a reason for this – in the olden days the main industry was “wrecking,” and with all the reefs around the Abacos there was many a shipwreck to do salvage on.

The deal was that the first person to get to the wreck claimed the goods, which they could then keep or sell. And practically everyone worked as a wrecker. The minister was a wrecker, and the minister used to face the Atlantic.

Well, one day the minister had the congregation bow their heads in prayer. They did. For a long time. When they looked up and looked around they saw the minister rushing out to a wreck! He’d seen it, he’d taken off. So when the new church was built the arrangement was rotated, so now the congregation can meditate upon God’s wonders, like that turquoise water. And it was fun yesterday when Rev. Jean used Rudi and me as an example of love in his Valentine’s Day message.

Contrast that lovely view with this view, taken inside our new house, in which we are NOT living.

The good news – the cable internet and cable television has been installed, so that means more consistent communication and fewer interruptions in service.

The bad news – still no paint has come, and our builders are hesitant to let us move into a house where they’d still be working around us. The new granite goes in today (it couldn’t on the weekend because the Sea of Abaco’s conditions were akin to those in the movie “The Perfect Storm.” The temporary fridge we bought on Saturday (which will later go in the apartment) arrives today. The plumber hooks up everything he can. The electrician is pretty much done.

And no paint. It was to arrive last Thursday. And now it is to arrive this Wednesday. It is for the second coat only, and could be done quickly, if only we could get the paint here. It can’t be flown in – latex paint is a hazardous substance and no plane can take it. It has to come by boat. And so, we await the boat. Please pray for us.

I hope you get to spend today with someone you love.
I hope you get to spend every day with someone you love!

We celebrated on Wednesday afternoon, at the Hope Town Harbour Lodge. They were offering an afternoon tea, and since I can’t pass up anything related to tea, and since we could afford this (as opposed to their dinner prices) we decided this is how we’d celebrate.

I was also excited because Shae brought in my replacement small camera for me. When the one I bought just before we came here broke one month in, I had to go through some contortions to get it back to Canada, replaced, and here again. Shae was a help, as was friend Mary and some lovely ladies from Nova Scotia who were visiting here. Long story! But one day I may explain how there things work.

So – planning to use my camera at the tea, I’d asked Shae to make sure it was charged. Did I remember a memory card? Nope. So these photos were taken from her camera, and the last one by Shae.

Here’s our tea for two, with my Valentine in the background – do you think he could talk if we tied his hands to his waist?

And tea for three, for we’d met friend Shae and her mom and friend Judy there!

We almost dressed up. Shae got the idea as we chatted in Skype the day before she left, to bring white gloves and floppy hats and long skirts and a tux jacket for Rudi. But the reality wasn’t as exciting as the idea, since she was leaving in the wee hours of the morn and hadn’t begun packing, so the energy to go through boxes in the attic wasn’t there.

But some ladies came out in afternoon tea dress! Shae shot this and I loved the almost-silhouettes.

Next tea I promise to bring my camera! (I asked Tom to do this monthly.)

I am happy that Tom, who runs the Lodge, told us where they had bought the scones because I bought a few yesterday when we were on the big island… and I just finished one with the egg that my lover cooked for me. Toasted with butter, no Devon cream or jam. But still good!

Have a great Valentine’s Day! Will you celebrate with your Valentine? Did you get breakfast in bed? Did you make breakfast in bed for someone? Are you having a romantic dinner? Are you cooking a romantic dinner?

Beset with delays and missing this and the wrong that, it has been kind of intense the past 72 hours here. We will be in our house on Valentine’s Day Eve, but we will have to sleep in a mattress on the floor possibly in the great room, with all the construction materials around us, and possibly the workers.

Or we can wait a day or two. And buy a second fridge to use while we wait for the right one to come from the US, which “they” say would come in February 25th. Interesting, since the first one took three months.

Anyway, between and among frustrations, we peeked out the window of the rental house yesterday to see this:

That is the guys pouring concrete for the box that will run the phone lines. He promised it would be done by the end of the week. It was started Friday. Oh well.

And then after going for a ride to connect with the dog pee-er and the bird chat-er, we saw this:

Aha! Happy Rudi!

That’s our whole-house generator. They run everything when and if the electricity goes off.

Funny story – friend Shae had said she wanted to buy our brand-new portable generator, which we never used because nothing was ever hooked up to it and because this rental has a while-house. And she called to say no, she didn’t want it now and she preferred a whole-house… and the line went dead. The electricity was off for hours! And I kept calling her back, but since she didn’t have a generator she couldn’t answer! Irony.

Anyway, this is Lance, and our builders say he is like a mother hen with the generators he installs and maintains.

And the guys did the placement the old-fashioned way! The way the pyramids were built. I was impressed.

Voila!

This was relatively cool. Not totally, because I am not a morning person and I was only up from a combination of the previous day’s craziness with the granite (little did I know there’d be more today) and from the excitement of getting my replacement camera for the one that I bought to use here, that broke a month in. I’d read the manual in bed, and wanted to play.

They say all’s well that ends well. And here’s the new granite, with the creamy cabinet colour.

I think it will be fine. And it will be delivered and installed tomorrow or Saturday. Cross off one item from our list.

(The fact that they took back my new stainless fridge, and plan to send an old used white one in its place for gosh knows how long – my stainless one took three months – was the source of today’s total insanity. We’ve had 48 hours of this weird stuff popping up. We’re ready for it to stop now. Rudi got sick and I am fighting something.)

Anyway, with all that on our minds, when Rudi awakened at 5:00 am I did too. I am not good at 5:00 am, either. The poor sick man drew ME a bath with epsom salts. (He doesn’t like baths. They make him cold. They make me warm.)

And this was my prize, for all my staying awake:

It’s like the fingers of God reaching into the ocean to stir it up for another day (and it sure did stir today)!

Today was insanely busy, talking to patients then running to the ferry to the big island, then zipping around (happily Sheri Lee was available) to pick out the new granite; a baby gate (so Maggie can hang out on the deck and not venture down the stairs and disappear); some wine, so if people come to visit we can say “would you like some wine?” and the box of the “stuff” I had friends Mary and Jason pack up in Canada and send down here, and more.

Then we rushed back here to discuss placement of the cabinet drawer and door pulls; to notice the new refrigerator was ordered incorrectly, with the handle on the wrong side; to get changed into nicer clothing and to rush to the Hope Town Harbour Lodge. Shae and her mom and friend Judy were there waiting for us – Shae with my new small camera that is the replacement for the small camera I owned a month that broke. It was Afternoon Tea Day at the Lodge, and since I didn’t bother remembering a memory card, no photos! But I shot some with Shae’s camera, and hope to show you soon.

And then we have this poor sniffly man. After a few days fighting a sore throat, the throat improved and it moved into his sinuses. Alternating sides. We’re working on it. This love of a human suffered through Tea with us all, and still entertained. But he sleeps sitting up, sleeps only a few hours and snarfs and snargles a lot. He’ll be fine in time for Winter School!

In the meantime, I will leave you with this thought, found at Vernon’s:

Update: All’s well that ends well!

The granite will be replaced with another slab that we picked out today. It pretty much has the colours we need, so we’re satisfied.

However – the fridge came with the door handle on the wrong side from the side I ordered. So – still a snafu, but we’re confident that can be dealt with somehow. Until then I have to stand in the pantry closet to open the fridge door, but hey, we all like a challenge.

We couldn’t win for losing today.

Cable Bahamas, who we’ve been waiting for for a month, showed up. And left. Same as they did two weeks ago. It is amazing. We have spent tens of thousands, literally, to do everything conceivable thing that we needed to do to get cable internet installed in our house in a timely manner. We actually began the process just over three months ago. Paid a contractor to do everything other than to run the wire. Everything else was done (thankfully, some people shared the expense!) and all they had to do is run the wire. Run a wire.

But no. The gentleman just measured how much cable they’d need. This is after our contractor, in very close communication with the uppers at Cable Bahamas, had already told them how much cable they’d need. We just seem to go around in circles, with only one bright bulb, a lovely woman in Freeport, who tries the best she can to get this orchestrated. But no one in Freeport talks to anyone in Marsh Harbour, and it just drags on.

But that wasn’t the most amazing thing that happened today! No, not by a long shot! Not by a massive huge phenomenal shot!

Oh boy, you say! granite countertops! With them in and the sinks, we are sure to be moving in on time. With the gorgeous granite in creams and caramels and browns with a hint of charcoal, to which I matched every friggin’ thing in the entire house, the cabinets were painted to pick up the cream, the backsplash tile chosen to blend perfectly, the paint on the wainscoting coordinating completely, even the sink, in a lovely biscuit, to pick up the cream flecks, and down to the towels and washcloths in the kitchen, the two bathrooms (for they have the same granite)…

It took eight men to carry in the most huge slab. And to place it perfectly. It was, temporarily, SO exciting…

That’s Kevin, who built my entire kitchen, looking… is he thinking something? Is he wondering — why is that granite PINK AND CHARCOAL instead of the lovely colour to which we matched the cabinet paint?!?!?!?!?!?

PINK AND CHARCOAL?????????

Yes. My countertops, dear readers, are pink and charcoal. There’s no caramel, there’s no flecks of cream, there’s no browns, there is charcoal, and a very red undertone on what appears to be a pink slab of granite.

My stomach has been in knots all night. We will get the excuse tomorrow – well, granite is not always consistent in colour. Well, we have a chunk of the granite that we bought and are paying for – and it is not pink. And I can’t even imagine living in a pink kitchen. Even in the 1950s kitchens were never pink! And we’d have to paint the cupboards and walls and wainscoting and change the everything, including sinks, if we were to keep the pink.

And that ain’t gonna happen.

I can see the guys thinking – why would that lady put pink granite in this lovely creamy kitchen????
Well, I won’t. Pink ain’t in my vocabulary, not in granite!! I wouldn’t even do pink in MARBLE, for goodness sake!

They’re really amazing!
As are the aloe here, which can grow to some serious diameters in width!

And the flowers are very pretty.

Rudi talked with Chris, who does landscaping, about some ideas.

And we learned the names of some of the trees on the property. We have Gumelemi, Dogwood, Hawaiian Sea Grape (which Rudi will dig up and kill, it being non-native and invasive), Bahamian Sea Grape, Poisonwood… Poisonwood!!??

Yes, Chris says just don’t touch the black sap. But, if you do – rub the tree that God places next to it – the Gumelemi! That tree is there to calm the poison ivy-type rash. Cool!

Later, Rudi and Maggie checked things out.

Rudi checked his view as the sun was setting.

And Maggie sniffed. I’d estimate she sniffed approximately 2000 sq. ft. or more of house, tile, deck, wood, yard, soil, you name it. Good old dog.

As we were leaving someone flew VERY low over our heads and called to us, then flew up into the dogwood tree. We were curious- such an interesting call that we had to go back to see who it was. Turns out – it was a Red-Bellied Woodpecker.

They have a red head, and females have a red belly. And they bring a special message – using your higher cognitive capacity to solve issues, to get down to basics, to get past superficial subjective things, balance, persistence, opening of doors, finding a spiritual wealth in unexpected places, and pursuing your desire function with persistence.

This bush is amazing – and the hummingbirds love it!

It starts with tiny buds.

And then they burst forth.

They grow taller.

And the blossoms begin to pop.

And pop some more!

Then – the hummingbirds come. I wish I had caught them on this bush, but I didn’t. I can share one from a different bush, though. They are too cute!

On Fridays a fisherman from Lubbers Quarters, a tinier cay than ours, comes to the lower public dock with his fresh catch.

Sometimes the fish have been frozen, having been caught earlier in the week. But today’s offerings were fresh, fresh, fresh.

The left is grouper – delicious! And on the right you see hogfish, reported to also be delicious. We will let you know, as we’ll be enjoying it this evening at dinner. You can see that the hogfish has been winning, two to one.
I think. I am not a math whiz.

There’s also a chowder, as you might see from the hint in the photo above to the far right, and conch salad, a delicacy in these parts.

We haven’t had their conch salad, but earlier in this blog you may remember our trip to buy some from George in Marsh Harbour. His is great! And I imagine the recipes might be similar, and we will one day test this one. I found that the addition of crushed pineapple was magic!

Here’s Rudi with our prize.

We can’t wait to see what they have to offer next Friday! When you live with the sea all around you, it just makes sense.

Somehow.
I don’t know how.
But at 2:00 pm I put the kettle on for tea.
And Rudi or I make some tea, and I have my decaf Earl Grey.

And, when the bulk store has biscotti in stock, we buy tubs of them. The one above is the dark chocolate-dipped.
I am a dunker, too. Where Rudi has nightmares of wet bread (and lumpy oatmeal) from childhood, I have no such fears, and dunk to my heart’s content.

The issue is that there are two kinds. Well, three, but we don’t buy the plain ones. But we do get the chocolate-dipped AND the gingerbread with white chocolate. And when I have one of each, I feel somehow, and sometimes, gypped, and so I have a second dark chocolate.

I am working on this. But wet bread is one of MY favourite things!!

Waffle Bowls! « The days are packed.

Jason is making me HUNGRY again!! And it isn’t even time for lunch yet. Not that I have, or have ever had, ice cream for lunch, no, never, not me, would never think of doing such a thing. Or for breakfast.

this amazing piece is probably, technically, forest green. Rudi found it, blowing our collective minds when we saw the shape, the size, felt the weight, and compared it to our weenie bits of glass.

I’ve lightened it somewhat, so the colour can be seen. But holding it in your hand you might swear it was black, save for along the edges. Black is more rare, but forest green is the most rare of the greens. And greens are the most common colour of all for sea glass.

This dark colour was used to protect the contents (often wine, beer or gin) from the sun. The colour is still used in 2010, but perhaps because my piece includes a bubble, an imperfection, maybe it is older, pre-1900. Or not! But still, we love this piece and are very happy to have found it!

Forest green may be found once out of every fifty pieces of glass, but I bet the odds of finding such a great piece are much higher.

Yes, there are gifts from the ocean other than sea glass. Really!
Though I have a phenomenal piece or two to shoot for you soon.

But for now, here’s a sea star:

And a queen conch:

What an artist is God!

Hooray!!

We’ve got rain! Good rain, strong rain. So strong, in fact, that it is coming into one of the windows at the rental house we’re in! Wow.

But that means WE have rain, and our cisterns will fill!

These rain gutters, on the leading edge of the roof…

All empty into this PVC pipe:

And that pipe ensures that our cisterns are full full full! And that means we can wash dishes, and bathe! And drink water and share it with the animals. On an island, that’s where the water comes from! We don’t get it from the city reservoir here. Nope. We do a rain dance, and/or pray. Tonight’s rain should ensure that when we move into the house, we’re covered. For a while. Then we wait for the next rain, and conserve.

In the meantime, the pergola is up and has been painted. This is on the upper road front entrance:

And Master of Some of What He Surveys checks it out…

We have decided that Goethe’s observation that a plant’s morphological sequence evolves from, first the sprouts to the stem, the leaves, flowers, fruit and seed of the next cycle, is blatantly obvious in the bougainvillea.

No denying that this plant’s leaves are its blossoms.

Shae is a lovely woman who lives here some of the time in her neato house, the original White Sound schoolhouse from eons ago, all nicely updated. Blue Moon is rented part of the time when Shae and James (Bond, James Bond) aren’t here, and when they are here it is nice knowing they’re on the island.

Not sure how long ago it was, but Shae adopted Sheri Lee, who you may remember from a previous post. Sheri Lee is well worth adopting! She is upbeat and open and warm and caring, would drive to Japan and back for you if you asked. She drives a taxi on the main island of Abaco. This is her gorgeous son.

So, Shae asked me if I had an old laptop. Good question, but we’d just given away an older Toshiba. So – I asked our students, who would be coming at the end of February if they might have something lying around. You know, how when you realize you really really ought to be on a Mac and drop the PCs like hot potatoes.

So – Lisa talked with her husband and his company had a PC laptop available! It was cleaned up of files and things, and it all pristine now just waiting to come here to be handed over to Sheri Lee’s son. And he has NO CLUE.

He’s a bright kid, and the computer and internet will show him worlds of which he cannot even conceive. We hope to put on some educational software for math and reading enrichment, and help him to soar in school!

So, thanks to Shae for asking, and Lisa and Jim for making this a possibility! I only wish I could be there when Lisa gifts him with his “new” laptop!!

Here is the normal photo with the wordpress code, without my striping away any of it – it was 500×334 and I just noticed wordpress changed it to 497 and 331…

And here is the same photo with my stripping the code:

And here I post it AT 497, which is where wordpress sizes it anyway, and no code-stripping…

Suddenly, they all look the same to me! That’s strange. I will experiment further with this.

We were enjoying these plants in the garden this week…

The daddy plant:

The mommy plant:

And the baby plant:

It’s all in the family!

a
n
d

a
n
d

a
n
d

(That first one really is in focus in the original, sometimes I just wonder about the wordpress photo posting thingy… it already messes with colour and I have to do all sorts of things to make it stay truer to the originals…)

Found in Ottawa:

Found in Abaco:

Where we’re standing!
Looking down the steep hill into the valley, with B’s Hive (where we’re standing) behind us and our house to the right, angled facing the ocean. Half Moon is on our left, lower and on the ocean.

The weather sites had sun, sun, sun as the forecast for the next several days. And it is clear as a bell! But we don’t go by weather forecasts – we go by the Man O’War, a bird that portends clear sailing and good weather.

Or, at least not weather that will fill our cisterns. And we DO need water to fill our cisterns, so we will do a rain dance for some of that. Too much of a good thing isn’t, well, good!

Here’s the roofline of the house. You can only see this much because I’m standing on a wall to shoot it. Otherwise it is all cozily tucked into the foliage, not too easily seen. And when we’re done landscaping – it will be less easily seen!

By request -

We tried to get sea glass yesterday because there was a front blowing in, and it seemed the shoreline was blowing out to sea (meaning shallow!), but when we got there we saw that it wasn’t, and there wasn’t a nick of glass to be found.

But here is some, and the explanation taken from the book.

Black glass –

Spirit and medicine bottles often (like our remedies) needed protection from the sun, and the glass they were in was so dark it looked almost black. And during the 1700s many bottles of Dutch gin imported into the US were almost black. Usually it is a very dark green or amber, which you can tell by holding it up to the light. The iron added to the dark green also strengthened it, and the book says we should find larger chunks rather than small pieces.

Oh well! Mine are small pieces, and you can see them on the page of the book if you have a magnifying glass. But a good find – and we can guess it was made before 1900, and perhaps even before 1850. We may find black glass once in every 2500 pieces of glass.

Soft green or Seafoam glass is more common, one piece in every 50 to 100 found. You may recognize it from the good old Coca Cola bottles, which began production in 1915 and lasted for 60 years. The older bottles ranged from the soft green to a soft blue-green (I’d like that!) and then to an almost aqua colour.

Again, my pieces are small! But there nonetheless.

I am beginning to think that the coral reef that surrounds much of our wee cay (“key”) is why the pieces are so small. Protective of us on the one hand, perhaps the sea glass is bashed apart with the waves. That’s okay! I am content to wander the world’s beaches in search of a larger chunk or a rare colour, like orange or pink. There’s sea glass in Victoria… hmmm…

Here’s the book that I love so well:

this man thinks, ponders, discusses, reasons, placates, challenges, researches, investigates, suggests, consoles.

A typical day in our house.

And Maggie, for one, finds it fully exhausting.

When one astute reader commented that she liked the textures from the photo yesterday I had to let her know that there is a difference between actions and textures.

Now, while there are actions that might apply textures, but often they just play with colour or saturation or whatever.

And a texture is one or more interesting things stuck on top of a photo, and then manipulated. You can use one and love the impact, or you might use two or three or more. Once you stick on a texture there more work involved to get it where you want it.

Here is a texture, by TextBox, called Necropolis, so you can see how one might look before use:

And here are some morning glories, spotted on our property yesterday. This is SOOC, straight out of the camera:

And I thought I’d crop it, and enhance the colour and a few things:

And then, sitting around on a quiet evening enjoying Izzy in “27 Dresses” and wondering when you’ve seen James Marsden in the past, and doesn’t he have a nice smile, you come up with a textured version of the flowers, which looks good to you…

Sometimes in the light of day you take a look and say – what the heck was I thinking!?!?!?
And sometimes it works.

The important part – it is FUN. When I work on textures I can lose myself for a few hours, until I realize I want to add other things into my life, and then I surface and move on. But in the meantime? I love it.

with you.

Photoshop actions, that is.

An action will take a photo, that you kindly provide, and transform it. You can choose if it will be vintage, black and white, blue yellow red pink green-tinged, if it should look like it is from 1750, etc.

And here are some I thought you might enjoy seeing – of the same photo, various transformations. The original is a tiny little girl, sitting in a way I could never attempt with my (lacking) range of flexibility, and she was fishing with her dad. I shot it many years ago in Manotick, or around Manotick.

This is called “Retro Lollipop” and is from Florabella.

And this one is “Rich Vintage,” Florabella.

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This is “Soft Urban.” Florabella, of course.

And “Sweet Vintage,” Florabella. Sometimes I think I choose the action for its name!

This one is “Vintage Summer.” Florabella.

The trouble with these is that I am not sure I can find one that I like definitively. I like a lot of Florabella textures, and actions (in case you hadn’t previously noticed). And… I think in this case I might go with Vintage Summer as my favourite. I like the soft mild vignetting, and I like seeing the whole pole, which is made more obvious with the lighter centre area. I also like Sweet Vintage. But – am I choosing those because it was summer, and the wee one was sweet?

You want some fun? Browse Florabella Collections. http://www.florabellacollection.com/

Hahnemann Center for Heilkunst.

The latest book on the Chronic Diseases/Miasms in the Heilkunst Series by the Hahnemann Center for Heilkunst has just been completed, and is available to all as a free download! Just click the link above.

We hope you enjoy reading it, and that it brings you light and understanding, and many questions, which we’re always happy to answer.

Multi-Pure in Haiti | Multi-Pure.

This is a great way to get the best filtered water available to date, right to the people in Haiti. I’ve asked a student of our college, who is an MD heading to Haiti in February, to take some with her. If you know anyone heading to Haiti – forward this to them!

As my mom always said – many a truth is said in jest!

I really love black and white photos. Their simplicity, compared to the assault of colour in images, is refreshing, relaxing to me.

So I thought I’d share two of these with you. They’re both from Upper Canada Village, which is Canada’s wee Williamsburg (also refreshing that it is quiet, non-commercial, small and navigable).

This was spotted inside the general store -

And on the front porch of an old building, now a nice restaurant –

I am not a technical whiz, so I don’t know if these are noisy or muddy or whatever. I just liked them and wanted to share with you.

Potcake is the yuck that sticks to the bottom of the pot when Bahamians make peas and rice.
In the olden days they’d throw it outside for the dogs. And they’d love it.
The dogs were all shapes and sizes and breeds, but now there is a recognized and registered breed of dog called the Royal Bahamian Potcake.

Peaches is a wonderful ambassador for potcakes – she is the greeting committee at a house just south of Vernon’s Grocery, where we were yesterday.

These dogs are neutered and spayed by a wonderful woman in the US, so there aren’t potcakes found everywhere. Their babies (and sometimes they, too) are rescued from the dumps and from under houses and who knows where else, and brought to the US so they can be adopted into good homes.

Here are the folks available right now: http://www.potcake.org/potcake_rescue_adopt.html

Potcakes are loyal, calm, loving, patient, good with children and other small animals. We support the potcake rescue, and you can too! Learn more at www.potcake.org.

We had some good news yesterday in church. Once a month we get to enjoy the Rev. Jean Seme Joseph, who comes over from Marsh Harbour to do the service for us, and communion sometimes. He’s originally from Haiti. (Which made it funny yesterday, when Rev. Joseph and his Creole/French accent and Rudi with his bad ears, when Rudi heard that it was Coconut Sunday at church. And he thought yeah, makes sense, we have coconuts here, how interesting, I wonder why, this is nice – do we get coconut water and coconut pie? And then Rudi read the program and it was Covenant Sunday.

That aside, we learned that Rev. Joseph’s brother had left work a bit early the day of the earthquake, and was at home when the entire building collapsed and everyone in it killed. And his mom had left Port-au-Prince just a few days before the quake for another part of Haiti, and she is fine. It was good to have some nice stories!

So – thought you might want to see this little guy who came to visit a few days ago.

I left that lint there so you can do a size comparison (ahem). Maggie walked past him numerous times, and he just pretended he wasn’t there. But I knew better.

Friday we got to do this yucky visit. Anyone like going to the dentist? (raise your hands)
I used to, in Ottawa. Not anymore.

And I spotted this lovely heart on the Donnie dock, waiting to head back to Hope Town from MH.

We’re heading into Hope Town today, but I thought you’d be happy to hear the news about Rev. Joseph’s family. I’ve been working on some black-and-white transformations that I might want to get your opinion on sometime…

Aren’t these amazing?

Can’t you just imagine reading lying back in a soft breeze coming off the ocean, and then putting down the book and resting for a while, with a gently swaying?

I can picture one on the end of the deck where Rudi was walking in the photos yesterday.

The above used to be sold by Pottery Barn, which is a great place that sells everything beautiful and I want half of it. I can’t find it online now, but it would be pretty simple to make one of these.

This one looks a bit more like a traditional porch swing. It is available online.

Available from: http://www.cypressmoonporchswings.com/SwingBeds.html

Yes, that’s the name of our house. Whaddya think?

So, we went over to take a look today. I haven’t been in since I got profoundly weak and sick and weird, since there aren’t any steps (there will be soon!) to get in, and I had to clamber up cinderblocks and wood things to sneak in.

Well, we’ve noticed our kitchen builder coming and going, and word is the granite man is coming to make templates today, so we had to take a look! I didn’t even take a shot of the upper and lower exterior, which are coming along. I owe you those. But this was too exciting.

That’s Kevin, builder extraordinaire (we’re living in his original amazing creation, B’s Hive, and thank God we were in a house of this calibre for the nasty weather!) and he has been working on the kitchen cupboards (that’s Canadian, Americans might say cabinets) for a while.

So that’s, from left to right, a big pantry cupboard, then the fridge, then one more owing on the upper, the corner upper will have glass panes, stove and then corner cupboard. The island is small, but functional, and will have an overhang for when you come to visit, have tea and chat.

Next, our poor hero comes on the scene with his pants tied onto his body. When we got here he was a buff, tanned 150 pounds. Worrying about me has gotten him to 135 so far. He only gains weight when he is relaxed. That’s happened twice in his life:
1. at university, in his glory
2. when we’d downsized and were heading here

So here, if you focus only on the kitchen for now, is a little tiny pantry (since my washer and dryer are on the other side of it (I moved them here) – that pantry got pretty small. But I can stand in it. Then there’s the other stuff you’ve already seen.

Here is part of the great room. The doorway heads into our bedroom (our as in Rudi’s and mine, not that guy and me). On the right of the photo is the upper road front main entry into the house, and on the left is the lower road not really main entry into the house, with those great windows and sliders.

Here we have the main upper road entry. There is a great deck off the front, and there will be lovely landscaping. There the powder room to the left in the photo, and if you can see the right, the first door is the entry into the washer and dryer area, then another little pantry, then the AC distribution system something door (with slats). You can only see the latter two doors since the W&D one is perpendicular.

This is Rudi walking onto the area of the outdoor room (picture a lovely rug, nice comfy furniture) from the bedroom area. Poor skinny man! I will try to start feeding him better and getting him into the garden in February, Valentine’s Day, when we’re in our house.

Our bedroom. A cruel joke that our designer made the room large enough for a bed. Well, and a bureau and closets and that’s about it. No night stands. No lights, no place to set down your water. We will have to work on that. We never noticed in the plans that the only thing that would fit between the windows is one queen-sized bed! Those doors on the left stare at the sea…

On either side of the opening into the bathroom are big closets, a his and hers. And that’s my bathroom. Well, it will be when Rudi gets his built in his pod. My pod won’t have a bathroom. It will be MY POD.

Can’t keep Rudi away from the bedroom deck. It is pretty cool to see the railings going up.

Looking from there back to the outdoor room area. Those are the glass French doors to the bedroom on the left.

And the guys working on the railings on the kitchen/dining area deck.

Looking out the great glass facing the ocean, through the great room.

And the detail of the ceiling, port hole light and looking into the bedroom.

Turning 180-degrees for the same shot toward the kitchen and eating area (and the door to the little pantry).

Ceiling detail in great room – I think those beams will be painted white. The wood runs from the upper road entrance to the ocean road entrance.

And in the bedroom the wood runs from the great room, in the opposite direction. The floors in here will be pine as well, to break up all the time. Then, if it gets cold again, I can stand on the pine!

There’s good closet space and good storage above the closets, too. Maybe we can put our night stands, clock radio and phone, and lamps in there…

So, that’s it so far. We asked for an estimate to finish the apartment, which fits under the great room, since we can never have a guest if we have no place for them to sleep. The biggest expense of all, well, besides building the whole thing, is importing furniture. But maybe we can buy more locally and get something in the apartment sooner than later.

The highlight of the trip was the Odyssey FBO!

Here’s the Wyndham’s lobby:

and

And the mad dash to the airport, though this is a common occurrence with Rudi. I’ve had to try to shoot so many countries and cities from the passenger seat of a car..

This is Cable Beach. This beach is very narrow, and thankfully not on the hurricane-side of the island.

And Compass Point, which I’ve shown you earlier from the beach side. To stop here to let out a passenger you’re taking their life in your hands. There is no sidewalk, you have to stop in traffic! This is the place with the nice pool and concrete pad, on the beach.

And back to the fun! At Odyssey we had popcorn and tea. I had Tazo Earl Grey, which was handy since I had two biscotti with me and I was in heaven dunking into the Tazo before departure.

Then Jevon came to get us, our pilot. I hurried out to the plane so I could clamber up to the front right seat again. The guy behind seated behind me is a photographer, too, and I later learned he was coveting my camera.

Goodbye Nassau! Goodbye Windsor Field (for the Duke of Windsor, former governor general to the Bahamas)/Linden Pindling International Airport!

Goodbye Cable Beach!

Goodbye Paradise Island (and they think this is paradise?? Come to Hope Town!)!

in a place that is not generally cold at all, it is colder than it is in Ottawa in the dead of winter.
And Nassau was cold.

We rented a car at Budget – it was banged up. Apparently that’s how cars are in Nassau, since they drive like Quebecois. That was interesting. And Rudi liked this little Suzuki a lot – said it handled like a Mazda.

We left the airport for the three-minute ride across the skinniest part of the island to the hotel. However, someone had not paid attention and took off for the far end of the thing. So we drove and drove (not like in Canada, but more than you can on Elbow Cay) and hit the frou-frou area. Since it is Lyford Cay there, we decided to look for the cardiologist’s office. Didn’t see Sean Connery or anyone, sadly, at the gate. And it was the wrong gate – this one went to the 18.5 mil mansions. The nice man at the gate directed us a block back to the heart place.

Having located the office, we hastened to our hotel, since it was getting dark and colder. We rounded the corner – and there was Cable Beach. It is a long beach, with hotels and homes interspersed along the way, and it is far from the madding crowds around Atlantis and in downtown Nassau. I never want to drive through that area again – aside from the traffic being bumper-to-bumper, the slums, the poverty, the crime, the suffering of humanity is blatantly obvious. Nassau takes all the money from the Abaco in taxes, and gives back extremely little. Another country where you have no idea where the money goes.

Rant aside, we pulled into the small, family-run hotel we’d found online and chosen from their great reviews. Orange Hill. The view was nice from the front of the hotel.

And it looked promising.

But, when we were taken to our room it was in a long row of what looked like a concrete motel, without windows on the entry side. In Nassau the homes are mostly all built of concrete, and we hear it is COLD. And this room was no exception.

On entering the room there was a destroyed countertop in a little kitcheny area, with sink and microwave and something else, I didn’t look too closely because after seeing the bunker-like strip of concrete I was sort of shell-shocked. And in the room – of course there were wile floors. Concrete walls and ceiling. Nice French doors opening onto a little patio. A very basic bathroom. And I sat down on the bed, with my two coats on, and tried to envision living in this room for two days. One where you wear coats to sit on the bed in the off-hours, where scampering to the bathroom is like walking on ice…

Rudi got two blankets from them (there were none on the bed) and we checked to see if the AC also could blow heat, as is possible in most hotels up north (and we learned it is not connected in Nassau, anywhere – they’ve never needed it!) and it was obvious there’d be no relief from the cold.

So the lovely woman at the desk and the owner called around for us, asking the front desk at all the Cable Beach hotels if they had:
1. the AC that has heat too
2. carpeting and drapes to close off the wind coming through the windows

And they found one that had carpeting, and a room. The Wyndham. If I’d felt well I’d have explored the shops and the casino and even checked out the beach. But I was so cold and so weak by then we just checked in.

And went to our room. I was elated when, at one point, I saw that the AC control went to 85! At last! Warmth! But when I turned it on it blew harder and colder. No, it wasn’t connected.

But the room had carpeting, blankets and drapes that could be pulled across the room. A nice bathroom, upscale, where I soaked in a hot bath and melted my freezing bones. And I cured by desire for Burger King there.

We still had to lie under the covers wearing our HCH fuzzy to keep warm, but somehow stepping out of bed onto carpeting made things a bit warmer.

I guess the moral to this story is that if you will be spending any length of time in paradise, bring a space heater. If you don’t need it, you can always sell it or donate it when you leave. Space heaters are sold out in Marsh Harbour, and the ones that did sell ended up being marked up a few times as they exchanged hands.

And, of course, Murphy ensures that if you DO have heat, it will never be freezing here again!

Haiti earthquake — what we’re hearing – CNN.com.

That God for wireless internet, iPhones and computers. The info came in from Haiti moments after the devastating earthquake that struck just south of the capital yesterday.

In the Abacos we were temporarily on a tsunami alert. I was very surprised to hear the warning over the VHF radio that we have on constantly, since it is the main form of communication in the islands. Within an hour we had the all-clear. The earthquake had hit on land, not offshore and in the water. Had it been in the water there would have been a tsunami risk up to a 100-mile radius.

Pray for the people in Haiti. At its best it has been a hellhole for those living there, for a number of reasons that aren’t important now as they need the help and support. Many who were able to escape are living here in the Bahamas, illegally but they are tolerated. They have no idea if their friends and family are dead or alive, injured or receiving medical attention.

Haitians are helping to build our house, they’ll help clear the property for landscaping and GiGi cleans this rental house every week. We can’t imagine the agony of their suffering right now.

So, inside Odyssey Aviation Nassau we’ve got the wonderful goodies counter.

There Tazo teas, and real milk or cream, and a fresh warm yummy popcorn machine! And it is for the enjoyment of those sitting in their FBO waiting for flights. Mostly that’s corporate pilots, but sometimes it is us! I had a great cup of tea and I’d brought biscotti (for fear I’d starve to death in Nassau, and with Rudi that’s a possibility!*)

The seating is comfy and there is television to pass the time, and magazines (aviation-related, which was a real treat).

And a nice room for the pilots to research weather patterns and to file their flight plans. All this is now done on the computer – wow! Times have changed since I flew!

And then we ventured out into the freezing winds that was Nassau. More later on the hotel and issues, maybe, but brrrrr….

So, the diagnosis: my thyroid is racing and is making my heart race too. Aorta is the right size.
Their allopathic solution: shove radioactivity into my body to kill my thyroid, or slice and dice it out of my throat.
Their follow-up: feed me back the hormones for the organ they just destroyed for the rest of my life.

Our idea: let’s work on getting that silly thyroid to behave itself, calm down, and continue to make its own damn hormones, for the rest of my life.

Sorry about the lateness of this post – it was quite the trip into Nassau!

I have to say that I am not sure I will get used to every trip off this wee cay requiring a boat, and involving water.
Here is the obligatory lighthouse shot.

And when the weather is cold cold cold cold and there’s no heating in your house and the wind is rough the water is too. The ferry bounces, even the bigger Donnies, and the spray got inside it almost to halfway up the seating. The windows kept opening and it was just COLD.

Thank goodness Sheri Lee was on the other end in Marsh Harbour, waiting to take us to the airport. She is a breath of fresh air, food for the soul.

Here’s Rudi getting ready to board our plane to Nassau. I hurry to be first so I can fly in the front right seat. That’s the closest I can get to the front left, since it has been a long time since I flew. But man, give me a plane any day over a boat.

There’s a new runway in Marsh Harbour, one that has been a long time coming, and that is much appreciated by all, especially the larger airlines.

When I fly I can’t imagine anyone who has ever been in the air dancing with the clouds, and watching the beams from the sun touch the earth, ever doubting the presence of God.

Sigh…

And in no time we’re heading into Nassau, Windsor Field, or Linden Pindling International Airport.

And since we took Abaco Air, we don’t have to go to the crazy busy terminal. We get to go to paradise, Odyssey.

Nice!

Odyssey Aviation is an FBO, which is a Fixed Base Operation on the airport grounds. They are very special (especially to me). A good FBO like this one is worth visiting instead of going into Nassau. I’d hang out there. Well, I used to hang out at one when I was a pilot (private) and that’s where I found that crazy guy that fathered my daughters.

Odyssey is where pilots sit and wait for their corporate owners or corporate big-wigs to show up again to go home or someplace else. Pilots hurry and wait. I met one today who was based in the UK, but who had just come from Helsinki (-20F) and into Nassau. Now, it was cold in Nassau but it definitely would have been an improvement.

More on Odyssey tomorrow.

it was for breakfast at Compass Point. The morning Abaco Air flight out of Marsh Harbour gets you into Nassau hours and hours before any flight out of Nassau. So having breakfast and lingering was a nice break from the airport, which isn’t the most comfortable on earth before they open up the gates.

That’s the pool. Beyond it the beautiful beach. And when people woke up we watched them all run to grab a lounge chair on the concrete pool platform! After spending a month in paradise that just blew our minds.

Breakfast was nice, delicious really. I’d return to their restaurant again. I was enticed by coconut French toast, but elected for an omelette. The sun was warm, we were shifting gears from paradise to snow and cold…

Looking out over the turquoise ocean…

Transitions can be difficult. But Compass Point was a good place to start.

Compass Point is a boutique hotel, about $350 a night. It is on Cable Beach, away from the hectic pace of Paradise Island around Atlantis. Apparently, we have heard, the people in Nassau drive like the Quebecquois, so it is good that we will be removed from that insanity.

We will stay on Cable Beach, high on a hill in a little family-run hotel. I laughed when Rudi asked for a confirmation number for the room! Um, Rudi? Yes, that’s all they really needed was his name. They’ll know who we are.
Stay tuned to see how the internet works from Nassau!

There are no addresses here.

When people ask – what is your mailing address? I’d like to send you something. I just pause, think. Well, first of all there are no mailmen, no mail trucks, no FedEx trucks, no mailboxes. There are no street names, nor are there house numbers. And if I want to send you mail, stories are that it might take three months to get to you.

So how do people find their friends’ houses?
Well, it isn’t too hard on a cay that is just over 5 miles long and about 1/2 mile wide.

And every house has its own NAME. And a sign.

Here’s Sea Star:

And Momma’s Marlin:

And Hidden Cove:

And Seaduction:

And the Sugar Shack, a house that sells ice cream and sandwiches and more:

And Beach Bags, owned by the Bagleys:

And Kelsey’s house, Hibiscus:

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And Finders Keepers:

And Catch A Wave:

And Abaco Rum Punch:

And Pineapple Beach:

And Conch Quest:

And our neighbour, Half Moon.

And we need a name for our house. We think we have one. But if you were building your home on an island in paradise, what would you name it?

Creme brule and biscotti, sigh…

Rudolf!

I made these lemon blueberry cupcakes once with the very best lemon buttercream I’ve ever had! (Chef Kelsey didn’t believe I’d made them.) That was in my Wilton days.

Speaking of Chef Kelsey, and Meghan – they are my loves.

And I love that Meghan loves photography. This is one of her flowers.

And the great petits fours that Kelsey made me one Mother’s Day years ago (and see there’s one for Mary too):

And Japan, and the food. Could I eat my way across the nation? Yes. And Kelsey and Rudi would come. Not sure Meghan’s brave enough for that. We hope that one day she’ll gain enough courage to eat a salad.

And this past week, and perhaps next week – I wish we had a woodstove. Yes, in the Bahamas. It has been cold, and I really do miss the woodstove, fireplaces, and the snow.

See the blazing yule before us, strike the harp and join the chorus!

This old building found in Hope Town, in colour:

Ot the same building, in black and white:

Or, the beach at sunset?

It is COLD here now, though I’d bet the ocean is still nice and warm!

This little guy was in the bathtub in the downstairs bathroom. I rescued him before the cleaning woman was to come, since I knew he’d be washed down the tub drain. He hid. The upstairs gecko didn’t have the same luck – the cleaning woman must have run him over with a vacuum, so he had a burial at toilet.

His body isn’t an inch long!

It is good to have geckos to eat the little bugs for you. I may take this guy over to our house when we move in.

We had a nice lunch at Harbour’s Edge, and for once I didn’t have my usual, the phenomenal Edge Salad. My stomach growls at the mere mention of the words.

I had their new sweet potato fries, with a brown sugar aioli, which was not too exciting (but I dipped into it anyway)!

I pretty much ate them all, then took half of my lunch home for dinner. These are the White Caps, fish with tabasco and great seasoning on toast points. YUM.

And Mr. V, who appears to be in a fried chicken rut…

Had fried chicken. The cole slaw was GREAT. And – the obligatory Kalik.

And now I am really hungry. Rudi made molasses muffins for breakfast today, since they have great iron content and I need some iron. But they are a bit bland, and I want sweet potato fries and cole slaw…

Health Conditions – Aortic Aneurysm.

This is an interesting article.

If you’ve been wondering WHY we went to the big island repeatedly last week on all those Donnies, it is because I had some very weird symptoms and we decided to figure out what was going on.

The doctor here in Marsh Harbour, George Charite, suspects an enlarged aorta. And I may get to go to Nassau for the definitive test to determine if this is the case. I will keep you posted!

And if you’re inclined to pray, please put me on your list.

Now, today I am making the best soup most people on earth have ever tasted. Definitely suitable for the chilly temps here in the Bahamas! Thank you Kris Emmett for this recipe!!

Sweet Potato Soup

2 TB butter
2 TB chopped ginger (I used at least double)
3 leeks cleaned & chopped/ white & greens parts ( I used 2)
4 sweet potatoes peeled & diced ( I used 5)
1 TB cumin
2 TB fresh corriander ( I used a big handful)
pinch of cayenne ( I used several shakes)
6 cups of chicken stock (I used 7)
1 TB grated lime zest ( I zested the whole lime)
1/4 C whip cream
salt & pepper to taste
1 TB fresh lime juice (I used the juice of a whole lime)

1) Melt butter on med high, and saute ginger, potatoes, and leeks until
softened
2) Sprinkle in cumin, corriander, cayenne and stir. Add chicken stock
and lime zest.
Bring to a boil, lower heat, and simmer for 15 minutes (until
potatoes are cooked).
3) Puree in processor. Return to pot, add cream, and boil. Simmer for
5 minutes.
Salt & peper to taste, and add lime juice.

Donnie is the name of the Albury Ferry boats. After the name Donnie, they have a number. And we had the pleasure of riding on Donnie IX on Saturday morning.

My goodness, it is a behemoth of a ferry!! I like getting on ferries at high tide, as it is in the morning, because generally you can walk right onto them without needing to hold onto a fully vertical ladder to climb down into the boat. I did decide that I am not ferrying anymore in flip flops – too scary. I am wearing my boat shoes, and damn the blister on the back of my left heel!

Well, Donnie IX pulled up -

And already we could see it was massive! The huge thing had been sent to Hope Town this day because apparently everyone on the face of the earth had been IN Hope Town, and was leaving today with their 100 pieces each of luggage. So the larger ferry was required.

And this thing was SO big that we had to climb UP to get on! Thank goodness there was:
1. a lower corner to the left, closer to the dock, and
2. Rudi and the ferry guy, who pulled me up onto it

Or I’d be waving goodbye to the passengers from the dock. It was packed, sardine-like, and loaded with luggage and visitors heading home after the holidays.

We enjoyed seeing Donnie in Marsh Harbour. No number, just Donnie. The wee thing was the first ferry, I imagine, and didn’t need a number. What a cutie, and BOY would you have to climb down to get into it at low tide, as it is here.

And look at the jump in size from Donnie VI to Donnie VII!

This is such a wonderful service to the cays here, and although sometimes on the rough days I wish there was a flight across the Sea of Abaco, these ferries carry us safely and relatively bounce-free back and forth, from dawn to dusk, for half a century.

From their own website, alburysferry.com:

Albury’s Ferry began operation on February 18, 1959, the day the airport opened in Marsh Harbour. The first ferry was the “Junonia”, a 40 foot Maine built lobster boat. The service was started by Marcell Albury with Ritchie Albury as the first captain. As the service grew additional boats were built of wood at the yards of Edwin Albury on Man-O-War.

The switch from wood construction to fiberglass began 21 years ago. Today the fleet is made up of twelve “Donnies”, wide body fiberglass diesel powered boats built to Albury’s Ferry specifications in Florida. Our latest, Donnie XII joined the fleet in January of 2008. All ferries are semi-enclosed, licensed and inspected, and operated by experienced and licensed captains. Equipment includes life jackets, VHF radio, fire extinguishing equipment, and first aid supplies. The boats fall into four size catagories, 34′, 39′, 45′ and 51′.

Stay tuned, when we’re back from church in 90 minutes, last night’s fireworks will appear here on this blog. And they were hand-held (because again, we were surprised there were fireworks in our faces!) – so interesting is about the best way to describe them!

Okay, we’re back, we’ve been back, had a sandwich and a nap and I do apologize for the delay!

Now, see what you think of these shots. Don’t look at them as bad hand-held shots of fireworks where, in some cases, I obviously was stumbling around trying not to fall into the pool as I shot them. Look at them as works of bad art.

and

and

and

and

and

and, for the Murcans in the crowd:

and

and

and

and

and

and

And last – this one is interesting to me because the right side of the photo is our house. This means that next new year I will be able to prepare for the fireworks, and set up my tripod on our outdoor room/deck! That will result in perfect fireworks, not these hand-held works of, um, art? Or whatever they are. I like them!

of Marsh Harbour. We were there on Thursday, too.
But this time I am wearing my boat shoes. I’ve decided I don’t like getting on and off ferries in flip flops! Especially if the ferry ledge is wet.

Here’s the inside of Donnie IX. This is a huge Donnie, and I wanted you to see the seating, the space in the middle is for luggage, and the life jackets hanging on the ceiling, just in case.

We ran some errands then went for lunch, since we were between ferries. We’d missed the 2pm and were shooting for the 4pm, with 90 minutes to spare.

So we went to Wally’s! (We’d actually tried to go to Snappas, on the harbour, but it had closed at 2pm for a private party to usher in the new year!) We’d been to Wally’s before, and loved it, so we crossed the street and sat down a moment before the kitchen stopped serving lunch.

Wally’s is pretty in pink!

That’s the outdoor dining to the right, and it was such a gorgeous day we had to sit there and enjoy the weather.

Mr. V had fried chicken and fries, and wholesome meal, eh?

And I love Cobb Salads, so I had a Cobb Salad! The mistake – I didn’t know it came with a big row of bleu cheese. So I ordered bleu cheese dressing. I was so salt/penicillined out about 1/8 of the way into the salad, I had to stop eating it, get a take-out container for it and order a small Peach Melba. Sorry, no photo of the Melba. It disappeared before the camera could get a shot out. I do have my priorities!

And here’s a table at Wally’s dressed for the dinner crowd:

Will I get another wonderful restaurant meal in Marsh Harbour today? Not if Rudi has his way! They do cost money, and we do have other priorities – like building a house! But we’ll see!

We had a long day on the official New Year’s Eve Day, so we retired early (for me, at the normal time for Mr. V) at 10:00 p.m. and had just settled down to a long winter’s nap, when…

BOY were we (well, the hearing person was awakened, the less-hearing person was nudged awake) awakened by BANGS! Pop, bang, poppoppop!

We knew Sea Spray was having a big celebration, with professional junkanoo people, chicken souse and the works! But we didn’t know there would be fireworks. Not sure if they were from as far south as Sea Spray, but they were big and in our faces. Sorry for the blurrybad fireworks, but we were shooting from the bedroom through the window and screens. And hand-held, no less.

We wish you all a very happy, very healthy and very prosperous (in every way) 2010!!

Here’s what the true Bahamians will be having today!

Featured Recipe: Chicken Souse

2 lbs of chicken (preferably wings or drumsticks)
4 chopped potatoes
2 sticks chopped celery
1 or 2 diced onions
1\2 cups allspice
1 or 2 bird peppers
salt to taste
2 limes cut in half

Cooking instructions:
In a large pot bring chicken to boil for approx 10 minuets, then strain. Return chicken to pot, fill pot half full with water and return to boil. Add potatoes, celery, onions, bird peppers, allspice, salt. Boil until potatoes are done, stirring occasionally.

Final cooking time 30-35 minuets.

Prior to serving add more of the remaining lime if desired. Serves 4

http://www.the-bahamas-islands.com/9recipe.html

But here is what the Dutch will enjoy!

Olliebollen!

Ingredients

1 (0.6 ounce) cake compressed fresh yeast
1 cup lukewarm milk
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 egg
3/4 cup dried currants
3/4 cup raisins
1 Granny Smith apple – peeled, cored and finely chopped
1 quart vegetable oil for deep-frying
1 cup confectioners’ sugar for dusting
Directions

Break up the compressed yeast, and stir into the warm milk. Let stand for a few minutes to dissolve. Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Stir the yeast mixture and egg into the flour and mix into a smooth batter. Stir in the currants, raisins and apple. Cover the bowl, and leave the batter in a warm place to rise until double in size. This will take about 1 hour.

Heat the oil in a deep-fryer, or heavy deep pan to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Use 2 metal spoons to shape scoops of dough into balls, and drop them carefully into the hot oil.

Fry the balls until golden brown, about 8 minutes. The doughnuts should be soft and not greasy. If the oil is not hot enough, the outside will be tough and the insides greasy. Drain finished doughnuts on paper towels and dust with confectioners’ sugar. Serve them piled on a dish with more confectioners’ sugar dusted over them. Eat them hot if possible.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/oliebollen-dutch-doughnuts/detail.aspx

And what will we have?
Neither!

I have a muffin mix for organic carrot cake muffins, and that’s what Rudi has asked for. At least I have cream cheese in case I desire a frosting!

We’re headed here in twenty minutes – it seems the post office dock has had an addition! There is a white cover over the end of the dock, I imagine they will be closing it in at the top. That will come in handy when you’re taking your goodies off the ferry that you’re bringing back from the big island and it is pouring rain!

And at the dock, some good advice from the Abaco Inn!
Tan your toes in the Abacos.

This is Donnie VII – one of the bigger ferries that Albury Ferry operates. You can see the bench seating and, if you look closely, the life jackets wallpapering the ceiling. We’ll be on a Donnie shortly – heading to the bulk store and perhaps the phone store (our cell phone stopped turning on this morning!) and we’ll see where else we end up!

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Chocolate Fan Cake « The days are packed.

Check out this great recipe by a sweetheart of a guy, Jason, who is the reception guy in our Clinic’s office.

Can I mention that he is available? Please forward your requests to date him to me, at pattys@mac.com. I will do the initial screening. He deserves only the best!

I have been collecting sea glass for a few years. I feel bad that my main collection is in the house in Ottawa (especially now that I have a great book to identify the glass), so I have been working on a second collection over the past few months. The sea glass is gorgeous, and collecting means going to the beach at low tide and keeping a sharp eye out for colour as the waves recede.

This is some of the collection so far -

At Christmas I was thrilled that Santa had brought me a gorgeous book (with beautiful photos) of Sea Glass, with the history of the colours! So I thought I’d share a bit with you, periodically.

So, my first submission to you is Citron.

It is a yellow-green colour, and considered rare. This colour of glass was used mostly for wine bottles, and it is most likely that the wee pieces I have are from a 20th century wine bottle, the book says. It also was used in antique barber bottles, bitters bottles and ink bottles.

A piece of Citron-coloured glass will be found in every 250 to 500 pieces of sea glass.

My pieces are the tiny ones on the photo page. What a gorgeous book!

We’re heading out now to hunt for more sea glass – wish me luck!

These are Mary’s photos, which she graciously sent to me last night. She also graciously hosted my baby overnight from Christmas Eve to Christmas morning. Thank you Mary!

Mary’s daughters, Mara and Maya, also are like my babies. Traditionally we’d all dine together at Christmas… so it was nice to see them enjoying their first Christmas with Rudi and me elsewhere.

What lovely young ladies!

And Maya’s wonderful gingerbread house (I think Kelsey helped too):

And here’s my wee chef reading her Julia Child cookbook -

And Kelsey, putting the meaning into the word “stockings.”

It was new for me, to spend Christmas without Kelsey and a meal with Mary’s family. Meghan has been away for several years, so I am more used to that (and there are no photos of Meghan’s Christmas since she says she dropped and broke her camera that was a gift from us last year).

And thank you, Mary, for adding one more daughter to your celebration.

Ch ch ch changes!

I love watching Rudi work. He works SO hard… Poor guy.

Saturday he was out clearing the vines and bottles and things (which apparently included a live wasp’s nest, poor dear*) from our property.

He called me over (I was holding the leash of the old dog and letting her sniff) to see this huge hermit crab.

We watched him head back to his home, which appears to be in our upper front yard!

Rudi had found some tools in the garage and was hard at work.

Come on, Rudi! Can you stop for a moment and smile for the camera?

* Now, when Rudi was stung he thought the proper remedies, high, right away. The pain left, poof! It was gone, and that’s pretty good because wasp stings HURRRRT.

The interesting thing is that he was stung on the top of his left arm, and there was redness and heat for a while on the underside of the same arm. Then there was just redness and an itch, and then just the redness. And this morning there is nothing.

Lawrence has to be the sweetest man – he owns LVA, a small grocery store that is the closest one to our house. So yes, sometimes we do to go LVA Twice a Day!

He’s open more than anyone, and here is his apologetic sign for Christmas -

The Christmas sky was lovely, and red, so a sailor’s delight!

And some of the houses and businesses were dressed in their holiday finest!

Especially the Hope Town Harbour Lodge, which was dressed better than a Christmas tree!!

Church was lovely for the Christmas Eve candlelight service last night.

Rudi was lovely too.

And this morning we had our Christmas, just the two of us. It was nice, and I got a wonderful book on sea glass from Santa!

It was lonely a bit without the girls, and we tried to chat with them on Skype but for some reason the only half decent internet in this rental house is DOWN, and has been since Wednesday (and Nassau has no idea why), and the sucky wireless internet provider is never strong enough to use video on Skype, nor was it consistent. So that part was sad.

But I have a turkey breast in the oven, I’m making our traditional green bean salad and corn bread, and we’ve got out the whole berry cranberry sauce. A pumpkin pie will go in the oven once the turkey is out, and the vanilla ice cream will top that off, and likely top us off as well!!

Merry Christmas to all!

Vernon Malone is a descendant of the woman who first landed on this cay, Wyannie Malone, and she settled it with her children long, long ago. They were Loyalists, escaping the nasty Americans revolting against their beloved queen.

Vernon is the lay minister in the Methodist Church, where Rudi will read tonight at the Christmas Eve service. And Vernon owns a grocery store, with his bakery attached. Vernon bakes bread, baguettes, key lime pies and coconut pies. And people contribute words of wisdom, sticking their thoughts on the grocery shelves.

Vernon’s own front door says -

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And here are a few of the signs:

and

and

and

I will get some more shots for you over time. Hope you enjoyed these!
If you have one I can hang for you at Vernon’s – please let me know.

Have a wonderful Christmas Eve Day, and Christmas Eve.

but maybe magenta and blue?

We’re just finishing off our patients for the year – and then we can get into the Christmas spirit!

I am going to do some baking too — what kinds of cookies (or other things) will you be baking this Christmas?

and our excellent builder Todd was there with his wife Kerry and their babe, Blake.
(An example of excellent – a woman came to hand the window treatments in a house they’d just finished building, and she freaked out, saying — “”EVERYTHING IS SQUARE!! She’d never seen a house that was perfectly square.)

I thought I’d sneak a picture of Todd for you all – he is so cute! I’d kill to have his hair. In any colour.
But I don’t think I was very good at sneaking…

* Note on the photo – it is noisy, which is disappointing. I used my Canon D10, which decided to stop working the following night (last night) as I carried it into Hope Town to shoot the Christmas carolers. I am getting an error message – Lens error. Restart camera. And the camera does NOT restart. Canon says this is rare. Yeah? Check the internet. I am VERY unhappy. This is the second time I am getting the error message, and there is not a photo shop on every corner down here.

UPDATE – I went to see Monica for a haircut, and who was there but Todd! His golden curls lay on the floor. Oh my! They WILL grow back. And wife Kerry was there too, taking pictures of little Blake who was having his first big-boy haircut!

I love my stuff. And I am baking today – I will show you the recipe since it is so simple and reported to be delicious!

Thanks to friends Mary and Jason, who went to my house and took my baking things out to pack up and send to me, I can bake. That makes me happy! Or, maybe I can say – a bit happier. It is tough being away from friends and family at Christmas.

So, you can see my cake pans at the top (oops, not shown), the mini-muffin tins next, and the cooling racks and on the very right the baking sheets and beneath them the cupcake/muffin tins, and my loaf pans with our favourite granola in it and my Starbucks tea mug! What more could anyone want?

So, now I can start baking. We’ve been invited to Michael and Patte’s tonight, he is the guy who designed our house here in Abaco. He is a landscape architect technically, but he designs a great house! And they live in town at the very far end, at the entrance to the harbour.

At Christmas there is a great group of carolers, and they sing around Hope Town. Those who don’t live in Hope Town lose out – UNLESS you have nice friends who invite you to their house for the festivities. And I am taking over these Cheese Cookies, a savory cookie.

By: Marg (CaymanDesigns)
Dec 15, 2004

A really nice change from all the sweet cookies out there. Can be used as a appetizer too. They need to chill for 1 hour before baking. I used to have a co-worker who I HAD to make these for every year at our Christmas party.

SERVES 36 -48

Ingredients

2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup butter, melted

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients together with your hand.
2. Make teaspoon size balls.
3. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookies sheet.
4. Refrigerate 1 hour.
5. Bake at 400°F 15-20 minutes until set.

Some people have added a bit of cayenne (I will) and a touch of garlic powder (I will do that too) to give them a bit more “bite” I will let you know how they turn out!

Update:
They made about 54 small (less than a teaspoon of batter) cheese munchies.

Here they are ready to pop into the oven -

And when they were finished baking -

Hmmm… there appears to be one missing.

Things I would do differently next time – MORE garlic powder and a touch more cayenne. I was being safe, and you can tell. Also, the only sharp cheddar Rudi could find this morning was orange. (This is not the land of choice in terms of food items.) I’d use un-dyed cheddar.

at the holidays (though am working on letting go of these attachments…)

The snow. I love watching the snow fall. In several of our houses I’d ask Rudi to mount a light just above the bedroom windows so I could lie in bed at night and watch the flakes as they drifted softly to earth. Or, as was the case on the eastern seaboard for the past few days, being blown violently horizontal by the strong winds.

Do you think Miss Maggie misses the snow? She’s 15 now.

One of my favourite snow memories happened in a location that is not known for its snowy days. A few years ago we were visiting Rudi’s mom and dad in November in beautiful sunny Saanichton (just north of Victoria) in BC. And we went to bed on a relatively cold night for that area. And somehow I awoke around 5:30 am (which I would only do if I had to catch a flight) and it was SO silent…

I got up to see what was going on. Normally it is quiet at 5:30 am there, with only Rudi and his dad up at that early hour, reading. I flicked on the light switch – nothing. I went upstairs and learned that the power was out. Interestingly, the day before Rudi’s baby sister, Yolande, had asked Rudi to make sure the gas fireplace’s pilot was lighted. And he ensured it was.

Rudi rooted around in the storage area off our downstairs kitchen and found the old camp stove they’d used for camping when the Verspoor kids were growing up. We brought it to the upstairs kitchen and made oatmeal (porridge) on it to stay all stick-to-your-ribs warm. And we made tea – rooibos, of course.

The oatmeal and tea warmed us, along with the fireplace. And the company and conversation could never be beat!

Rudi and I drove into Sidney, I forget why other than that I love Sidney. We used the family Volvo without snow tires (you only need them once every 4-5 years there) and probably went to the Safeway, one of the very few cars on the road. The sunset was beautiful that night.

So, besides the beautiful snow I can say I absolutely miss these folks.

And my babies.
Kelsey -
(in the kitchen, of course!)

And Meghan -
(on her first horse)

Yesterday we had to go to the big island to do some shopping and to pick up a few things from DHL and the Import people. My baking sheets and muffin/cupcake tins and loaf pans have arrived!! That can make me happy.

We sat at the post office dock and waited for the 9:45 ferry to leave the Hope Town Harbour Lodge dock and head our way. And I took the obligatory shot of the Elbow Reef Lighthouse:

Here’s our ferry, getting ready to come our way. Hope Town tends to merit the larger ferries, which I appreciate because I hate climbing down a totally vertical ladder to get on the ferry when it is low tide. In the rain. In flip flops. On the slippery top that you have to step on. But I digress…

And the bench on which we were sitting has a message for y’all -

This is Harbour’s Edge, to the right of the post office dock as you look at the lighthouse. Man do they make a mean salad, the Edge Salad. I have dreams about it… hearts of palm, marinated artichoke hearts, warm breaded goat cheese, and I could drink their dressing!

In a few minutes the ferry heads our way.

And we have Donnie VIII! Good, a big one! It is high tide, and we can virtually walk right onto the ferry from the dock. (That’s my speed.)
The Albury Ferry ferry captains are amazing, they can turn the thing on a dime and they back right up to the dock perfectly, every time!

So, we head through the harbour and out onto the Sea of Abaco. Yes, I knew it was windy. No, I had no idea how the choppiness of the waters would effect my tummy. But it sure did. And the horizon is not tilted in this shot. We are. Or I was. I am not the world’s best sailor. Cornelia is.

One consolation. Behind Chris’s leg (and Chris is our interior decorator’s husband – more on how a decorator helps down here later) there were — two puppies! But to shoot them properly meant to embarrass myself when the contents of my tummy went to see the puppies too, so I shot them (barely) from my seat. Animals have to be in a carrier on the ferry, which is a good plan.

Due to the condition of my stomach I was not happy to be on land. But we’d been talking to new acquaintance, Kelley, who wanted to share a taxi. I wanted to lie across the toilet in the ferry office. But Kelley won, and we met Taxi 103, Sheri Lyn, who is a happy and upbeat woman about whom we have heard only great things.

And our first stop — it was supposed to be the DHL office to get our residence papers, but lo and behold God was on my side, and I got to stop at:

I got a medium Pepsi, no ice, and it calmed my poor tummy right away. And, since we’d forgotten to bring water for me from back in Hope Town, I had the Pepsi to drink all day. (I hope no DynNCs are reading this.)

I didn’t take pictures on our shopping travels through Marsh Harbour, but suffice it to say we did a great job. Usually we get into MH around 10:00 and we leave on the 4:00 ferry. But Friday we got it down to a few hours and we made the 2:00 ferry. We’re getting good!

There are some lovely coconuts at the ferry dock, and I was out of Pepsi, and coconut water sounded great (I am drinking it now) but…

the ferry was ready for us. It had been raining on and off, and we began to load our two wheely containers full of food and stuff… (Ottawans may recognize the Loblaw’s bags)

Weirdly, as we began to load the stuff onto the ferry (and everyone helps, the ferry guys and other ferry passengers and in fact Rudi loaded half of the ferry stuff through one of the big windows when he was inside and the ferry guys were handing stuff in (to get it out of the rain), we learned that we had to move to the next ferry over. It was okay, not much had been loaded yet. But it was a slippery low tide damned vertical ladder in flip flops THREE times for me.

And the ride back, well, I don’t know if it was because my stomach was empty save for a medium Pepsi, no ice, or if it was preventively prepared for the choppy waves because of the medium Pepsi, no ice, but it was a better ride. We SLAMMED onto the water several times, which freaked the hell out of me the first time it happened, but my tummy held!

I haven’t often been happier to be back in the harbour, and here’s the obligatory lighthouse shot. The wind was whipping up, and it was raining off and on.

We stopped first at the dock on Well Lane, and I shot this to show you the hubub. People getting on and off to get their purchases, and people helping them. It is cool.
At first I wondered where in heck did that lady get the Christmas wrapping paper… then I remembered I don’t have anything to wrap this year. sniff…

And hi, Capt’n Jack’s!

And hi, Harbour View grocery! Thanks for stocking Haagen-Dazs!

And back to the Edge. Home at last!

We got all of our goodies onto the golf cart, which was amazing.

Later in the evening we went to the Christmas Pageant at the church. There had been torrential rain and phenomenally rough winds, but it stalled as it was nearing time to leave for church.

I wish I had photos to show you! We drove through serious deep water at the bottom of Big Hill! (Yay, golf cart!) And there were branches and palm fronds and other vegetative debris on the entire route! As we got closer to Hope Town we noticed that there wasn’t one light on, anywhere!

A woman at the parking area asked if we were her dad. She had a flashlight and guided us up the little pathway to the church road. It was PITCH black. Not a star in the sky, not a light on anywhere. It is kind of amazing not being able to see your feet or where you are walking.

We got to church and the show was still to go on! And it was wonderful, done by candlelight and two oil lamps, with some in attendance shining a lantern or big flashlight to light the stage. The kids were all wonderful! And there was one little Rudi-like tiny girl, who had more enthusiasm than anyone in the church! She sang and did all the hand motions – totally off-key, but thrilled to be there. That’s kinda like Rudi in church. He sings, off-key, and is happy to be there too.