September - A time of plenty

We are nearing the end of a very pleasant rainy season. It was a wee bit wet to start off with but for the past few months there have only been a few showers and any storms have passed well to the east of us. The Atlantic is quiet and there appears to be little coming off the African coast, so let’s hope that’s all we are getting this year.  The garden has started to produce a good harvest. We are enjoying star fruit, pink grapefruit, tangerine, guava, passion fruit, limes and of course, bananas. We seem to spend more and more time slashing back the encroaching forest and lopping off heads of trees that are growing too tall.

                                                                     Garden Produce

                                                                                                       

 

                                                      

Our big old rotting tree in the centre of the front garden has been removed. The increased amount of light and hopefully rain, should get things growing and be beneficial to that area .Jeff also cleared another bit of land ready for a new palm that a  friend has grown from seed.  The Bismarkia palm grows very tall with bluish silvery palmates; it will be stunning if it takes.  The tree felling task was quite difficult for Jeff, Kurt and Papillon as they had to get it down whilst causing no damage to the surrounding garden. It took several hours but they did a great job with only minor causalities. After all the hard work we had a late lunch washed down with cold beers.

Whilst Papillon was here he mentioned that we had the wrong sort of coconuts! He had noticed this when he was here last so this time he’d brought us two of the right sort.   He disliked the tall coconut trees we’d grown as they were sprouting palms that had been found on the beach, washed up from goodness knows where, and we could end up eating coconuts that tasted of sea water. His coconuts are the dwarfed red ones that grow low for easy harvesting. We were given very special instructions for planting them. Papillon chose the spot and the time. We were to wait until two days after full moon, at low tide and we were to have had a big meal, so our bellies would be full whilst planting. These things will ensure that our coconuts will grow low and always be full of lots of good sweet water. Simple really!

The birth of red bananas.

At the beginning of the rainy season Jeff cleared the ditches leading to our entrance and made sure that they would take away any water from our drive. It all looks very neat and we have since planted a row of cacti, yuccas and agave's on one side and climbers on the fence side to help cover the wire. This really is garden creep !

                                                                 Dog and Master relaxing.

It was great to see our nephew Sam and his new wife Nicci out here on honeymoon. They spent their first week at Sandals and then came to us once they‘d got all the newlywed romance stuff out of the way. We had a lot of fun, sailing, ATV’ing, swimming, eating and a pub crawl around the bay. The pub crawl was a great success and will be part of the itinerary for future visitors!

We also had sailing days with our friends Franz and Pascale and their lovely family. Their guest houses are now finished and they are open for business. In fact, a large party of John and Vic’s wedding guests have booked it already. Perfect!

I have learnt that there ain't a fruit that can’t be chutneyed or jammed. I have made star fruit, wild guava and pink guava jam and lime marmalade. I have also made star fruit chutney and guava paste. As we seem to be producing a lot of grapefruits I’m wondering what to do with them, other than juicing. Avocado is a real problem as it would seem there is no way you can use them other than “eat when ripe”.  The bananas are another problem, as we have eight big bunches ripening on the trees and they will most likely be ready all at the same time - I had better get my thinking cap on!

  I've come a long way since the early days of Sutton Benger  W.I. !

Jeff has been hard at it on the boat. All the running rigging has been changed and she is gleaming white after several days of scrubbing, waxing and teak cleaning. It was all ready and ship shape when friends , Karen and John Hufton, from Lyneham visited us for a few days.  We had a great sail down to the Pitons, followed by lunch afloat at Ti Kaye.

On quiet days I kept myself occupied with calabash painting. We now have enough bowls for chips and dips to see us out.

A joint effort - Jeff cuts and cleans and I paint them! 

After this restful period things should hot up for us as we have family visitors from the beginning of December through until  John and Vic’s wedding in April. Good times to look forward to.