Bullens in St Lucia

September - A time of plenty

2011-10-03T08:56:00.001-04:00

We are nearing the end of a very pleasant rainy season. Itwas a wee bit wet to start off with but for the past few months there have onlybeen a few showers and any storms have passed well to the east of us. TheAtlantic 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 first Coral Hibiscus flower

The garden has started to produce a good harvest. We areenjoying 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 andlopping off heads of trees that are growing too tall.

Garden Produce

Home made mango ice lollies.

Our big old rotting tree in the centre of the front gardenhas been removed. The increased amount of light and hopefully rain, should get thingsgrowing and be beneficial to that area .Jeff also cleared another bit of landready for a new palm that a friend hasgrown from seed. The Bismarkia palmgrows 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 thesurrounding garden. It took several hours but they did a great job with onlyminor causalities. After all the hard work we had a late lunch washed down withcold beers.

We planted a vine to cover the side wall, it's very pretty but has Triffid-like tendencies.

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

The birth of red bananas.

At the beginning of the rainy season Jeff cleared theditches leading to our entrance and made sure that they would take away any waterfrom 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 Nicciout here on honeymoon. They spent their first week at Sandals and then came tous once they‘d got all the newlywed romance stuff out of the way. We had a lot offun, sailing, ATV’ing, swimming, eating and a pub crawl around the bay. The pubcrawl was a great success and will be part of the itinerary for futurevisitors!

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

I have learnt that there ain't a fruit that can’t bechutneyed or jammed. I have made star fruit, wild guava and pink guava jam and limemarmalade. I have also made star fruit chutney and guava paste. As we seem tobe producing a lot of grapefruits I’m wondering what to do with them, otherthan juicing. Avocado is a real problem as it would seem there is no way youcan use them other than “eat when ripe”. The bananas are another problem, as we have eight big bunches ripeningon the trees and they will most likely be ready all at the same time - I hadbetter 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 runningrigging has been changed and she is gleaming white after several days ofscrubbing, 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. Wehad 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 wehave family visitors from the beginning of December through until John and Vic’s wedding in April. Good times tolook forward to.

2011-07-09T10:00:00.001-04:00

Three months has flown past since the last blog. We have had great weather leading up to the rainy season. Our windows are now water proof and the guttering has been repaired to stop the rainwater overflowing and pouring into the downstairs loo, so all should be well for the up and coming hurricane season - fingers crossed!

Fi and Stu visited us in April, a pre-op holiday for Fi and a first visit for Stu. We all had a good time.

The garden continues to be a full time occupation. Whilst I was back in UK Jeff completed a circular path all around the lower garden so there is now easy access to all the fruit trees and of course has opened my eyes to a few more areas that require cultivation – Jeff calls this garden creep. This path has changed my life! Dramatic, I know, but for several months of the year the lower garden was out of bounds as it was so slippery and had even claimed a few broken bones (Jill’s wrist) and sore bums. Now I skip down the path twice a day coming back with exciting news of flowering fruit trees and outbreaks of pink mealy bug (can be devastating to coconuts and hibiscus and is not to be tolerated).

Pineapples and grapefruits.

Stairway to heaven!

Beers in Martinique...
and nights in Chateau Mygo listening to the band with a didgeridoo accompaniment.

This was a strange phenomena - a halo around the sun - picture courtesy of Stu who managed to photograph it hanging off the boat whilst on the high seas to Martinique.

I went back to UK with them to see Fi through her second hip operation (different side). We spent a week in Lincolnshire, where the operation was done and then we came down to Oxfordshire where she recuperated for the next four weeks. We hired a wheel chair from the Red Cross, which gave us such freedom. We shopped, visited wild life parks, went to country pubs and socialised. It was great to spend such a length of time with her and family, especially as the weather was so good. Jeff joined us towards the end, which coincided with the closing down ceremonies at Lyneham. He went to a huge hanger party and met up with lots of old friends, stories were told and good times re-visited. He also went to the formal closing ceremony with Princess Anne in attendance. It was all very poignant, the end of an era that has been such a great part of our lives.

Dancing with crutches is a whole new art form.

Cigars and port to seal the engagement.

We were all able to celebrate John and Victoria’s engagement, which had taken place on the same day as the Royal Wedding. We spent the weekend with them and went out for a lovely meal followed by a small party on their patio. My memory of this is a little hazy. They plan to be married next year, here in St Lucia! It’s all so exciting but of course with a beach wedding there is not much to organise .The date and beach have been chosen and Chateau Mygo will be the venue for the post wedding party- job done!

Another job done whilst I was away was the construction of a front porch and the building of a raised step to keep the doormat dry. It’s worked very well and looks smart.

Once back we quickly got back into the swing of things. I’ve been river swimming with Doreen and her grandson in a beautiful part of the Island. She also introduced us to breadnuts, the Caribbean equivalent of chestnuts. We gorged ourselves on them one evening, dunking them into garlic butter but unbeknownst to us, they also have a powerful side effect of producing copious amounts of gas; guy ropes would have been necessary on the duvet – if we had one!

We have had our first pineapple harvest. It must have been the smallest pineapple ever but the taste was sweet and juicy, in fact I think pineapples should be that size as one never eats a whole one and then the other bits lurk in the fridge and eventually get thrown out.

We have just enjoyed our 30^th wedding anniversary. A big meal and romantic trip in a water taxi was planned and paid for by John and Fiona (great kids!) But unfortunately I was a bit crook and then once I was better Jeff wrestled with an old tree (the tree won) and injured his leg so the romance has been put on hold until we are both fit enough to cope with it.

This little fellow is a very persistent grey trembler. He had started to build his nest but the guys removed it when they were clearing the gutters but as soon as they had gone he was back there building like there was no tomorrow - he must have a nagging wife ready to lay her eggs!

We had Jessie and mark visit- we met her parents here a few years ago and our friendship grew on facebook.

Below is the first of the torch lillies we have grown , this ones head was 9" tall!

Thank goodness the ups and downs of life in the Caribbean continue to amuse us in our old age.

2011-03-26T11:42:00.006-04:00

We have been spring maintenancing.

Every bit of exposed wood has been sandpapered and varnished. It looks great and took about three weeks in all. We employed one guy to help us and between us we managed to get around the house, up into the eaves and onto the railings. Jeff ,Terminus and Roach erected the scaffolding and managed to get it as high as the eaves, where we never thought possible, even the guttering got a clean. It was hard work but worth it and we hope that we can sit back and relax for a while…bring on the lazy days by the pool!

Jeff high up in the eaves.

Terminus erecting the final pieces of scaffolding.

A fresh coat of paint for the pillars - I only do ground level work.

The finished product with window bonnets to keep the rain out.

During this period Jeff has also been the point of contact for a joint services boat. This has meant numerous trips to the chandlery, victualling runs, beer stock- ups but best of all a chance to meet up with lots of young folk and a few old friends who are having a go at sailing. The changeover of crews happened every fortnight for the past four months and at the end of each leg we got invited to the crew meal. We had a lot of fun.

The dogs are both well. Obi has chalked up several new neuroses. He doesn’t like the new wall trellis, he can’t walk under scaffolding and he doesn’t like to walk on the reflections of the sun shining through windows. He became a virtual prisoner on the balconies but is now getting past these scary obstacles with encouragement and love. The house painting period was a real trial and he is pleased that the place is back to normal.

We have had no visitors since New Year, which has given us time to catch up on the back log of jobs. We have made time for partying on the balconies, late night swims and Chateau Mygo band nights listening to the talents of visiting yachtsmen and residents. One guy, just completed building, is a demon blues harmonica player. He is a lawyer by trade but plays in a band at weekends in the States.

The three amigos!

Romantic moments...

The weather has been great, just enough rain to keep the garden going but bring on the blooms and blossom. At the moment we have a small amount of blossom on the avocado, lime, tangerine, pomegranate, guava, mango and star fruit. All bodes well for a fruity summer. These trees are all immature so it won’t be a bumper crop but augers well for the future.

The hibiscus are putting on a grand display.

Baby pineapples

Pomegranate blossom

We are very fortunate to have a fitness instructor living in Marigot. Since the beginning of January some of us girls have been attending her Pilates class which is held twice a week on Maggi’s balcony. It all feels very Zen -like, getting in touch with our core whilst dreamily looking out over the ocean. The amount of discussion and negotiations that went into the publication of these photos would have impressed the UN!

Another task for Jeff this month has been road building.

The roads around us belong to the residents, so the government doesn't maintain them. Every now and again money is collected to repair the worst of the pot holes. This was a much larger project than previous ones so it was decided that Mr Brown would build it and Jeff and Henning would be project managers, whilst Norman collected the money. It went very well and the entrance from The Discovery Hotel up to Mama Sheilas hill is now as good as any you'll find in St Lucia.

Busy, Busy !!

2011-01-08T12:12:00.004-04:00

Happy New Year!

For the past two months we have kept ourselves busy with the post hurricane clean up, gardening, sailing and Christmas preparations.

The Island recovered quickly from Hurricane Tomas, although there are still areas that will take a long time to reconstruct and there are still communities without mains water. The tourists are back and there are only a few attractions that have limited access.

We were fortunate that Jill and Herbs visit only had to be postponed by one week and when they came they were armed with water purification tablets, baby clothes and other useful stuff like toothbrushes! It was all gratefully received by the Red Cross which did a fantastic job feeding and clothing ravaged communities.

We had a lot of fun during their visit and are pleased to report no breakages of limbs or champagne corks going astray. We did have rather a lot of rain though so we had to have rainy day play times with Wii and piton. Jeff and Herb managed an over- night stop in Martinique as well as joining the sailing rally that marks the beginning of the ARC race in the Canaries.

We were invited to an American Thanksgiving dinner at Doreen’s house which was wonderful. We all ate and drank too much and thanked everyone concerned…that’s the general idea, isn’t it? Looking round the table there were no true Americans but it was a great excuse for a get together.

This is a St Lucian parrot that was found in the forest in need of food and water after the hurricane

We had lots more rain after the hurricane which made the clean-up more difficult.

These papayas were gorgeous...juicy and sweet, the biggest weighing in at 5lbs 7 oz.

We had to get the professionals in to saw up the biggest of fallen trees.

First few days of a great visit.

First night of a great visit!

Christmas Eve at Chateau Mygo.

A final dip on Christmas Eve

Christmas Day

An exceptional turkey once again...the BBQ does a great job and keeps the kitchen cool.

Christmas came in a rush and we had so much fun with John and Fi. We got into the party mood early and managed to sustain the enthusiasm all the way to New Year. They got us a Wii fit board and CD for Christmas, which will be very useful in the coming weeks as we try to reduce girths and increase fitness.

Walks to the beach are enjoyed by all ... especially if you have a cold piton to enjoy.

Traditional Christmas activities of making calabash bowls.

Relaxing at the hotel pool bar.

New Years Eve.

The keen eyed may have noticed that Jan is missing from this event..Montezuma had his revenge!

Some of the crew from a visiting military boat enjoying a post New years swim .

The fitness regime has been postponed for a few weeks as Jeff’s brother Jonathan and his partner Stewart arrived on January 1st for a 10 day stay. This led to more eating, drinking and late nights, followed by days in the sun, sailing and relaxing.

Foxy has found another willing human to keep her comfortable!

Well that's us up to date. Happy New Year to one and all.

Soufriere to Castries by road after Hurricane "Tomas"

2010-11-11T09:38:00.000-04:00

2010-11-04T11:18:00.002-04:00

Spoke too soon! Hurricane Tomas did indeed maul our backsides after intensifying very quickly from a tropical storm.

The winds started to pick up on Saturday morning and we thought it best that a friend staying with us should leave immediately as he was due to fly the BA flight that afternoon. That was a wise decision as things went from bad to worse. The Island lost power by midday and soon after communications were out. During the day we were able to watch our garden being ripped to shreds and heard numerous trees fall and branches crack. The rainfall became very heavy once the eye past and then things really got hairy.

We took a direct hit but came out of it well, with only minor damage to the house. The garden is devastated but that will all grow again.

The people of St Lucia are a resilient lot but there have been several deaths, many landslides, washing whole communities away and the damage to roads is overwhelming. There is no access from north to south and the trip to the airport is by water or air. Some folks are getting the mini buses to take them to one side of a huge landslide, getting out and walking through a steep sided muddy pass for an hour and a half and then getting into buses on the other side! We can’t see the tourists doing that but for the time being they are not being admitted to the country until we have the proper infrastructure in place again.

Our biggest problem on the Island is there is no water as the reservoir is full of mud and trees and all the pumping stations are inaccessible and the pumps have seized up with mud. It’s a mess.

We feel a little guilty here as our lives are returning to normal and we can't complain about the minor damage we have suffered. We met a young couple who hitched a ride on a boat from Soufriere, they got out of their house seconds before it was swept away in a mud slide and then walked 10 miles in the middle of the hurricane to find shelter. So many stories like that are emerging.

Our local German guy/ engineer is trying to get a network of pipes to get water to the village from various storage tanks, not being used, under people's houses. On construction sites, tanks are made first and they are full of water. The supply won't last long but it is a start.

Some of our old builders came round yesterday. They cleaned our gutters and then set to with removing fallen trees. They did a fantastic job. We made them lunch, paid them, had a few beers and then they all had a warm shower with soap and a towel. None of them had had a wash since Saturday so it was much appreciated.

We have HMS Manchester anchored off Soufriere, doing what they can and a French helicopter is also present delivering essential supplies to cut off areas.

Thanks for all your messages. Below is a link to an ariel view of the damge on the Island
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbPh_Rh7hvE

2010-10-28T15:38:00.001-04:00

As we near the end of the hurricane season there is a tropical storm that is brewing just to the south east of us that may just nip us in the rear. That’s what happens when you become complacent!

We have had fabulous weather; just the right amount of rain, mostly at night and warm breezy sun filled days.

Doreen had an afternoon party for all her regulars.

We have spent our time well. Wine Down was hauled out and her bottom was inspected, anodes changed, sail drive oil changed and the deep keel, re-anti fouled. The copper on the hull was still fine and needed no attention. We did some sewing repairs to the bimini which is slowly deteriorating in the constant sun and the seams need more and more attention.

At the beginning of the month we were recruited by our friend Kurt at the ATV place to be his token white tourists for a film that was being made to show off his new parrot trail through the rain forest. It was a great day as we were also the porters for the film crew to get them and their equipment up the steep bits and through the mud – all on the bikes! We were there all day and did some of the most exciting riding we have ever done. We also had to walk the last part of the trail and got to see two amazing waterfalls, deep in the forest. Not a parrot in sight though! We are now immortalised on film that is showing all day on the Visitors channel. Keeping the autograph hunters at bay might be a problem!

The two waterfalls deep in the woods.

The film crew, hard at it.

We also went on “a lime” with Doreen and Suzie to a beach that’s sits below the southernmost Piton. It was very beautiful and living along the shores were a small community of Rasta’s, growing ther own food and herbs (!) After a swim and a chat we went back to the top of the trail where we had prearranged a meal of conch and lobster, which was absolutely delicious, all for $40 EC a head.

We had visitors for BBQ's and nights out with friends

We swam in the rain!

Rain Forest nights.

Sally and Gordon came for a visit which was great fun but too short a time. We tried to pack as much in as we could but did give them some relaxing pool time. .

This is the same river with the shots taaken five minutes apart.

A selection of crotons.

This is our first torch ginger lily.

New blooms on the orchid tree and Pride of Barbados

Our first calabash, soon to be a bowl.

The garden has loved the weather, growing fast and abundantly. We have made guava jam, golden apple juice, carambola juice and also passion fruit juice, all picked in the garden. The calabash bush has just produced three enormous fruits which when harvested will be used as bowls and I am just getting the hang of engraving a pattern on them to make them look more decorative.

We have family visiting in November, December and January …high season has started!

2010-08-28T14:01:00.003-04:00

Avid readers may have noticed a two month break in the reporting of events from St Lucia. This was due to an extremely quiet time and little action. That said we have gathered a few photos of visitors and flora and the odd one or two of us taking it easy…actually the ones of Jeff are him toiling in the garden!

This Calla lily used to be pure yellow but this year developed red splodges.

We had flying visits from The Houseby’s and also our nephew Stu. It was great to see them all and catch up on old times.

We fear with Stu that he might be planning a move soon; he really took to Island life.

The garden is in full bloom, even enough for cut flowers to grace the house.

Star Fruit or Carambola as they are known here.

The garden came on in leaps and bounds and we harvested banana and sugar cane and are awaiting the ripening of the carambola.

We also went out sailing a lot and on two occasions were accompanied by our friend Pascal and her girls.

The skipper with his crew.

With the impending stormy season we decided it was time to get rid of the tree branches that over hang the house. Our friend Kurt brought a great tree cutter from the south of the Island who managed to fell huge branches with very little damage to the plants below. We now have great views of the bearded trees behind and more light in the house

A map like that keeps you on your toes!

2010-08-11T11:55:00.002-04:00

2010-07-03T10:08:00.000-04:00

June has been quiet!

We have kept our promise of leading a more sedate pace of life for the past few weeks. Visits to the local bars have been kept to the minimum and a healthy eating regime is in place.

These red pagoda fowers are two foot high!

We have watched videos, rugby, cricket and tennis in the evenings as well as watching satellite images of tropical waves, making sure that they don’t head our way. We need to get a bit more practice with the Wii sports before we can challenge the visiting yotties , who are here for the hurricane season. They also have the system on their boat and as the competition has already been mooted, we’re guessing that there will be some serious practising going on.

Our beautiful red bananas.

We sailed up to Martinique, in a weather window, to pick up our newly serviced life raft. The weather men spoke with forked tongue and our overnight stay and return journey was dreadful. Torrential rain, thunder, lightning, big seas, swell etc and oh, on the way back Jeff did a routine check of the engine only to find a bilge full of oil. It then became a long passage as we ghosted into Marigot 7 hours later. This week’s tasks are to fix the engine leak, mend the generator on the boat that no longer gives out power and replace the loo seat that I broke whilst trying to use the loo on that particularly bumpy crossing. Ah, the joys of sailing!

Our water tanks are fit to burst, not literally, as we have an overflow pipe, but there has been so much rain we could luxuriate in long warm showers, if we weren’t so disciplined .The bottom garden is now like a skating rink as the earth turns to slippery clay. It will be a while before we get down there again so any ripening fruit will be viewed from the balconies with the aid of the binos…and Jeff can risk life and limb (Take note Jill) to harvest anything edible.

Obie is now 2 years old. It’s his hormones we think! He is acting like a love sick teenager mooning around after Foxy, getting amorous in quite obvious ways. She of course will have none of it, being “done”, but now and again lets him have a quick sniff. He pays for it later as she lords it over the food and water bowls and he acquiesces to her every whim. He is truly hen pecked.

So, that’s this month’s report from a wet but hot, out-of-season Marigot Bay, standing by to tackle any hurricane that comes our way.

2010-05-28T11:55:00.004-04:00

May! What can we say, busy, busy, busy. It was great fun but back to back visits have left us with expanding girths, shadows under our eyes and creaking livers. We are hoping for a quiet hurricane season in more ways than one.

Its been a busy moth season with nightly visitors.

We have found new places to visit, one being The Pink Plantation House, an old restored Creole house overlooking Castries. It specialises in traditional Lucian cooking and is fabulous.

Fi and Ben arrived in time for the 20/20 cricket world cup and we had a great day out watching England beat New Zealand. I love watching cricket in the West Indies, it is so colourful, noisy and humorous and the game is incidental. We got a fast boat up from Marigot, avoiding the traffic and the need for a named driver.

When we went quad biking with Fi and Ben we picked up loads of cashew nuts. This was to be this month’s craft experience. First you have to dry them in the sun all day, and then on an open fire you have to roast them, all the time avoiding the hissing, spitting caustic fumes and splatters of a very nasty irritant that oozes out of them. Once cooled, you crack them open to find the nut, wearing gloves so as not to get said stingy irritant on hands. It can only be done manually, is laborious, messy and fiddly, so now we know why cashews are so expensive and shall treat them with much more reverence the next time we BUY a packet!

This is the cashew pear which bears one nut, hanging from the end of the fruit,which means from one tree you would only get one or two packets of nuts. Remember, if you click on any of the photos, they will enlarge.

We picked about 50 mangoes and Fi and I made sixteen jars of mango chutney - delicious.

We took Wine Down out of the country for her six monthly trip; to Martinique this time. We had hoped for a trip through the southern Islands but the gods were against us as the house started to fall apart – TV’s, loos and fridges and once they were all fixed we were short of time. Good supermarket shopping, moules and red wine more than made up for it and we had a great sail there and back.

Hoogarden in Martinique

In the following photos you get a glimpse of how we spent our time .

After the drought the garden went into over drive by producing an abundance of colour and growth. We have spent the past few days trying to instil some order into a burgeoning jungle.

Our friend Maggie is now employed by Jalousie to sell their amazing new development. She very kindly offered to show us around. After an impressive lunch we swam and then lazed on hanging sun beds living the life of the rich and famous. We have chosen our $6 million villa, should our numbers come up. The day was made even more fun by meeting up with old friends that we hadn’t seen since Belize days. They were staying in their newly purchased villa for the first time and were very pleased with their investment..I should cocoa!

2010-04-30T14:15:00.001-04:00

April has brought showers at fairly regular intervals, so the green hills that surround us are no longer brown. The trees made up for lost time and produced assorted berries in their millions. This was what the local wildlife had been waiting for and each night we have had squadrons of bats flying through the trees gorging themselves and subsequently disgorging themselves on our pool, decking and verandas..what a mess !

We also had a close encounter with a manacou who had decided that there might be food to find on the papaya tree that grows up to the first floor balcony. He was as startled as we were to be found so close and initially hissed and growled at us and then changed tactics and froze. A clever move, as we did eventually get bored watching him. After a while he slunk off into the night without us being aware.

Happy Fisherman.Happy banana man!

Triumphant piton climber.

John, Vix and Wade arrived at the beginning of May for a ten day stay which stretched into two weeks as the volcanic ash preventing them returning to UK. It would have been longer if it were not for Steve, a BA captain, who was also stuck here but had the inside track on what was going to leave and when. They eventually got out on the first BA flight and were able to return to work a few days before their respective employers had hoped for. They were really lucky as we have since met people that have been delayed for more than 10 days. Great place to be stuck though and we thoroughly enjoyed the extra days we had with them.

Mum arrived a few days after they left and is still here, enjoying the sunshine and relaxation.

Jeff has been doing things to the boat. One big improvement is the new ‘above head ‘window in the bimini. He can now see what the sails are doing and wishes we had got that modification done six years ago!

I have been nurturing loofah. We had been given seeds last year and they didn’t come to anything so I had another go and this time we have had some success. So much so that we think a new company may be in the offing. We have three in use, another three on the vine and a new plant growing up the fence. Out of each dried loofah we collect about two hundred seeds, which will be the next crop. We could go into business selling loofah at the local market..Looshun Loofah LTD.

Friends gathered to celebrate Suzies 60th birthday bash, which was held at Doolittles.

John and Jeff went out in the rain to search for the hidden or sunk bottles of rum and found two!

.
Visiting season is nearly over. Mum goes next week and on the same day Fi arrives with her friend and if we get a house sitter we are off sailing. We will then be on our own for the hurricane season, which early predictions say will be lively, great joy!

River Jumping

2010-04-30T12:37:00.003-04:00

2010-03-29T08:52:00.000-04:00

We finally had rain in the last week of March; not enough to fill a reservoir but enough to green up the garden and to hear water gushing into the grateful water tanks beneath the house. It has all gone quiet on the cloud front for the time being, but we are hoping for things to begin to return to normal now that El Niño is weakening.

As the drought took hold our pool became too much of an attraction for nocturnal wildlife and we awoke each morning to find it covered in bat pooh and toad droppings. We eventually had to cover it with a huge tarpaulin as the water was designated for emergency use if the tanks ran dry. The toads and bats then had to make do with the dogs' drinking bowl which was easier to clean out each morning.

We lost a lot of plants but already there are new shoots beginning to poke their heads through the newly soaked ground. The only thing that flowered in abundance was the bougainvillea.

We also took pity on the bird population and left out overripe bananas for them to gorge on, but we regretted it later as they still use our house as a fly through and things got a bit messy inside!

We have had lots of long term visiting boats which has meant meeting new and interesting people. We spent time with a Kiwi and an Oz that were the crew off a rather lovely Wally and got to have a look around as well as the compulsory beers admiring the shiny decks. Lovely yacht but you’d be scared to spill anything.

We also got invited to a dock party as a big mega yacht's guests had cancelled and the crew needed to use up the provisions. It was a good BBQ overseen by an excellent chef. The paying guests missed out on a treat. That led to more meeting of new friends. One family in particular were great fun. Brazilians, on their way back to NZ, where they are residents, in a 40 ft catamaran. We took them out for the day around the island, through the rain forest to the waterfalls at Canaries, then onto Soufriere, down to Debbie’s Sunday buffet lunch and finally to the Reef at Vieux Fort. We then cooled off by our pool for a few beers at the end of a very pleasant day. The family are on a 3-5 year round the world trip with no real time scale or plan set in concrete. Their girls, 8 and 10 are just the right age to enjoy such an adventure.

Their yacht Casulo.

As usual it wasn’t all fun. Jeff and I continued with the house refurbishment. He did all the scary high stuff as well as all the elbow grease jobs like sanding, whilst I painted and varnished to head height only. It’s a good system and leaves me plenty of time to make cold drinks, check e-mails and play on my i-touch.

Jeff has also been fully occupied with the sourcing of mahogany trees for Brett and Sabina to use in their new house. Mahogany isn’t protected here so you pay the owners to chop a tree down. The lumberjack then gets a frame and saws it into planks. He has had several trips into the mountains to find the trees, arrange payment and haulage.

As you can see from the photos, no health and safety here, barefoot and not a hard hat in sight.

He brought back huge seed pods from the felled trees which looked very attractive but as they dried in the sun they split and thousands of seeds flew around like demented helicopters. I am still finding them all over the place. We saved the other seed pods with a plan to germinate some for controlled planting, and we shall spread the other seeds around when the rains come and nature can do the rest.

Marigot is a funny little place. A calf has been arrested and is being held in the police compound. It was the cause of a car accident and until the owner of the calf steps forward it has to stay there as the main witness. We called her daisy but in fact she is a he, and is now called Dozy. If he hangs around too long he may be too much of an attraction for their annual BBQ!

Lastly, much to Jeff’s chagrin, we were persuaded to attend the Governor Generals annual charity bash at Government House. He had to borrow a tie and nobody noticed the lack of socks. It was a good night meeting up with old friends and making acquaintance with new ones but probably a one off as Jeff really was uncomfortable with getting back to the embassy circuit scene after abandoning his uniform five years ago. The Gov Gen has a nice pad though with great views and really nice gardens..and yes I did get a cutting of something exotic that is now in water awaiting roots.

We spent Sunday sailing the seas in search of the elusive mahi mahi. We were out for six hours and didn't get so much as a knock. We did see a huge school of dolphins though and a magical sunset...and this really weird futuristic boat.

2010-02-26T13:31:00.001-04:00

The drought continues unabated.

Our garden and indeed the rest of the Island are turning into a dust bowl. We are giving a few plants some water, as they were hard to come by, but the rest will just have to survive as best they can. The government has declared a state of emergency as they predict they only have water until the end of March and the long term forecast shows no signs of significant rain. The pictures here are of a fire that occured in the Bay and nearly engulfed one of our neighbour's building sites.

There are wild fires all over the Island and little means of putting them out. In fact some fire hydrants have no water in the storage tanks below as people have been taking the water away at night. Our pool has become a haven for thirsty birds and goodness know what nocturnal creatures- we only know they have been by their poops, large and small!

The actual weather is quite pleasant, hot with a very warm constant breeze, like a Mediterranean Mistral. Not good for containing fires though.

Last month we had our water tank repaired so this month we bought 3000 gallons of water and tried it out. Great dismay! After only two days the signs of seepage appeared and we knew that the fix hadn’t worked. We lost 2” of water in one day so Jeff searched around for a water pump to get the remaining precious water from the leaking tank to the sound one. So, it’s back to the drawing board.

We have had some fun days though; we wouldn’t want anyone to think it is all doom and gloom.

At the beginning of the month we met up with a really nice group of youngsters, spending time at the bar and also taking them sailing. We also had friends, Dee and Mike, visit for a week as part of their two-centred holiday. They must have thought we were a rum lot as all conversations were about the lack of water!

At the end of the month Jeff set off on a friends boat to compete in the Independence Day annual round the Island race. This is a fun event that has a night stop at the south end of the Island before ending back at Rodney Bay. They were doing very well, would have come in third apart from approaching the final marker from the wrong way, so actually they are still at sea. They were then told they came sixth. The positions are all a mystery but they had great fun and we all enjoyed their prizes of beer and wine.

They are the ones flying a genneker.

A final note about the dogs - Obie continues to lack the necessary courage as a guard dog and even succumbs to Foxy’s rights as the older but much smaller dog. Here they are trying out some new beds. Obie has been pushed into the corner whilst she lounges on his Doberman size bed.

2010-02-01T08:13:00.000-04:00

We are in the middle of an Island wide drought.

Our tanks are nearing empty and we will have to buy water. People who have mains water are having it rationed. The water company only turns the supply on in the early hours of the morning, so people have to scurry around in the dark collecting water for the day ahead. It’s a good plan!

Fortunately the beer factory is still pushing out the pitons, so there is no need to be alarmed.

We had a few friends around for a New Years pool party.

There has been a little rain, so we did managed to collect 3” in the tank we don’t use. This is the tank that has recently been repaired. We discovered that our wet area in the garden was due to tank leakage rather than an underground spring. The cracks had probably been there since we had the earthquake, two years ago. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the repair will hold, but the jury is still out.

We have taken advantage of this dry spell and have re-varnished all the balcony railings on all three floors. It was hard, laborious work but it looks great.

The Christmas winds have arrived with gusto and sailing trips are a little more sporting. We are managing to get out every week, tearing ourselves away from the varnish tins.

Foxy enjoys a spell in the chair hammock.

We had a good night with Doreen and friends when she held a party for the official opening of her new pool and decking. She really has made it look very nice. Her pool has three lanes and is 40ft long and we have all been invited to do laps whenever we feel the urge.

2009-12-28T12:02:00.002-04:00

‘Twas the season to be merry!

December proved to be quite productive and sociable all the way through. We have entertained both geckos and humans- this one likes breakfast muesli and seems to be able to eat more than his body weight.

We finally said goodbye to Serengeti after enjoying a day out on her followed by a good Chateau Mygo night.

Rice playing in the band.

After Jill (frail, older sister and not a gung -ho mountaineer) fell in our garden, we got Kenrick to build steps down the sloping slippy path and then extend them into the exact spot where she slipped, shattering her wrist. It is a bit like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted but its good to have visitors willing to risk assess the place.

We also got the decking sanded and have recoated it with a special non- slip coating, so that too is looking smart ready for the New Year.

A good friend of ours, Andre, passed away and there was a wake for him at the local bar. The place was crowded as people spoke about the man, before a flotilla of boats all shapes and sizes, escorted his ashes out to sea. His stepson then dived to the deepest currents and released them. We shall miss him in Chateau Mygo, he was always there, Piton in hand accompanied by his white fluffy dog, Laos.

We weren’t that enthusiastic about Christmas as we were to have no family present and our efforts at organising a community lunch got changed at every turn so we eventually gathered the remnants of the plan and had it at our house. Eight people sat down for a traditional lunch at 3pm after opening our ‘Secret Santa’ presents. Jeff BBQ’d a turkey, which was delicious. Everyone had contributed something towards the meal, so we ended up with lots of food and an awful lot of wine had to be drunk as well as port and Champagne. Most people have been spotted since, so, obviously no real damage done.

We managed a swim with the dogs on Christmas morning and met other people along the way with the same idea. We always enjoyed the crisp frosty morning walks but sunshine and a warm sea take some beating. We did receive lots of photos of snow scenes and there was a moment of wistfulness. But not for long!

We are gearing up for the New Years Eve bash and then there will definitely be a period of quiet contemplation and restraint.

Marigot Bay at Midnight.

Happy New Year to Everyone!

2009-12-01T10:21:00.002-04:00

We headed back to UK for a short trip leaving the house, dogs and boats in Jill and Herbs capable hands.

It was grey and cold when we arrived at Gatwick .We promised ourselves that return trips should only be done in the summer months. This time it didn’t matter; we were on a mission. We had to retrieve warm clothes from Mum and then set about Christmas shopping, buy essentials for St Lucia but most importantly gather together a daytime and evening outfit to go to Fi’s graduation parade. I made the annual trip to my long-standing hair stylist in Bath and then set about the tasks with gusto.

We had a reunion night at RAF Lyneham, meeting up with old friends, which was fun but most likely the last time for us as it is a long way and the venue will be changing once the station closes.

We then set off North spending a night here and there with old friends. Our girths expanded the further north we went, leaving a trail of empty aspirin bottles to cope with the inevitable hangovers. It was great fun.

A few days before the parade Fi had been told that she was passing out top of her course and was to be awarded The Sword of Honour. As you can imagine we were the proudest of parents and her achievements meant that we got front row seats for the parade and sat with her on the top table for lunch. I am just so glad I got a hat! She had obviously thrown herself into the course and worked hard all the way through and we were told by both her friends and the staff that she was a very popular choice for the sword. We had wet miserable weather leading up to the day but on the morning of the graduation the sky was blue and the sun shone brightly, albeit freezing. We grinned our way through the day, basking in the reflected glory.

The two one stripers!

In the evening was the graduation ball. John and Victoria drove up in the afternoon so we were all able to arrive together. Everyone was dressed in ball gowns, DJ’s and Mess kit. It was a wonderful sight. The event was held in College Hall Officers Mess, which was decorated in a 40’s style. The Queens Colour Squadron, dressed in uniforms of that period, delivered the scroll of those becoming officers. The night was magical, great music, food, an outside fair, a casino, and free bar. At midnight pipers in full highland dress piped the scroll in and the names of the graduating officers were read out from the gallery of the rotunda. All very emotional and then the real partying started! We were in bed by 3am but the young ‘uns managed to hang on until daybreak.

Talking of breaks, our very able house sitters got in touch to say that Jill had fallen in our garden and fractured her wrist rather badly. She required an operation under general to wire the bits back together. It was good of her to try out the local services for us and sensible that she had insurance as the treatment cost over £3000!

Once back in St Lucia, with Fi in tow (who had decided a spot of sun was just the thing for a newly commissioned officer), the plan was to go sailing through the Grenadines. Jill’s arm was still very painful so Herb, Jeff and Fi set off by themselves leaving us to recuperate with good books, wine and chocolates. Everyone had a good time and it was the best decision for Jill as she was well rested and more comfortable by the time they returned.

A flying visit from Steve Housby in time for Fi's birthday.

Herb and Fi playing on the set of Pirates of the Caribbean

Fi at the turtle sanctuary in Bequia

Magical Mustique

Sundowners at Basils Bar

Within a few days the house was empty and life resumed its normal routine of sunset watching at Chateau Mygo, dog walking, boat maintenance and the planning of Christmas Day. It really was a great month.

2009-10-25T12:07:00.003-04:00

The tea House is coming on.

The good weather continues, unabated. We have only had a couple of days of rain and we have had to buy in water for our tanks, as we are getting seriously low. We have enjoyed ourselves though as it has been perfect sailing weather and we have been spoilt for choice as to when and where we sail. Normally we would be checking the weather charts to see when we could squeeze in a short sail.

A Hummingbird taking a rare rest.

The Bay remains quiet with restaurants and hotels closed. The long-term yotties on the dock have been organising entertainment for themselves, with pool parties and games afternoon. We had them all up to our place for farewell cocktails, as most will have moved on by the time we return. Their insurance allows them to sail after the first of November, as that is when most risk of hurricanes is over. We shall miss them as they have certainly added to an otherwise quiet time.

Haircut time for Foxy

We had one visitor for the weekend. An old friend who had been holidaying in Barbados and thought it would be good to check us out. It was fun to go down memory lane and stumble across old stories and pinpoint people and places.

Tree felling St Lucia style..can you spot Jeff in the undergrowth!

We are waiting for Jill and Herb to arrive this weekend. It will be a busy few days with the imparting of house, boat and dog knowledge so they are fully briefed before we leave for UK a couple of days later.

Once we arrive in UK it will then be a whistle stop tour for us whilst we visit friends and family, buy Christmas presents, re-stock with chemist stuff, get haircuts, find a parade outfit, get a hat, dry clean suits that have been in the attic for a year and then get up to RAF Cranwell for Fi’s graduation.

Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together!

2009-09-30T11:39:00.001-04:00

Hurricane season? What hurricane season?

September has bought us the most wonderful weather, which we have enjoyed to the full. The pool has been the place to be as the days have been Hot, Hot, Hot. There seems to be a climate change in our part of the world. We traditionally have long days of continuous rain starting in June, peaking in September and then falling off as November approaches. Instead we had a very wet dry season and very little rain since then. Our water tanks are low, but this time last year they were over flowing.

The garden is confused and things that should not be flowering are having another burst of colour. Other things that bloom in the wet season have failed altogether.

This is an odd bush. The flowers are white in the morning but by midday they turn pink and then fall off the next day.

The garden is looking different though as the lot next to ours has just been cleared of all it’s trees so the owners can see if it’s worth building on. It looks so bare now and our oasis is not so private. The lady didn’t seem too impressed with the steep garden so maybe they will change their minds and it will all grow over again. The birds are looking a bit miffed as well.

Before and after photos.

Mum arrived mid September and took full advantage of the weather. She went back looking very healthy and well rested with a suntan to be proud of. We persuaded her to have a go at quad biking, sitting behind the guide. She loved it and it was good to be able to share something we really like doing.

This is the new river swimming hole, complete with rope swing. Unusually, Rita was not keen to have a go so it was left to Jeff to try it out

We also visited the north on several occasions. We met up with fellow yotties whose boat had been hauled out and checked out their dry land accommodation in one of the resorts. It was lovely relaxing on the sun beds and wallowing in the Jacuzzi and hanging out in air-conditioned rooms. We then all had a Chinese meal, which is a rare treat for us as we don’t often stay up North after dark – it’s a long way home.

Another trip we made was with a friend who showed us all the superior new developments. She used to be an agent for these so we were able to ogle at how the rich folk were going to be spending their holidays. It was great fun rounded off by cocktails in a beautiful location at Calabash Cove.

It is so quiet in the Bay. It is low season but we believe that the recession has had an effect. The hotel has closed, with rumours that it is unlikely to re-open under the same management. No visiting boats. We were the only people in Chateau Mygo last night and that was for a game of Mexican train dominoes, so not a heavy drinking night..One needs to keep ones wits about them on these competition nights!

2009-08-31T14:05:00.005-04:00

We had a big surprise at the beginning of August.

John rang Jeff for a routine chat, asked him what he was up to, in which Jeff replied “cleaning the boat” and John said well if you pick me up at the airport tomorrow I’ll give you a hand. The first I knew of it was when a head appeared in the kitchen window asking if we had any cold pitons going spare. It was just great! We had a lot of fun, good sailing and fishing.

It wasn’t long after that Fi’s friend Roz arrived. Her plan was to surprise Fi when she flew in two days later. That worked very well; Fi came into the house with her friend Paddy, wandered around looking at any changes to the garden then went out onto the balcony and looked into the pool and said “who’s that blond girl”. Then Roz turned around and the squeals of delight could be heard in Castries. The scene was set for numerous parties and late night swims.

Roz was gone by Tuesday, on her way back to UK to get a real job. The rest of us continued to do our thing. There was time for relaxing, swimming, sailing, waterfalling, quad biking, dining and hanging out at Chateau Mygo.

Cold beers after a hard days sailing.

Chateau Mygo nights.

Gone Fishin'...Carlos and the lads.

The Rainforest Restaurant.

You have to have your picture taken at the Pitons..its the rule!

Cooloing Off.

A spot of trawling but no luck again!

The weather has been excellent. No hurricanes (clutching large chunk of wood whilst I type that). We have had very little rain, mostly at night and only one thunderstorm. The temperatures have been high though and the humidity is troublesome.

The garden is growing fast and most days we are trimming something back that is encroaching on paths or other plants. We have also started to move stuff that grew bigger than expected or wasn’t doing so well. The bougainvilleas at the door are now transplanted to the fences and palms sit in their place. They were getting too big for their pots and also too messy with petals and leaves floating into the house every time the wind blew. Palms show much more restraint.

We are getting an idea of what it will be like when the trees begin to fruit. At the moment we have two limes, a couple of dozen sour cherries (good for juice) two small guavas, 8 large hands of plantains and bananas at various stages of development and about a dozen passion fruit and some not so golden, golden apple. I am so excited by these humble beginnings goodness knows what I will be like when the fruit really comes. Some of our trees wont produce anything for several years, so we will just have to be patient and ever watchful for any signs of blossom.

Sour Cherry.

Passion fruit.

Lime and golden apple.

Fi thought it was time that Obie got an idea about his role so she got a “ Beware of the Doberman” sign, which Jeff duly posted on our gates. All was well until Obie spotted the picture and he grew anxious and growled and was reluctant to pass by, presumably thinking it was a real dog. As he hasn’t been attacked by the photo he has become more relaxed about walking nearby, but it was touch and go for while!

2009-07-30T11:08:00.016-04:00

July turned out to be a fun month.

A bothersome cough and cold troubled me for the first weeks but it didn’t stop the activities. Our resident Americans on the dock arranged a 4th July party to be held in the marina village for anyone who cared to celebrate the event. The organising team went to great lengths to achieve that all American look. We had red, white and blue in abundance, hot dogs and burgers on the grill and old flares let off in lieu of fireworks (permission having been granted from the port authorities). Half way through the proceedings a bevy of women, bedecked in flowers danced to an old song “Going to the chapel” and it was only then that we realised that we were to be the recipients of this entertainment and had to be seated and then dressed appropriately in a false tuxedo and wedding veil so we could celebrate our anniversary in style. We looked complete idiots but joined in the fun of the ritual humiliation. Jeff took up his grill duties, dressed to kill and I kept my veil on all night as I thought it looked particularly fetching..and any way I didn’t have one first time round!

Jeff has been working hard on Serengeti. This boat seems to develop faults as fast as the previous ones are mended. The end is in sight though and Jeff has managed to arrange an extension on its stay in St Lucia so we he doesn’t have to take it off to Martinique. Its an old boat, with so many add-ons at each refit that nothing is as it should be or logical, so when something goes wrong it takes a while to find the solution.

The next week I headed off to Martinique for five days with Kenny and Kathy. Jeff stayed home alone looking after dogs and boats. Another boat should have joined us but sickness prevailed. We had a lovely sail, good seas and winds. We hired a car for two days; the first to do shopping in a large shopping mall complete with a Hyper U super market and the next day we set of to see the island.

Sundowners anchored off Grand Anse, Martinique.

These guys hadn't seen a MacDonald's for a while but ..alas it was closed!

We spent time in the botanical gardens, which were wonderful. There was huge scope for acquiring seeds but not so cuttings, as there were several warnings posted around the place and even though they were in French the gist of it was that such behaviour would lead to hands being chopped off. I was extremely good and waited till I got to a garden centre before having a snip or two at unusual bits found along the roadside. All are now sprouting nicely. I did actually buy a small red guava bush, which is doing very well.
We also visited a rum factory and a river running through a rain forest, where I managed to save a couple of bromeliad plants that had fallen from the trees above. All in all a good haul!

A huge variety of bromeliads displayed on tree stumps.

The weather is getting wetter now so everything in the garden is shooting up. We have bought another mango tree and another guava (pink). We look forward to the day we are in full production of mango chutney and guava jam, perhaps in five years or so. We are getting some great bananas, 136 on the last bunch and most between 10 and 12 inches long.

We have just harvested the next lot and once again they are gigantic and will be yellow by the time Fi comes.

We are at the chopping back stage so we can make a path through the jungle.

These dogs will never make it as models, they are too easily bored with the whole idea of sitting still for a photo.

We have also had our fair share of eating out on other folk’s boats, restaurants and BBQ’s. It is a very sociable scene at the moment but alas waistbands are stretching and zippers are making valiant attempts at holding everything together.

On a more practical side I have been busy making (from scratch) cushions for our outside chairs, we only had three before and they didn’t match. Obie took exception to one of them and it was found shredded on the patio, which resulted in the dogs being banned from the patio at night when we are out. The new cushions look good and match the covers of the outdoor sofas. Obie seems to like them so we anticipate no further problems but the patio is still off limits to dogs when there is no parental supervision.

2009-06-30T08:22:00.019-04:00

June is the start of the rainy season and the hurricane season but for the whole month we have had glorious sunshine and no rain!

The sun is setting in the bay and the skies are glowing with extraordinary colours as day makes way for night.

We haven’t had any visitors this month so have been out and about with friends we have recently met on the dock, who are staying in Marigot for the hurricane season. We took them quad biking, then to a local buffet lunch, which they enjoyed and hope to be able to take their visitors to, in the near future.

Supper on Kathy and Kennys boat, Mer Soleil.

River Swimming.

We were able to get quite a lot of work done on phase two of the garden project. A path from the lower patio now leads to a bridge crossing ‘Dead Mans Gulch’ which then has steps going to the top of the garden. Jeff has made a very attractive wooden bench out of some white cedar .It is conveniently situated at the top of the steps and I am sure it will become a place of quiet contemplation or even a place to go to if you are in the huff! I have been busy gathering cuttings to fill this cleared space as planting is to be done on a ‘no cost’ basis. It’s amazing how things want to grow here; even the saddest of twigs sprout after a few weeks and hey presto a new plant is born. I now carry my secateurs everywhere as there are loads of cutting opportunities to be had around the bay. Some would call it thieving but I prefer to think of it as relocation.

The gate is to stop the dogs yomping at speed through the garden to get to the gate for a quick bark at passers by.

The woodland bench with dappled shade and a cooling breeze - have I sold it to you yet!
The latest crop of bananas from the garden.

There has been an outbreak of babies in Marigot bay; so much so, Doreen decided to host a party for all the new arrivals, to celebrate her newfound status as a Grandmother. It was a lovely day on which all friends and staff brought their kids along for burgers and hotdogs and us adults cooed and ahhed and drank wine to toast their health.

We also had a youngster out sailing with us. It was Liams first time on a boat and after a very short period of apprehension, found his sea legs and was off, fearless of steps, water, rigging and slippery decks. He even took his turn at the helm but seemed to be a bit bored with that part of his training. We have since found out that his sleepiness was a precursor to the onset of pneumonia and he has been in hospital for the last week.

We have also been doing some house maintenance (I use the term ‘we’ quite loosely as I am a consultant and provide encouragement from the shade of the balcony). The weather side of the house has had a lick of paint and the front wood has been sanded and re-varnished. Kenrick has made some overhangs for the balcony to take away the rain water that flows onto the wooden railings below, causing them to degrade too quickly. Once they are done I shall be called upon to sand and varnish them.

I think we may have been under a misapprehension; all the time we thought that Obie was going to be a guard dog, he was thinking that we were his guard people! Now that we have got that sorted we can all relax and accept his role in the household as purely decorative.

2009-05-28T10:58:00.020-04:00

It has been fine weather for the last few weeks. This is the end of the dry season but so far this has been the only dry bit.

We have cleared another area of scrub and have planted gingers and coconut palms..should be ready to eat in about twenty years!

To the left is the side garden, showing Oleanders, palms and frangipani and below is the land slip area.

It had rained so heavily at the beginning of the month that once again St Lucia suffered from numerous landslides including one in our own back yard. Doreen had watched our newly planted dasheen and sugar cane float past her restaurant in a torrent of water and wondered whose garden was being washed away.

Our builder Kenrick came up with a solution and organised a labourer to dig a trench and line it with rocks which will hopefully take away the over flowing swimming pool water to the gully known as “Dead Man's Gulch”. We lost several small trees, including the wax apple, African tulip and bauhinia orchid tree. They are all easily replaced but it means another couple of years before we get fruit or flowers.

John’s girlfriend’s parents, Mike and Julie, came for a weeks visit before heading up north for the next part of their holiday. They were joining loads of other relatives for the marriage of their nephew.

We had a lovely time together doing the fun sightseeing bit and the quad biking in the rain forest. I managed to pick up quite a lot of plants that needed new homes. Half the pleasure for me is spotting stuff that I haven’t got and now, Kurt, the tour operator is just as enthusiastic and is even getting plants ready for me to take away. This time he had a beautiful miniature orchid complete with bark and a prickly palm waiting for us.

Jeff harvesting papayas.

We are including photos of everyday activities that have to be done regularly to keep the place up together…some people have suggested that we just play all day but honestly, we work hard, in high temperatures and hot, hot sun and are busy most of the time. Its not easy living in paradise!

Cuting things back has become a daily task.

Weekly pool cleaning takes a couple of hours - more if Obie has been having secret swims!

Strimming, better known as weed eating here, is hot and dirty work, as is lighting the BBQ ready for tonight's supper

Obie is going through a bad patch. If anything spooks him whilst out on a walk and he is not on the lead, he will gallop all the way home and cry at the gate to be let in. If I have to put any creams on him for itchy sore bits he is quite happy during the procedure but then for the rest of the day he will rush from one spot to another avoiding eye contact and tries to get away from us. This lasts for about eight hours and then he settles exhausted, in a nervous heap. The next morning he is fine again. We continue to walk him every day in the hope that his list of fears and scary moments will decrease. The puzzling thing is that he has not really been exposed to any dangers but he remains over fearful of everything.

Foxy on the other hand remains his constant companion and he looks to her for guidance and reassurance. She is scared of nothing and friendly to all comers, although she still barks at the gate if anyone walks by.
It is easier to think of him as our "special needs dog", that way we can forgive almost anything but one things for certain, he is NO GUARD DOG!

2009-04-25T15:39:00.014-04:00

April has been a very pleasant month. This is a time of year where the leaves fall and the trees bud all in a space of a few days. The pool gets a bit messy and we spend time trawling for leaves and then the same for blossom a week later. The sun is on the pool all day so it is warm enough to step right in and needs constant attention in case there is too much water evaporation.

We spent Easter quiet enough, apart from my constant moaning about the lack of Easter eggs in this country. Fortunately a friend saved the day by providing a bag of small ones when we went out sailing (purchased in an egg loving country).

We had some troublesome trees that were rotting down the trunks, so we set about their removal. “Team A” were Canadians, known for their lumber jacking skills. They were called in to remove the tree most likely to fall on the power lines and with lots of enthusiasm, confidence and gung ho-ness they predicted the fall off the tree (as accuracy was their specialty) and it landed on the power lines. Lucky for us that the electricity board responds to calls within 10 minutes and we were soon up and running again. “A team” decided that the other two trees couldn’t be felled with any accuracy so we were forced to get in the “B team”.

Franz preparing the tree to be felled.

Obie and Foxy looking on from a distance.
This team consisted of a bare- footed bloke who climbed trees, machete in hand, and hacked away at branches before gently lowering them to the ground. He had a couple of helpers who cut up the branches and cleared away .The only casualty was a palm branch and a slightly bent fence. I think it pays to go local sometimes!

We then had visitors, William and Barbara Cooper, who stayed a week before we took them to their next destination a few miles down the road as part of their two-centred holiday. It did feel a bit like dropping off kids at boarding school, wanting to know if they had everything- tuck, cold beers, and clothes. I just hope they make friends and behave themselves.

Barbara and William relaxing after a couple of hours of quad biking.

Another pause to check out the flora and fauna.

Farewell Drinks at Chateau Mygo.

This weekend is a time to regroup, garden, maintain the boat and try and support Obie in his ‘life long learning’ programme. He really is proving to be quite hard work with all his little neurosis. His list of all – time terrifying moments is growing as he encounters wheelbarrows, children laughing, bags of cement and of course weed strimmers!

An afternoon rest for all the family.

Jeff having a fatherly chat with Obie.

2009-03-29T13:45:00.022-04:00

March started quiet enough. I went off with the girls for a night away on the south coast to celebrate a birthday. We had booked rooms in a friend’s guesthouse and she had prepared us an evening meal of local dishes, which we had complimented with our own wines. Before dinner we took a walk around the small development to see where some of the rich and famous lived and then settled down to an evening of birthday celebrations. The next day we took a twenty minute hike to a great beach where we swam in the shallows, as the under currents were too strong to venture out any further.

We snacked on palm hearts and swam in a fresh water lagoon before the walk back where we drank a few pitons and a couple of rums before setting off home and then stopped again at a viewing point and had another beer to wash down our jerk chicken kebabs. Felt quite squiffy on the way home!

The following week was my own birthday so a dinner at the Rain Forest was in order and the buying of my Birthday tubs to go out side the front door. It all looks very colourful as you can see from the photos and so far Obie has managed to resist the temptation to chew them. He has quite a penchant for plastic tubs so perhaps these are just too big for him to take on.

Later in the month we joined some friends for a trip North to Turtle beach, where we picnicked and swam. As it is nearly egg laying season for turtles we did our bit for the environment and collected loads of washed up garbage to make a huge bonfire.

This is something that is done by anyone visiting the beach at this time of year but the problem is huge as the beach is about two miles long and the rubbish washed up on lies in a ten-foot strip. The poor turtles have to haul themselves up through the plastic bottles and old fishing nets before finding a safe place to dig a hole.

It's hot work even for Martins Pit Bull , who makes full use of the icy water filled cooler.

The next bit is about daring do..well daring for some and doing for others. A crowd of us went off zip lining in the rainforest, which by all accounts is great fun to do and a big adrenaline rush.

I have a fear of heights, hate speed and am not that keen on extra adrenaline rushing around my veins but decided to face my fears head on. There are eleven runs of varying lengths, heights and speed. I only managed five and took my chance to finish the whole ordeal when I spied an exit from the platform to the gardens. I tearfully consumed a bar of chocolate and gulp down a cold beer to restore my equilibrium!

There were only a few places you could leave as most of the runs end up in a large 100ft tree with no way down other then the zip line.

The others all loved it, even the fearless seven and nine year old boys. It didn't help that I injured my leg on the second run when I hurtled into the platform out of control and whacked my calf. It hurt like hell and is still causing me pain. Next time we go I shall take a good book with me and find a quiet spot in the beautiful gardens and contemplate life without thrills.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZb0kwJWQCY Click this to see the movie!

Fi has started at RAF Cranwell and is loving it.We have spoken several times on the phone and she seems to be laughing her way through even the most challenging times and has already made a name for herself as the cadet with the least coordination on the parade ground having followed the female family tradition of not knowing her left from her

2009-02-28T13:58:00.014-04:00

Whew! Exhausted of Marigot Bay signing in!

Well we did it. We have had lots of family visit and party with us over a period of a month. Mum arrived first, which was a gentle introduction to the full on celebrations for her birthday. It was great fun and well worth the effort put in by all. Even the room changes were fun, trying to let everyone have their turn in the green room, overlooking the bay.

On the day itself we girls started with small bottles of Champagne with straws whilst we munched on Lee’s macaroon bars and watched Mum open a mountain of cards. Jill had been fantastic in gathering newspaper memorabilia and also producing a print of Mum when she was eighteen in the form of an icing circle to put on the birthday cake, which I had made.

Next was the surprise trip to the beauty parlour where we all had a different treatment, me-toes, Jill-nails, Mum- face and Jacki - back. Whilst Mum was being finished off we nipped back to the house to get her swimming gear and then back down to the dock to escort her to a fast motor launch for her day out to the Pitons and a beach bar lunch. The weather was perfect and we all swam and ate well.

Once back at the house, orders were issued to rendezvous on the middle balcony for Champagne at 6pm. With perfect timing we all assembled, drank a few glasses of bubbly and headed off to a night in Chateau mygo..or so she thought. In fact another surprise was install for Mum when a local pirogue came to the dock to whisk us all away to a restaurant in Vigie, about five miles up the coast. Fortunately for us it was a dry night, although the seas were rough but that just added to the excitement. We had a great meal followed by a surprise birthday pudding, with sparklers’ an all!

We returned to Chateau Mygo, where the band was still playing and Mum was immediately snapped up for a dance by the sushi chef and then a chorus of Happy Birthday sang by the whole place. It really was a fun day and we shall all remember it for a long time to come. We have to thank lots of people for making it happen and being so generous with their boats and enthusiasm.

Jill and Mum ready for all weather on the boat ride.

Mum left a few days later, Jill and Herb still had ten days to go and Jacki and Chris had three days before the next half of their vacation to be spent in Martinique. Bron and ken Mac arrived for a short stopover before joining their boat for a sailing holiday and then a friend of Fi’s came for three nights before flying off to rejoin her boat. The most we had in the house at one time was nine people, all had beds, all were fed and all left in one piece apart from a few sore heads.

Mum with her birthday puds.

And Roz with her wine.

We have spent this morning catching up on the gardening, washing and admin. In a few hours I am off with some girlfriends, to the south of the Island, to celebrate another birthday. Jeff is dog sitting but hoping to do a bit of night fishing with a friend. So, I could return to fresh tuna, which would go well with our resolution to eat healthily, drink less and sleep more!

Ken and Bron.

Jill at play with her ducks in the pool.

Obie has recently taken to sitting on chairs like a human!

Marigot Bay in all its glory.

2009-01-03T11:05:00.017-04:00

Happy New Year!

We had a busy run up to Christmas and New Year. Fi had another friend arrive whilst Rachel was here, Andy, a Navy pilot based at Linton. So we continued to sail, climb pitons, work out at the gym and partake in the local fare at Chateau Mygo. It was a great time and I did begin to wonder if our bodies could take such punishment.

We also had a daytime visit from an old friend of ours, Sir Mike Knight, who was on a cruise ship, just calling in at St Lucia for the day. We managed a quick sail, snorkel and lunch and got him back on board before 5pm. Really good to see him looking so well and we enjoyed his wit and humour as usual.

People are coming and going all the time out here, so it is great to catch up with their news and follow their building projects or land purchasing stories. The time-share people are also back; these owners tend to come for the winter months and stay for three months or more, just like migrating birds.

All the ARC boats have dispersed, on their way to exotic places or just north to do the return journey in May. We had great fun with a crew of Old Dauntsiens, friends of John and Fi’s. So much so that it was off up the pitons again – Jeff has climbed it 4 times now -, down to the waterfall and another few beers at Chateau Mygo! After they jumped ship they spent a few nights with us, experiencing the great joy of a real bed after a month at sea in a small bunk.

!

John was here for Christmas and we managed to do all of the above with him as well as celebrating Christmas at home with another friend of ours, who would have been home alone. Our day started with the usual bucks fizz, bacon rolls and present opening followed by a trip down the coast on a friends boat for a swim and glass of champagne or rum punch. It was glorious and set us up well for our late dinner. On Boxing Day we had a bunch of people for drinks in the afternoon, the last left at about 10, in fact the last didn’t leave and needed a bed!

John left us before New Year so we were down to five of us to bring it in with dinner in the bay followed by spectacular fireworks at midnight. It was such a fun night with great friends, lots of dancing and perhaps too many cocktails (the young ‘uns were working their way through the list but came a cropper on the “hurricanes”).

Father and son getting into the spirit of the day..rum punch and beer!

Fi will be with us until the end of January, when she will return on the flight that my Mum comes out on..passing ships! Mum will be here for a fortnight ready to celebrate her 80th birthday with my other two sisters and their husbands on the 10th of February. It will be a houseful but we think it is fitting that we should all be together on such an occasion, and there are still berths on the boat (which is probably where Jeff will head if the Patterson clan gets too much)!

The crew of Gulliver.

Jan and Mr Brown.

Lets hope we all have a healthy and happy New Year; it could be too much to hope for a prosperous one in this economic climate!

2008-11-26T14:42:00.009-04:00

We made a whistle stop tour of UK to visit family, friends and Marks and Spencer (we can now be safely knocked down by cars as our underwear is once again up to scratch).
After landing at Gatwick in freezing weather we travelled through snow-covered landscapes for an hour before the thaw set in. It was not much fun without winter clothes, which were all neatly packed away at Mums, our next stop. We arrived to find John already waiting for us, having found the hidden key and Fi arrived soon after.

After the best take away curry ever, we chatted until we couldn’t keep our eyes open. We had a reasonably early night, as we needed to be on top form for the busy schedule that had been planned. Unfortunately, we had only been back a week when we heard that our house sitter had been robbed at knife point in our house and the thieves had taken her laptop, money, camera and phone. We hastily made our arrangements to return home as soon as possible to relieve her of her duties as she was clearly and quite rightly, shaken. Our faithful guard dogs were useless. Foxy didn’t even wake up and Obie did lots of barking and then peed himself as he ran away but he is excused, as he is still only a pup.

We were doing our last minute DIY shopping when Fi had a telephone call to say she had been accepted into the Air Force and is due to start at Cranwell to do her Officer training in March. She has opted to come back with us for a stay of 3 months and her plan is to get fit in the hotel gym and do her pre course reading. I accompany her to the gym, which is already having a good effect. Soon after we got back a friend of Fi’s joined us, Rachael, who is another one hoping to start with the Air Force in March. They are great company for each other and encourage each other with the studying.

Last week we had to sail to Martinique to get the transit status of the boat renewed. We had a good sail there but big seas, heavy rain and even more torrential rain marred the journey back, for the whole six hours. Our next sailing trip was last Sunday, which was to take part in a flotilla of yachts, which would mark the start of the ARC race in the Canaries, that ends in St Lucia in about three weeks time. Some friends of Fi’s are on a boat called Gulliver, so we shall be keeping an eye on their position so we can meet them when they sail into Rodney Bay. The flotilla itself was a great laugh; once again it was in the pouring rain. We had to be in Castries harbour to circle around for about an hour before a race back to Rodney Bay for a BBQ, rum, beer and steel band. The organization of the event was fluid, just like the celebrations.

A very wet sail from Martinique.

We are just starting to think about Christmas. The cards are written but not posted (after last years premature delivery I am holding off to the first of December). The Christmas cake fruit is soaking in brandy and the wines and champagne have been ordered after a very successful tasting night at the local hotel. We have both John and Fi here for the holidays so plan to be traditional with a bit of a Creole twist of grilled lobster and turkey.

Wine Down close hauled on the way to Rodney Bay

We even got a certificate for our endeavours.

2008-10-21T14:54:00.011-04:00

Just a quick blog before we set off for UK. It has been so wet it might make a change to get to some crisp English weather. No one can remember a rainy season like it. There has been flooding in Castries, landslides along the roads and houses washed away. Although hurricane Omar went past us to the west and headed of north it still had a sting in its tail for us as the seas were huge and we had two days of rollers crashing onto the normally sheltered beaches on the west side of the Island. Some beaches have disappeared altogether as have water front homes and cafes.

Looking down on Trou Rolland

The water front at Soufriere.

Marigot spit awash.

A yacht that had dragged its anchor ,Reduit Beach, Rodney Bay.

We haven’t been able to do any planting in the garden as the ground is just too heavy and water logged. Everything is looking lush though and once it gets some prolonged sunshine we should see a lot of growth. Our tomatoes are just beginning to flower so hopefully we should be eating them by Christmas. We have harvested our first bananas though, all 129 of them. There are very tasty and huge. We have started to give them away as we will never get through them

We have just had the RAF netball team out here for a fortnight and watched a couple of the matches. Jeff was their point of contact should they need any help. As it was, they all had a fabulous time and six of them even managed to come sailing with us when we were returning our boat from Rodney Bay back to Marigot. It had been up there for a few days having an electric furlex system fitted.

The quiet season continues here, not many sailors about but a few people taking holidays. The dogs are fine and manage to keep us amused even though they create such a lot of housework. They wander throughout the fenced in property, having great fun but arrive back covered in mud and traipse it through the house. Foxy is having daily baths whilst Obie just needs brushing.

2008-10-03T12:06:00.007-04:00

The hurricane season has been kind to us as all the storms turned north before they got too active. We have had an exceptionally wet rainy season though and the Island has seen quite a few landslides. Our garden has remained in place and our planting is now well established and things are growing quickly. We are about to pick our first bananas,about100 of them!

We have just finished off tiling the side path and covered area by the kennels. It looks much smarter and more comfortable as this is an area we use more and more for barbequing and sitting out.

The dogs now sleep out at night and do their job of barking at anything untoward. Foxy is a little brave heart and will face up to anything whilst Obie does a good bark but stands back a bit. No doubt he will become more confident as he gets older. A family of mice have moved into the house, to get out of the rain. We noticed the signs about a week ago and saw a few scuttle across the floor in the evening. Foxy was delighted at this and has spent her evenings scouring the ground floor for signs of life. Last week she caught one and gently carried it outside where it promptly escaped and made its way back in. Last night she caught another but this time she was not so gentle and both dogs got a go at killing it. We have also caught and despatched four more by using traps. Hopefully we have got them all but shall keep the traps going for a little longer until all droppings have disappeared.

Jeff is keeping himself busy with overseeing construction on a friend’s site down the road and also having some input into the hotel with its charter boat operation. We have just had his brother, Mark, and Helen, his wife out for 12 days, which was great fun. We get to do all the fun stuff when we have visitors. We aren’t expecting any visitors now until the New Year unless John and Fi can make it for Christmas. We are meeting an old friend off a cruise ship that is coming into Castries in December so hopefully we can take him sailing and show him a bit of the Island.

The next big happening for us is to return to UK in November for a fortnight. It will be good to catch up with friends and family but as we have seen most since we have been here we are not going back with any great excitement. This really does seem like home now especially with the responsibilities of dogs and property and the arrangements to have them looked after whilst we are gone can be difficult. Also its getting cold in UK and we don’t have any clothes or shoes for that anymore.

2008-08-25T15:03:00.008-04:00

This holiday season is proving to be great fun!

Mum arrived soon after the girls left and we enjoyed a quieter period but still managed to get out and about to see botanical gardens, sailing to the pitons and eating in good restaurants. Mum and I did a few trips to garden centres to get yet more plants and they all seem to have taken and are spreading. A lot of the stuff we have been given has just been stuck in the ground and for the longest time looked as if it hadn’t taken. Then suddenly green shoots appeared and new leaves sprung up, some quite far from the original cutting so the bare patches are less and it may be that we will have to be hacking back the foliage next year, as all our neighbours warned us would happen.

The wet season has been a good mixture so far, no hurricanes but some cracking thunder and lightening storms. One night the electricity went off for eight hours but the new generator came to life automatically and we could have continued watching TV but for the noise of the torrential down pour outside, so defeated, we curled up with a good book and a bottle of wine.

Ten days after Mum left John and Vicky arrived. John was here for a month but Vicky only had two weeks before she had to return to take up her new post as a vet in Uckfeild. We get daily reports on her consultations and operations and it seems she is doing great, as expected. The two youngsters needed more adventurous activities so we have been quad bike riding, horse riding in the sea, sailing and fishing. Jeff bought John a cast net so he has been on the dock each night taking advantage of the sardine season and Doreen has been frying up the catch. Sardines fresh from the sea can’t be beaten.

Obie and Foxy are turning out to be great pals although Foxy’s days as leader are numbered as Obie already towers over her and he is beginning to get the upper hand. He is still not as brave as she is and lets her do the nighttime patrol and barking from the safety of his kennel. He is developing a big dogs bark , so may well come into his own soon and look the part of a guard dog.

We still make sure the sunsets each night by going down to the bar for a cold beer..someone has to make sure the sun has gone! The sunset has just about left the bay now so we won’t see it again until next May, but we will keep up the vigil just in case it sneaks back in.

2008-07-10T16:47:00.006-04:00

Those girls should have come with a government health warning! We had a great second week with them and managed to surprise them with trips on a large motor yacht and an evening boat trip to a lovely restaurant on the other side of Castries. They then made the counter attack and surprised us with a final night out at a very lovely restaurant on the other side of Marigot Bay. They were all such fun and it was a privilege to be with them as they each went through nail biting times awaiting texts and e-mails to inform them of their degree results. All six of them got 2-1’s in their various subjects so we felt we were in learned company indeed. Two of them managed to climb a piton, with Jeff as mentor, so that’s twice in a month for him

They left on Tuesday and we had five days to regroup before Mum arrived. Since then the weather has been very good and life has been led at a somewhat quieter pace. We are back to buying plants and planning the garden. Jeff has had the last huge bonfire and our ravine is now ready for some landscaping and planting.

The day after the girls left, the new addition arrived, Obie the Dobie, an eight-week-old Doberman. He entered our lives as a smallish puppy, huge feet and a little shy. Since then he has blossomed into a confident chap. He and Foxy play hard, chewing face and chomping at throats. They love each others company and neither have any jealousies or are possessive about toys or food. They are complete time wasters as we spend a lot of time watching them play. Obie is no respecter of wooden floors as he has yet to master the art of peeing outside 100% of the time, but he is getting there.

The first of the hurricanes passed us by way to the north so lets hope that’s it for this year. We keep checking stormcarib.com to keep an eye on things. This year we will be in clover as we have our concrete hurricane basement, a generator and a fridge full of cold beer. Sorted!!

Here is a short video of the puppies!

2008-06-21T10:04:00.016-04:00

Its been a month since our last confession..oops, meant to say blog!
It is the holiday season at the Bullen house. Our first visitor was Tess from Sutton Benger who tested the room and house for us, coming up with suggestions for a more comfortable stay. The big one was for a blind in her room as the sun hit it at 5am and scorched her legs! Windows closed and fan on was the ideal mosquito deterrent and temperature. We did a lot of sitting around the pool relaxing and drinking as well as the usual boat trips. We did sail to Martinique for a day and a night to keep the boat legal in St Lucia for its duty free status. Here we enjoyed a good meal, great French coffee and a shop in a European type supermarket. The” must buys” are wine, cheeses, dishwasher salt and rinse aid. The sail there was a bit rough but we had a great sail back in near perfect conditions.

We had a weeks break to regroup after Tess left and prepared for Fi’s arrival. She was so excited about being back in St Lucia but particularly to see her house and Foxy. It was a noisy few days as she squealed with delight at every new discovery. A week after her arrival came the flat mates; five blondes armed with new teeny bikinis ready to let their hair down after the final degree exams. They have been such fun and Jeff is coping very well living with seven females. His street cred knows no limits as he parades his harem each evening at Chateau Mygo or drives around with half the girls in the back of the truck. We have been to see waterfalls, swim in riverbeds, had BBQ’s, surprise parties and lots of music and dancing. Listening to their tales of university life has given us great insight and we are sure they all deserve firsts in partying as well as the subjects they have been studying.

Pina coladas and coconut, the ideal way to cool down after a long flight!

An early morning trip to market.

The band tuning up for a memorable rendition of "Happy Birthday"

BIRTHDAY BOY!

Not really a case of "Too May Cooks"...

Tomorrow we are off quad biking through the rain forest, which they are all excited about and next weeks plans are just beginning to take shape. We are getting a lot of invitations to do stuff which is down to having six attractive housemates. I bet once they have gone it will be back to normal.

A great way to travel.

Foxy getting to know about balloons.

Lunch at the Pitons.

They all leave at the beginning of July and then my Mum arrives for a few weeks. John and Vic are here in August. It is great to share this great place with such nice people!

Canaries waterfall never looked so good.

2008-05-18T15:09:00.008-04:00

Jeff started the week by turning sixty and hiking up the Gros Piton to celebrate. He made it to the top in 1hour and 36 minutes and did the downward hike in 1 hour. The usual time it takes is about three hours or more, so he is a fit pensioner and didn’t even have aches and pains the next day.
He had a guide ,called Sophia, who was hand picked by a Lucian friend of ours who said it was easier to follow a nice bottom up the hill. I was excused the hike as I had things to prepare at home and anyway I don’t do mountains.

We had a very nice dinner in the evening at a lovely restaurant in the bay , just the two of us. The noisy celebration took place on Saturday where we hosted a house warming/sixtieth birthday party. It was great fun and most people seemed to enjoy it and stayed long after the time on the invitation. We are feeling the effects this morning and Jeff says his legs are aching more than they did on the hike!

Also at the beginning of the week we had arranged for the sanding and varnishing floor team to come in a give the whole house a light sand followed by a coat of varnish just to remove some of the scratches that the floors got during the final stages of the house build. This should have been a four day job, little disruption and hardly any dust. Wrong! They didn’t arrive on Monday and pitched up late on Tuesday morning. There were two of the dopiest looking lads ,armed with their cell phones, which needed to be played with every few minutes. They moved some furniture but not all. Preferring to work around stools and tables. We left them to it as we both had other jobs to do downstairs. On our return we were dismayed to see that they had used a pink filler for the cracks in the wood. They said this would dull once it was washed off. Not so, if anything it was even brighter. When the boss man returned he agreed that it would have to be removed and another sort used. Apparently they didn’t have the right colour filler in stock and thought it would do. The next day they arrived and started to fill with glue and sawdust, a good colour match but first they had to dig out the old stuff which was a slow job. The glue was much more difficult to use and needed 24 hours drying time. We were now getting critical on time and there were doubts as to when the job could be completed before our party. It was also apparent that a light sanding was out of the questions and they needed to bring in the big machines. We lost our cool, it was turning into a disaster, so the boss man brought in extra guys on Thursday evening and they worked until 8pm sanding and grinding. This was only the downstairs area now as it was never going to happen upstairs. On Friday the team arrived, lots more sanding and also some cleaning ladies in tow to clean up the mess as the house was now laying under a thick coat of sawdust. They spent a lot of time chatting on their phones and having numerous breaks on the verandas. Eventually the floors were coated and as the stuff dried we realised they had used high gloss outdoor varnish, rather than the indoor semi gloss that we had used before. We are now in the position of having very shiny floors which are a different colour to the stairs and top floor. It was all completed though before 40 people traipsed through the house on Saturday afternoon! And for that we are eternally grateful..next week we shall start the arguments for re-varnishing at no cost or inconvenience to us but it is almost too painful to think about the whole thing happening again. I am beginning to like high gloss and the subtle differences in the finish!

We got our friendly Rasta, Innocence, to come and do a couple of days gardening. He cleared away all the dead branches(with lots of help from Foxy) that had been cut down when the electricity was put in then he planted the first of the flowering shrubs, heliconias and gingers and the bougainvilleas that will eventually cover the fence. We need some rain now!

2008-05-10T12:13:00.006-04:00

It is so great living in a house! The loos flush without pumping, cookers can be used without getting someone to turn the gas on at source and I can wash clothes to my heart’s content. All these things will become less exciting as the weeks go by but for the time being small things are filling our lives with a lot of joy. Foxy is having a ball. She has learnt new things this week; how to dig, how to bury special things and how to get muddy by rolling in freshly dug earth. It was cute watching her the first time but now nothing is sacred as she has turned her attention to our newly tilled and seeded salad garden. There’s going to be trouble ahead. The stray cat who visits for food and water each day at 4.30pm has begun to spend a little more time with us, albeit at a distance. She now suns herself on the decking and drinks from the pool when she needs to.

Jeff has spent the week having the most enormous bonfire on the road outside our land where the hut used to be. He has slowly burnt all the builders rubbish getting the area ready for the excavator which will arrive on Tuesday to clear and flatten the road and dig a trench on the other side as drainage, which will be concreted and hopefully that will take most of the water away when the rains come in a few months time. He has also made time to go up to our friends building site, where our team have now moved onto, and cast his eye over everything. We will be overseeing the finances and material invoices for them as they live off Island.

The next big project will be the garden. I have just been out and bought a selection of bougainvilleas to put along the fence by the drive. That will be it for now until the rainy season starts as it would be too costly on our precious water reserves. We are down to 5000 gallons so may even need a top up from a tanker if we get critical. We are investigating the possibility of running a pipe to the village supply but need permission first. The salad garden has been started and after two days seeds had germinated and could be clearly seen in neat rows.
Tomorrows a sailing day and next week is most likely going to be spent between the boat and the house as well as celebrating Jeff’s 60th birthday.

2008-05-03T09:13:00.017-04:00

Well that’s the first week in the house. We set about putting everything in its place and all pictures are hung, pool furniture assembled, bunks erected, smoke alarms installed, rubbish burnt, computer up and running ( a new one as ours failed to come to life after 18 months in a container, even with change of batteries and an expert IT guy on hand),TV bought and working

The builders did their final clear up on Wednesday and left the site looking tidy and the house looking finished. We all went down to the local bar to have beers and hand out final pay packets. The next day the place really felt like ours as we pottered around making a home, relaxed and happy, taking a dip in the pool in between tasks. In slow time the windows will be cleaned up (they have varnish on them) and the balcony tiles need some cleaning up of paint and concrete and then the big task of getting the garden started will begin. The weather is lovely, dry and breezy, so there will be no planting until the rainy weather comes again in about two months time.

Foxy has settled very well and loves the space and freedom to roam. Deano the Rottweiler is not to be ours. Doreen changed her mind at the last moment, just as their kennels were being made. We have made enquiries and a breeders dog is about to produce puppies, a 90% mix of Doberman and Rottie. A friend of ours has one from a previous litter and they seem good dogs; healthy, handsome, good with friends but not keen on intruders. So in eight weeks time one should be ready for us.

Our bedroom and balcony.

The kennels are ready for occupation.

Odds and ends room with bunks for overflow visiting children.

Jeffs workshop.

Lots of pictures this week to give you a look at the finished product..I’m off for a swim!

2008-04-26T15:42:00.007-04:00

Life is good, were in at last!
The driveway is cast, small retaining walls are finished and there are steps down the side of the house leading to the pump room. The electricity board arrived and put up two telegraph poles and we now have a permanent connection and then the telephone company came and connected our phone and cable TV lines. All we have to do now is find the time to buy a telephone and TV.

I organised a cleaning troop to come in on Thursday, only two turned up and were of little use but most of the building debris was cleared away. I shall have to do the rest in slow time. Then a team of eight men arrived on Friday morning, bright and early and started to cart our belongings in. This was not calm or orderly and we sustained quite a few breakages. There would have been more if it hadn’t been for the excellent packing that PSS shipping did for us. It was great fun emptying boxes and discovering the daft things we shipped; Jeff’s SD hat and ceremonial gloves was probably the most bizarre as they don’t go well with shorts and T shirt and his DJ looks a bit out of place in amongst the cotton shirts. So everything is in and we are now trying to find the best places for stuff and put together the outside furniture .

We had our first night in the house on Friday. I was so looking forward to it but in fact didn’t sleep well as I was over excited and listening to all the new noises. The toads are very loud!

Foxy is fully recovered from her spaying, stitches out and a lovely scar to show her mates. She is loving the mango season as she gets to suck on the stones and ends up with orange paws and face which is actually quite difficult to wash off. She also loves the house and has enjoyed the boxes and paper wrappings as we unpack.

The next blog should show the final look, pictures hung, beds made and all ship shape ready for inspection

This is the bit where we get to settle back and drink a few pitons. Cheers !

2008-04-20T08:22:00.003-04:00

What a difference a week makes of relatively dry weather. Loads of finishing off jobs have been done. The best by far is the pool. The colour of the coating has given the pool an aqua tone, more turquoise than blue. The infinity edge creates a very gentle trickling sound, which will enhance the taste of drinks at sundown, no doubt.
The remaining gingerbread corner pieces are all in place and have been varnished, as have the last doors and window. Yes, the guy eventually finished his contract but not with any flair and wouldn’t take the final cheque as it was less than he was expecting- he did come back a few days later to get the cheque but was still angry.

The inside painting of the house is complete and the first few days of next week should see the place cleaned from top to bottom before we move our stuff in.
The electric gates haven’t arrived yet and the fencing around the whole of the property needs a little attention to make sure it’s secure enough to keep dogs in. Notice the “s” on dog. We plan to take Deano, a 1year old rottweiler on trial to see how we get on with him and how he gets on with foxy. He is Doreen’s dog, but by default, as he should have been going to another home but that fell through so she ended up with a dog she really didn’t want. He is a big lad, friendly but has a loud bark and looks the part. So, once we are settled we shall start the introduction process. If it doesn’t work out he will stay with Doreen and we shall start afresh with another puppy that we can train from scratch.

The next stage for us is to move in, get the place looking like home and start on the garden, which will be done in various phases as it is too big to tackle all at once. Lots of our friends have offered cuttings and shoots, so hopefully it won’t look too bare for too long. Plants grow fast and furious here and most people with gardens say it takes six months of planting, followed by years of cutting back with a machete. Can’t wait!!

2008-04-12T17:22:00.007-04:00

We had great weather over the weekend and Monday but unfortunately no excavator. He did arrive on Wednesday, in the pouring rain and proceeded to tackle the clay. He then lost a track on his vehicle, so alas, it seemed like we were in for another week of frustrations .Luckily a man came to fix it, which meant we were back on track again,literally, with good progress towards a driveway next week
The team have ploughed on with fencing the property; we only have a 30ft stretch to complete (once the excavator moves the heap of mud!).We also have some substantial looking gateposts, with lights on top and the motorised gates are being made, perhaps ready in two weeks time.

The kitchen granite worktops are fitted and look great, the island is also finished and the final red coat of paint for the kitchen walls is done. It was all hands on deck to complete the tasks to finish off the painting and sanding on the middle floor and it looks spectacular. The guys even had a go at cleaning up the mess; we really do have a great building team.

The pool has been worked on this week with the tiling and slate work complete, so once it is cleared out and dry the diamond brite will be plastered on and then the pool filled. A job for next week I think.

Jeff’s workshop area has received some attention this week and the start of a sturdy looking bench is in place. I’m to get shelves in the laundry room, which I am actually quite excited about.
Doors, well what can I say, the guy hasn’t produced the final door and window this week, perhaps next week he says. He’s been busy, had an illness, been visiting, lost the wood, lost his machinery, lost the glass, lost his marbles and any number of other excuses you can imagine.

Foxy had her first hair cut this week and looks very much like the rat that Jeff continues to describe her as. She doesn’t look quite as cute but I should think she welcomes the cooler cut as the summer approaches. She does look a bit moth eaten now but I’m sure it will settle soon, it’s a problem us girls have when we go to a new hair dresser. The same day she had hers done I had another go at mine and produced an acceptable haircut, the weird thing was that mine was free and hers cost $100; that has to be wrong!

2008-04-06T17:15:00.006-04:00

Wet, Wet, Wet! Our drive way would be better suited as a toboggan run; it is so muddy and slippy. This means that the digger still can’t get up and the drive still can’t be concreted. We do have gateposts though and the middle floor now has doors on the veranda and is secure.

Jeff and John have delved into the small container and found the gas cooker (at the very back), so it has been taken into the house ready to have the island built around it. It is a big range cooker, something I have always had a yearning for but realistically far too big for our needs. It has eight burners, probably four more than we need but as I told Jeff, it’s a girl thing and I love it. When they went to get the cooker on Monday morning they were very concerned that someone had taken off our lock from the container and replaced it with their own. Fortunately when we then took that padlock off we found everything was in order but for a time we feared the worst as the container contents had been on show the previous day when they were trying to find bits and pieces. It is still not clear what actually happened but it looks like someone wanted a piece of wood out of it, and when they couldn’t get hold of us thought they would just break in, only to find it impossible to get to the stacked wood at the very bottom. It’s all very odd and no one seems to be telling the real story.

Last Sunday Jeff, John and I went to Micoud to have a mornings ATV driving. It was great fun trundling through the mango plantation, meandering through the rainforest until we eventually came to the river, where we had a swim and a break for some freshly picked grapefruit and bananas. Afterwards we drove to Laborie and went to Debbie’s restaurant and had the Sunday buffet, all you can eat for £10 and that includes crab and prawn salad starters. Great value in a lovely local place. Foxy was looked after by a friend of ours and when we got back I found them on the beach, playing in the surf with her other dog Minnie, so it seems we all had a good day.

It is all very quiet on the boat now that John has gone and joined his boat for the next leg out of Antigua. It was great fun having him here; his work and attention to detail were appreciated as he took on any job that Jeff put his way.

This weekend is non-working for our builders but the plumber and electrician are in doing their final bits to the house. We were hoping to have a bit of a clean up but there is still a load of sanding to do downstairs plus painting. The fence has started to go up and doesn’t it look too much like an internment camp. Jeff met up with the window maker to get two more French doors, so we are down to the last two plus one window, which should be ready next week. What a long and frustrating haul that has been and we really could not recommend him as even his work got shoddy towards the end but we accepted it anyway just to have doors. As we get closer to the move in day this boat seems to get smaller!

2008-03-29T15:19:00.006-04:00

These really feel like the final weeks, as the job sheet is getting shorter. Rain continues to hamper our best efforts but the guys have managed to dig holes, prepare for gate columns and make a path and shower cubicle down the other side of the house. Sextus has done a very good job on the outside of the house and has moved inside today to do the study area. The kitchen is getting its final, final sanding, as is the TV area.

A few mornings ago Jeff opened up the house to find that the granite fairy had been and left kitchen worktops, just ready to be fitted. It had all gone quiet on the granite front and we were prepared for a bit of a wait, so were pleasantly surprised. The colour has turned out to be a good choice and looks great with the light coloured wood and red walls; thank goodness for that! They must have arrived with it after the guys had clocked off and found a way in, which is quite easy, as we still have no doors on the balconies. This should be rectified by the end of today as Jeff drove halfway down the Island to prise two more doors out of our frustratingly slow window maker. So now we are waiting for the final four doors and one window.

We have had a heavy week socially, as our friend John, from the military sailing school has joined us for two weeks, in between sailing legs out of Antigua. We also had a visit from Tim (who bought our house), which has meant late nights and lots of imbibing. John has been a great help and has put most of the flat pack bedroom furniture together as well as helping Jeff on site.

We did have a break over Easter and sailed down to Soufriere for a night stop. Once again we were accompanied by Foxy. She is not a natural sailor, preferring to sleep, sheltered from the wind. Even at five months old she can hang on until we get her on dry land before she pees but that does mean rowing to shore at least three times a day in whatever weather, so we can see that its not the dream for dogs or owners. Never mind, it’s not long now until she has half an acre to romp around in, chasing mongoose and grubbing around in jungle.

2008-03-21T15:03:00.005-04:00

This weeks problems have been all about granite. We had ordered granite many months earlier so at this stage it was just a matter of getting it delivered to the house and popping it onto the awaiting kitchen units. Not that easy I’m afraid. It needed some adjustments as two pieces were too long and also the island had a space for a hob rather than a slot cut away for the range cooker. Not a problem, just get the nice folks at the stone cutting place to do the necessary and shrink the island a little. It wasn’t until the granite man did a site visit and let the cat out of the bag that the granite we had was quite severely damaged and he wouldn’t be able to fix it. We got onto our suppliers who very quickly and without fuss said choose some more from the granite man (at twice the cost of her Chinese stuff) and she would pay for it. We went and chose some great stone, that would fit in with red walls, white cedar and brown floors and were actually secretly pleased about the damage as we were going to get a better quality granite in a nicer colour. Hopes were dashed two days later when we were told that the granite we had chosen had already been sold, so it was another journey and another choice which the jury is still out on. It was to be cut and positioned this week but alas our original supplier has been tardy with handing over the cheque and the granite man, not unreasonably, is unwilling to fit it without money up front. Trying to track down our supplier has been difficult and time consuming so we will pay the deposit and hopefully be able to retrieve some of the money from her.

In the meantime all the pool innards are plumbed and wired in, as is our beautiful yellow generator. I visited the pump room today for a personal demonstration of this new baby in action and can report that it starts and has some very nice lights and numbers that blink and twinkle in a very satisfactory manner.

The cabinets in the kitchen are just about done, just the final sanding before I get to treat them with a clear wood sealant. The shelves and TV area are also in the final stages of completion, just needing some cupboard doors and sanding. The carpentry in both areas has been outstanding and has really enhanced the room.

Outside, Sextus has continued to paint the walls a pale yellow and put white on the ceiling and pillars. He has turned out to be a better painter than the so-called professional one that left us high and dry.

Excavating and landscaping of the garden has had to stop as the weather was unkind once again and we need it to dry out before he can continue, which has held up the concreting of the drive, as the excavator needs to finish and get out before anything is laid. We also need six doors…

Living in the Caribbean eventually makes you quite laid back as you don’t expect things to happen as you planned and get used to hanging around and being happy when it does happen.

2008-03-15T14:51:00.008-04:00

Last weekend was my birthday so a request to spend it sailing down to the Pitons and staying overnight was greeted with enthusiasm from the skipper. We took Foxy for her first sail and she did very well. She was quite at home with the motion of sailing but preferred to have me close by most of the time. We gave her a run ashore when we reached Harmony beach and again that evening and the next morning. She did the necessary and we had nothing to clear up on the boat. She didn’t swim but was happy to watch us. We had lovely fresh fish at Benny’s that night and Jeff surprised me with a birthday cake that he’d organised earlier in the week. We were told that the customs officer in Soufriere made it. We had good weather, great sailing and altogether a very relaxing few days.

The rain has kept away all week, which has meant the excavator was able to carve out the road and make good around the sides of the house. The big thing was getting the generator down the hill by the side of the house and it now sits proudly in the swimming pool pump room.

I have been to the house most days to put the wood treatment on the newly arrived windows and Jeff has been gathering and fitting the plumbing bits and pieces; we shall have running water, hot and cold in no time at all.

The carpenters continue with their task of building the kitchen and sitting room cupboards and Sextus is still on painting duties, doing a great job of finishing off upstairs and making a start on the external walls.

The tiles and Diamond Brite for the pool have arrived and we plan to pick them up next week but probably wont get that done for another few weeks. It really feels like we are in the finishing stages and we are beginning to get excited about living in a house again and getting to see our belongings that are in the container..could do with some doors though!

This is our raised salad garden with a new layer of good topsoil, just ready for planting.

The driveway wall has been built and next week should see it plastered.

2008-03-07T17:54:00.003-04:00

Aaaarrrggghhh!!! We had a week of dry weather and called in the excavator to cut out the drive way and sort out the other side of the house. It rained as he trundled up the hill and hasn’t stopped. We are really disappointed as this holds up lots of other jobs, like getting the generator in the hut and then calling in the electrician for the final bits of his contract. The window man has failed to arrive with the promised French windows, perhaps next week he says. The painter eventually arrived back, but by this time one of our permanent team, who’d recently fallen of his motorbike, came back to work and needed to do light duties, so jumped (not literally as he as a nasty injury to his leg) at the chance of being a painter rather than a labourer. He has proved to be very good and has finished off two bedrooms and the landing this week, so he will continue doing this until the end of the build. The kitchen is being made, slowly but surely, as are the shelves and TV cabinet in the sitting room area.

Lots of plumbing stuff has been done outside but these pipes are now covered over, so nothing to show but a beautifully concreted area by the side of the house and a small kitchen garden that sort of evolved when Jeff saw the potential of a raised bed just below the kitchen. The salad crops will grow well there as they have a lot of sun but are protected on three sides by a wall.
All the tiling has been completed and looks very smart. We were lucky to find such a perfectionist who enjoys getting it just right.

This weekend Jeff and I are sailing down to the Pitons and staying over night, moored to a buoy outside Benny’s, a local restaurant that does great fresh fish. We are taking Foxy with us for her first sailing trip as there is a beach close by that she can use for a run about, otherwise it’s a pee over the side if things get desperate.

Last night we met up with Gordon, who had flown the Virgin flight but unfortunately it was only to be a one-night stopover, just a flying visit!

2008-02-28T16:27:00.009-04:00

Its a bit of a mud bath around the house.

The kitchen begins to take shape.

The pillars are panelled with white cedar.

The basement balcony has been tiled.

The septic tank has a roof.

The plantains are growing- spot the hummingbird!

We have had a very pleasant week at Maggi’s house enjoying her dogs, pool and views but it has come to an end and we are back on the boat getting into the swing of things, living in a much smaller space. We actually miss living on the boat as we don’t get to see all the other crews come and go. Our neighbours at the moment are a couple who look after a modest motor boat for the owners. They have been away for a few months but are now back for the next two, which is great as we have become good friends and Francis always has a good selection of books to swap.

It has been a slow but sure week building the house. The septic tank has pipes and has been plastered and will have pipes going into it next week. The interior is being finished off with wooden panels covering the cement pillars, and they look great. The kitchen cabinets are being made on site and are also looking very good. We took delivery of the last 10 windows, but one was broken and has been returned and now we are waiting for the final 8 French windows to be made. One side of the house has been cleared and flattened; ready for the form work and steel for the concrete, the other is still a muddy incline that will be excavated eventually. The pool has had a few more flat stones around its infinity edge and a few more coats of sealer have been put on the railings. Jeff eventually tracked down our missing painter, who came up with a load of tosh about why he hadn’t been working on our house, so it looks like he’s not coming back. We will have to hire a daily worker and I shall help out to get the job finished.

Our plantain tree is bearing fruit. It grew a huge purple pod last week which has now erupted to display all the tiny plantains. It’s very exciting to see them coming!

There is a constant stream of people coming and going which makes life interesting. A fellow builder has just returned unexpectedly as his contractor has quit and left him high and dry but between us a deal has been sorted to get the place finished. I think Jeff may be the money man and I will do the receipts for materials which Mr. Brown will get! Another of our friends, Richard, has returned for a few weeks boating, so we going out on his boat this Sunday, weather permitting, so it should be an enjoyable weekend. Hope you are all having one too.

2008-02-22T16:55:00.009-04:00

Last Sunday we took the dinghy out to give Foxy her “boat dog” lessons. She was well behaved and took her place at the pointy end and even looked over the edge a few times, with a bit of encouragement. We beached the dinghy in a small bay around the headland and she was able to run around and bark at us whilst we swam. We tried to coax her in but she would have none of it; the waves were just a little too scary.

The first internal concrete pillar has been clad with wood.

The week had its ups and downs as far as the house is concerned. The pool and decking areas are great. They have been sanded and coated in decking sealant. The tiles and diamond brite have been ordered and should take three weeks to arrive. The excavation hasn’t taken place, which is just as well because the ground is water logged. This was due to heavy rain and also the entire contents of the plastic water tanks, all 800 gallons slowly leaking out from underneath. This has now been rectified and we should see a difference fairly soon. The weather has been unseasonably wet which has not helped us. This is the beginning of the dry season but it certainly is not.

This area at the side of the house is getting a retaining wall. Next week all that wood will have gone and a flat concreted area will be there instead.

The decking area has now had its wood sealant painted on and looks very good. Jeff is sanding and treating the railings to protect them from weathering and UV.

The kitchen begins to take shape as the first of the cupboards are made out of white cedar.

We have moved into Maggi’s house for a week, whilst she goes sailing. The dogs all get on well although Foxy is now a dirty grey colour having been rolled around in the mud during their boisterous play. It will be a weekend of relaxation, catch up and a good Skype connection, what joy!

Betty the stray kitten is getting fat and it looks as though she is pregnant. If she is still around after she has had them we shall take her to the vets to have her"done".