Phew! The basement floor slab has been cast. It was a flurry of activity on Wednesday when builders, plumbers and electricians fought to protect their work as concrete was poured and spread quickly by a team of ten men. It sounded chaotic but by 2pm the job was done. The ice-cold beers, which are a tradition on casting days, were well deserved. It was fun to walk over it once the crew had gone and to try and imagine where everything would fit. Sometimes the floor plan looks very small and at other time it looks huge. Now the block work has started and walls are rising up, it is all very exciting even though we have a long way to go.

Last Sunday we had a day off and spent the time on a friend’s boat sailing a little south of here. Seven of us had a picnic, anchored off a beach, relaxing in the warm sunny breeze. Three of us swam ashore and sat and gave ourselves a body scrub with the dark volcanic sand. Lucians believe it is good for all ailments as well as giving you silky soft skin.

Wildlife update: Bees! We have hives behind our lot, which have never been a problem, but since we have been spraying the concrete with water to prevent it drying too quickly they have been arriving in swarms to have a drink. This isn’t a real problem as the builders say they don’t attack you unless you try to kill them. I didn’t think they attacked at all unless they are African bees, then they tend to be a bit more pro-active on the stinging front. I shall have to speak to the beekeeper and see just what sort of bees we are dealing with, as this may not bode well for our plans to be languishing in our plunge pool by the end of the year.

Another unwelcome guest this week was a scorpion; which we didn’t know hung out in these parts. It was about an inch and a half long and black and, during the entrapment proceedings had inadvertently had it’s leg amputated, so proceeded to sting itself to death. It appears that sightings are extremely rare as 3 of the team had never seen one before, and the most recent sighting for the other three was 28 years ago!!! Meanwhile, we are fortunate to have some furry friends. At the bottom of the lot, where all the tree trunks are stacked up, a family of Mongoose have moved in. This is probably good news for us but bad news for scorpions and snakes. Another bit of notable wild life is an Antillean finch, named black Robin. He visits several times a day, mostly at mealtimes, where he joins us for bits of food. He will sit on cereal bowls, peck at sandwiches and most weird of all will sit in the rim of a cup of hot coffee and help himself. Whilst we are having an afternoon zizz he will try to wake us by chirping and then squawking to get our attention. Our berth on the marina is right next to the mangrove and as a consequence the water is teeming with fish of all shapes and sizes. We have a resident barracuda that lives under the boat, called Barry. He hangs around, even looks up, or appears to, when we greet him in the morning. I fear his days are numbered though as the boat boy’s fish along the dock at lunchtime and are usually successful in catching one or two each time. In the early days we did have a bash at trying to catch him but now he has a name it is not so easy to fish for him.

This week’s home craft has been to make passion fruit squash. They are in abundance at the moment and cheap as chips. All I did was scrape the seeds into a bowl and then poured boiling water over them, added a little sugar and left them for a few hours. Afterwards I drained the seeds, making sure I got a lot of the pulp out and added water. Absolutely delicious! I can’t wait to unpack our juice extractor to tackle some of the more interesting fruits as they come into season, but it will be a long time before we call for our container.

And finally for this week, our evening sorties to Chateau Mygo for sundowners has developed into a bit of a club as we are now joined each evening by a group of friends who have christened it the Sundown Club. Along with the cold beers, as we move toward the summer solstice, the sun has now moved northwards and sets in the mouth of the bay. Each evening there is a spectacular display, but as yet we have not witnessed the elusive ‘green flash’, which occurs just as the final bit of the sun, drops below the horizon. We have seen it before in Bequia and will endeavour to get you photographic evidence in the near future.