The weather has been mostly good to us this week, so the house is moving on. All the plywood is on the roof, the decorative Creole gingerbread is carved and in place and Caribbean Metal have measured up for the green roof and work should start on Tuesday. It should take about 4 days so next week’s picture should show more progress than the previous two. In the meantime, plasterers have been plastering and cement posts have been cast to support the wooden balustrades around the balconies. Next step is to get a painter to paint the underside of the roof and beams and then to start preparing the greenheart wood for the walls. I think this is where I am put to work and my life of lazing beside the pool and meeting new friends comes to an end. It was great while it lasted but I really am looking forward to having some input.

The summer people are beginning to leave. This really is a “Swallows and Amazons “ place. There are different groups that fly in for a few months of the year. One group we got to know well was an American diving company. They run two-week diving courses from here, for two months every year. The reason we got to know them was that they were supervising their teenagers and trying to track down the beer drinking naughty boys in the shower block, when they banged on Jeff’s shower cubicle asking him if he had alcohol in there with him. Embarrassment all round when they realised their mistake and so they bought us a beer in the bar afterwards. We saw them each time they come in to offload one group, have a day and a half respite before the next arrived and had some down time at Chateau Mygo. On their last nights here we were invited for supper on their catamaran, had a great meal, with the best brownies ever as a pudding. On the very last night we all went down to a local bar called “Fish and Tings” where we asked the chef to do his best things and we would all help ourselves. We were not disappointed; the octopus stew was fantastic. The hurricane hole bar was still open on our return so after a nightcap, we negotiated with the hotel front desk to use the hot tubs. It was bubbly but not hot so the youngsters then went off in search of the other private ones situated outside the hotel rooms. This apparently was the game of the season, to use private pools in the dead of night, avoiding detection by the night porter. Young Un’s, what would you do with them?!

That’s them off until next year and the school children are all away as well. Fi leaves on Sunday after a three-week stay and we have friends visiting St Lucia in the next fortnight that we hope to catch up with. September is the quietest month of all we are told, so we shouldn’t be too distracted by night revellers.