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.

 

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.

 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.

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