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 !

...all clean now.

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 climbers.

 

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!

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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!