We had two Christmases this year. The first was in early December as Fi and her friend Emma were here for two weeks and both had drawn the short straw and were on shifts over the Christmas period. So the house was decorated early, mulled wine brewed and twinkly lights adorned the trees ready for their arrival on the 2nd December. We had named the dates for both Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve to coincide with band nights at Chateau Mygo so the scene was set for much fun and frivolity. Our friends were most gracious in their enthusiasm for our premature celebrations.

Coconut water stop...

Swimming in a swollen river with Kurt (ATV)

                                                          

The girls filled their time well with frequent trips to the hotel for early cocktails by the pool bar, massages in the spa and days sailing (loosely speaking; we sailed, they sunbathed). All in all, a good time. On Christmas day we came down to stockings filled to overflowing with gifts and calabash bowls stuffed with the usual stocking trinkets. Jeff BBQ'd the delicious turkey on a perfectly hot sunny day and we enjoyed a great feast which lasted for several hours.

We had a lovely sail to the pitons, where we picked up a mooring buoy and spent the night. We'd already arranged our evening meal at a local beach bar, so there was not much to do other than have pre-dinner swims, showers and then sunset cocktails. We watched a large cruise ship sail past, all lit up like a Christmas tree; it turned slowly towards us and then stopped and after a short while they sounded a horn which signaled the beginning of a ten minute firework display..... Jeff said he had had a word with the Captain! Pure magic...

Canapes and G&T's

Hair washing night

Firework display on a cruise ship.

We slept like logs listening to the gentle swell and waves lapping the beach, having enjoyed the freshest grilled fish and been sent off with armfuls of grapefruit for breakfast.

Rum punch at the Pitons

Beers in Chateau Mygo

Rules of the house - a gift from Fi and Emma

                                                        

 Sunset Champagne cruise

Turkey No1.

We repeated the whole thing two weeks later with the arrival of Jill and Herb followed by Jonathan and Stewart. Same format, different turkey! This time we were celebrating with the rest of the world. This was a very relaxing time with all visitors keen to read, sleep, potter and generally wind down from their stressful lives.

Everyone had left by the 7th January but we remained busy with visiting military yachts and catching up with old friends.

Relaxing after the Christmas rush

We are thinking about the forthcoming wedding. Most things are in place but you can never be quite sure in the Caribbean that all will go as planned. The attraction to this part of the world is the laid back, easy going attitude but it can be frustrating if you require timing and precision.

 We moved Wind Down onto Chateau Mygo dock as the marina fees for the next year were hiked by nearly 30%. Laughable really as the state of the dock became more hazardous every week, with the useless manager paying lip service to anyone who dared to complain.

The boat is certainly keeping cleaner where she is and it is very convenient to be able to check on things each evening. It is a bit tricky getting past the bar after a day’s sailing though!

Marmalade season produced a dozen or so jars, enough to give away to friends and still have some for the rest of the year. 

We are in the midst of a spruce up. All outside yellow walls are getting a lick of paint as are the white columns. The garden is also having a bit of a shake up with areas being cleared and replanted with more appropriate things. Gardening in the tropics is a constant learning curve. 

 

In the next blog there will be a full account of the wedding, anyone not inclined to romance may like to skip to the autumn addition....its going to be awesome!!

September - A time of plenty

We are nearing the end of a very pleasant rainy season. It was a wee bit wet to start off with but for the past few months there have only been a few showers and any storms have passed well to the east of us. The Atlantic 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 garden has started to produce a good harvest. We are enjoying 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 and lopping off heads of trees that are growing too tall.

                                                                     Garden Produce

                                                                                                       

 

                                                      

Our big old rotting tree in the centre of the front garden has been removed. The increased amount of light and hopefully rain, should get things growing and be beneficial to that area .Jeff also cleared another bit of land ready for a new palm that a  friend has grown from seed.  The Bismarkia palm grows 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 the surrounding garden. It took several hours but they did a great job with only minor causalities. After all the hard work we had a late lunch washed down with cold beers.

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

The birth of red bananas.

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

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

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

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).

                                                                 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.