The day dawned with a pink and grey softness.  

Allen is just visible in his canoe as a little speck to the left of mangrove trees on the right of the photo.  He paddles over from Monkey River Village at day break to work at our place with landscaping and handy man projects.

In the few minutes it took Allen to arrive, the day has brightened a bit.  You can see Allen beaching his canoe at the south end of our lot. 

Our cabana looks serene and sleepy in early morning light.

It is almost too beautiful to leave, even for a day trip. But there is an auction calling us, so off we go with Sue and Chris on an adventure in Mennonite country near the inland village of Armenia.  Sue had seen ads for an estate auction; everything, including livestock, household goods, and farm implements were on the block.  How could we resist?  

The estate being auctioned is at the end of this road.  You can see some vehicles already parked there.  Look at that fabulous tree in the mid-ground!  In the grey, drizzly day it glows as if it is afire.

Close to a hundred folks showed up for the auction, and with the exception of 4 (you know who those 4 are), all were Mennonites.  The Mennonites were very welcoming to us and explained the auction process.  This particular event was to sell off all the worldly goods of a recently deceased elderly couple whose decendents had their own households.  The auction was to turn the assets into cash which could then be easily split between the decendents.  Dennis and I had quick look around and then left Sue and Chris at the auction while we went to the town of Belmopan, which is actually the capitol of Belize, to pay our land taxes, an adventure in itself.  When we returned to pick up Sue and Chris, they had not bought anything, but enjoyed watching the bidding.  Apparently the woman of the house was well-known for her canning abilities; her canned vegetables and fruit (even canned pineapple!) were all sold at high prices.  

This fine fellow was roped to a fence post to graze along the road near the auction.  Look at those horns!

The mountainous countryside is beautiful with pastoral scenes check-by-jowl with wild jungle.  All in all, it was a fine day in spite of the drizzly greyness.