We Are All Good

As they say - we dodged a bullet this time.  What a relief for us - Hurricane Lisa shifted north prior to making landfall in Belize.  Our relief was at the expense of Belize City - which experienced a sudden but impressive storm surge followed by extensive post-hurricane flooding.  The brunt of the damage was to the poorest communities with sub-standard (even for Belize) housing.  Although there was property damage, I have not heard of any lives lost.  The only real impact Lisa had on me and Dennis was the nationwide outage of telecommunications.  We had some limited phone service restored on Friday (Lisa made landfall on Wednesday) and then on Sunday had full phone service and internet again.  Power was out over most of Belize for about a day, with it mostly restored by Sunday.  That didn't affect us since we have our own solar power system.  

Looking to the southeast this afternoon - clear, calm sea.

Barnie enjoying a little sit-down after her walk.

Just look at her gorgeous Little Richard eyes!

Happy Clove.

Happier Clove.

Clove thinks that everyone would benefit from a good roll in the sun-warmed sand.  I think she's on to something.

Home Again!

And I can see!  The surgery was easy, with dramatic results.  I stayed in Dallas a week and returned home Saturday.  More about the stay in Dallas in the next post(s); today I am focusing (get it?) on the last leg of the journey home.  I left DFW at 11:04am Central Daylight Time and arrived at PGIA in Belize at 12:30pm Central Time - a flight time of just under 2.5 hours.  Belize stays on standard time year 'round since we are so close to the equator.  PGIA, Belize's only international airport,  is pretty small with only one runway and one taxiway.  It was about maxed out on how many international fights it can accommodate when we landed, so the airport with its extra covid screening process was a zoo.  I just did make my connecting flight to Placencia at 1:30pm.  I was able to sit in the co-pilot seat, my favorite spot on these small planes.

Posted placard just in case I get a hankering to try to fly the plane!  

Big planes lined up at the terminal.  My American Airlines plane is second from left with the striped tail.  

The day was perfect for flying.  Once we were airborne, the pilot  switched on autopilot and was hands off until we neared our first stop at airstrip in Dangriga.

The beautiful Belize River adjacent to PGIA.  Several times I have been lucky enough to spot manatees swimming in the river as we flew over, but not this time.

Belize City, the capital until it was levelled by Hurricane Hattie in 1961.  You can see the municipal airstrip jutting out into the sea at the upper left of the city.

A view of the Northern Lagoon with the sea to the left.  The strip of land between the lagoon and sea is very low and marshy during the rainy season.

Just south of the Northern Lagoon is the equally creatively named Southern Lagoon.  We are over the sea here, and the water is so clear you can see the sandy bottom.

Sea, shrimp farms, mountains in the distance.

Flying low over former shrimp farm ponds on the right as we make the approach to the Dangriga airstrip.

Jungle below and then the airstrip up ahead.  Dangriga is to the right.

We made a 10 minute stop in Dangriga to let a couple of passengers off and then continued flying south to Placencia, total flight time of 40 minutes.

Placencia airstrip, spans nearly the entire width of the narrow peninsula.

Until 4 or so years ago, when we landed in Placencia, once we got off the plane and collected out bags, we would walk back down the runway to the canal you see on the right of the runway.  Someone would be waiting for us in a boat to bring us straight home.  After a little oopsie at the airstrip in which a plane clipped the top of a car on the road at the far end of the runway and fell into the sea (minor injuries, car and plane totalled), national aviation safety had a review of procedures at the airstrip and changed things up.  Now there are barricades that come down to block the road when a plane is landing and no one is allowed to walk down the runway.  Now we must take a taxi to the dock in the village.  Probably safer, but not as much fun.

I got home around 3:30 on Saturday and was ecstatically greeted by Dennis, Clove, and Barnie - it was a grand welcome.  The only bad thing is that I caught a vicious cold somewhere along the way and have been taking it easy except for walking the dogs.  I haven't even completely unpacked.  Today is rainy with lots of thunder this morning.  Scaredy-cat Clove decided she was a lap dog so I could properly comfort her.

8:40am

10:30am

10:45am

She is on the foot of the bed now that most of the storm has passed, but she still insists that my foot must be touching her.  What a wuss.

Four Days

 Another day, another dawn, and so it goes.  Dawn on Saturday, February 12 was intense and stunning.  I took tons of photos and pared them down to 2 for your eyes.

So intense it was almost scary.

Mellowing a bit.

The lovely light shows off our refurbished beach (with the cement blocks are protecting the red mangrove seedlings we transplanted).  A newly designed turtle ramp will go at the bottom left.

Finally, the preserved lemons were ready to use.  I made  chicken tangine using 2 recipes from the New York Times as guides.  I used the cooking method of one recipe and the additional ingredients of the second recipe.  Lots of spices involved - cumin, ground coriander, cinnamon, ginger, garlic, allspice, and fresh cilantro.  Also kalamata olives, green olives, tomatoes, onion, garlic.  And don't forget the preserved lemons!  It was not difficult and tasted fantastic.  Next time I will omit the kalamata olives, they were too dominant,  and I will be sure to have turmeric on hand.   And I won't hold back on the lemon!  The flavor of the lemon made all the other flavors dance together, especially on the second day.

Chicken tangine, ready to serve.

Dawn on Sunday was slightly more sedate.

If you click to enlarge, you might be able to see Venus, just to the right of center in the upper third of the image.

 Finally, one of the parrots that we hear every day cooperated  by sitting on a bare branch in the gumbo limbo tree behind our back veranda.  I thought is was a yellow headed parrot, but Nikki Buxton of Belize Bird Rescue told me it is a red lored parrot.  Still hoping for a photo op of a yellow head.

What a beauty!  Its mate was hiding in the leaves and friends were scattered throughout other nearby trees.  

The weather changed on Monday, with clouds and rain moving slowly in.  Not good conditions for photography.  But at least there was no wind to speak of and the sea has been calm.  It is still gloomy and drizzling today.

Not the conditions the passengers on the cruise were expecting!

Even now at midday, it is quite cool.  I have a lentil casserole in the oven to get the house a bit warmer.  

One blanket may not be enough!

Stay warm and cozy where ever you are.

A Fine Start To The Weekend

Very busy this morning.  First thing was to walk the dogs before 6:30.  Then I worked with 2 of our workers today to put more sun shade up on a veranda that was getting too hot for the solar power batteries that live there.  After that we put up 4 pairs of eye hooks for my new elastic resistance tubes that will let me continue with the physical therapy for my shoulder.  I'll be trying out new exercises tomorrow.  Next, we marked the 3 palm trees that needed to be removed because they were shading some of the raised garden beds.  We have far too many coconut palms here, so it is good to thin them out a bit.  The guys love an excuse to use the chainsaw and made short work of cutting them down and removing the trunks and fronds.  The vegetables will be much happier with their new-found light.  So our first project was to minimize sunlight and the last project was to maximize it!  Go figure.

Here's how the day started:

5:57AM - False Dawn. 

The deep orange of false dawn faded completely to grey before the sun actually rose above the horizon.

True Dawn - 6:24AM.

The day has lived up to its start with a light breeze just ruffling the surface of the sea as the day has warmed up.  The iguanas have been busy digging in the warm sand.  The sun rules all life down here.

I'll wrap up with 2 sleepy pups in their new beds.

Clove, with her deer-like legs tucked up.

Barnie, with her amusingly short legs and long body.

The beds are the same size, so you can see how much bigger Barnie is than Clove.  I estimate that Barnie weighs close to 100lbs and Clove is probably about 75lbs.  

Wishing that sun finds and warms you on this weekend, where ever you are.

Back to Englishtown

After two lovely yoga sessions separated by breakfast, it was time to pack up for the 2 boat trips taking us home to Englishtown.

At breakfast, we saw one of the commercial fishing boats anchored off Ray Caye.

The "mother boat" with 2 canoes. 

The 6 to 8 fishermen live on the mother boat for a week or so at a time.  Each day they go out in their little canoes to catch lobster, conch, and fish and then come home to mother for the night.  They sell their catch to restaurants such as the one at Ray Caye and to recreational/vacation boaters who sail between the cayes.  They also take their catches into Placencia to mainland restaurants.  What a tough life that must be.

After settling our bill, we had time for a fruit smoothie before boarding Our Devocean for the first leg of the trip home.

Shooting the breeze with Captain Sean on the way home.  He has had quite a few adventures on the sea!

Orington picked us up at the Wild Orchid dock in Placencia for the trip back to Englishtown.  It was coming up on dusk when we arrived with just enough time to walk the dogs before a light dinner.

Cheese board with a selection of delightful items from White Rock Farm - Chevre, Sage Derby, Chive Cheddar, Stilton, Red Leicester, Brie, and Lonzino.  Served with thin toasted slices of locally made whole wheat sourdough.  A feast!

Becki taught us the trick of cooling wine with a few frozen grapes.  

Planning ahead, I texted Dennis on our way home and asked him to please put some grapes in the freezer.  It works a treat!

Dennis and the pups were happy to have us back and we were happy to be home.  Yoga with Brice at Ray Caye had been wonderful, but best to leave before you get tired of it.

Welcome home cuddles with Clove.

Rainy December Day

The internet is crap today due to the weather - lots of rain and some wind gusts that blow our dish around.  In the last 3 days we have had ~3.5 inches of rain with a steady drizzle right now.  Lots of lightning and thunder, too.

Clove, seeking comfort from the scary thunder.  The big baby.

Be sure to turn the sound to get the full effect of the rainfall.

We have a rain gauge on the deck railing.  There was more than inch when I took the video.  Even more now.

If I don't have to be out and about, I do love a good rainy day.  Plus we need the rain; we are shy about 25 inches (average for Englishtown while I have been keeping records is over 100 inches annually)  I do hope we don't get all 25 inches before the end of the year!  Five or ten would do nicely.

Three Things on My Walk with Clove

1.  Gumbo Limbo Tree - one of my favorite trees on our property.

The sinuous trunks and branches can withstand high winds.  These curves are the result of Hurricane Iris 20 years ago.

2.  Papaya Tree - one of many volunteers.  You can see that the birds visit this one.  I have seen brown jays, yellow headed parrots, and Montezuma oropendolas feasting on its fruits.

The ripest, tastiest fruits are at the bottom.

3.  Clove, - at around 75 lbs, she is the smaller of our two dogs.

Waiting for me to finish up with the pictures already!

That's it for today; just trying to keep the momentum up.

All About Clove - The First 18 Days

On 13 December 2017, Clove arrived in our lives.  She was about 10 weeks old.  She and her brother (who was set to go to another household) were the 2 survivors from a litter of 7 born to a mother dog who had been bred too many times at too frequent intervals and then neglected.  As we later learned, neither her brother nor her mother survived the next month.

24 Hours, 5 meals, 3 baths, 5 nit-combing sessions later ... 

Those little golden seeds are nits and lice.

Such a little thing, more parasite than puppy. The only good thing about the louse infestation on her was that there was no room left for fleas!  I saw only a couple of fleas on Clove, and those were in the rinse water of her baths.  Poor Clove also had intestinal worms. 

Clove playing with the weasel balls - s plush toy weasel attached to a ball that rolls eccentrically.  She loved that weasel to death.

Even though Clove had been neglected and was malnourished, she was friendly, inquisitive, and playful.

Falling asleep with her weasel ball.

Those first few days she spent playing, sleeping, eating, pooping, and peeing.  Funny, that's still mostly how she spends her time now.

Clove was so small that a cat harness adjusted to the smallest size fit her loosely.  She soon grew into it and then outgrew it, too.

I combed her for lice, which I had originally thought were mites, several times a day.  And we bathed her 5 times that first week.  The first time I combed her with the nit comb, I was horrified by the sheer volume of nits, lice, and dead skin that came off on the comb - easily 2 tablespoons worth.

Her second favorite toy - the sparkling wine cork. Perfect for her sharp little puppy teeth and too big for her to choke on.

Two weeks later, Clove is a new puppy.  She still has bald spots from the lice (and probably mites, too), especially on her tail and left rear foot and moth-eaten patches on her torso.  But the fur that remains is healthier looking and she has grown incredibly larger.  She went from 4 lbs to 8.6 lbs in 17days.  The cat harness had to be loosened all the way.

Growing every day.

"I am Clove."

Clove and Barnie are half-sisters from the same mother.  Barnie is 1.5 years older than Clove.  It was love at first sight for those 2.  But with Barnie being so much bigger and stronger, we thought it best to let them play for a while through the gate and rail.  We put up a run line for Clove's leash situated so that she could be next to Barnie or not, as she chose, but she couldn't go through the rail and fall off the 10 ft high veranda or escape down the stairs.  That worked beautifully for about 10 days.

Visiting time for Barnie and Clove.

Barnie and Clove chewing on each other.  You can see Clove's splotchy fur and bald tail.  Clove is defending her coconut husk toy. 

Barnie playfully stealing the coconut husk.

Big sister Barnie letting Clove nap with the husk.

The next weeks were spent with more bathing, deworming, treatments for lice/mites/fleas.  And more time with Barnie.  As I look at these photos from 8 months ago, I can hardly believe it's the same dog.  More Clove updates to come.