Groove Me, Ani

It's all groovy here in Englishtown, and some days are groovier than others, such as when the Groove-Billed Ani pays us a visit and stays for a photoshoot.  (Listen to the groove of Etta James by clicking here.)  The Groove-billed Ani is an easily overlooked medium sized black bird.  It is surprisingly snazzy when you catch it in good light.

Groove-Billed Ani - Crotophaga sulcirpstris.  The short fluffy feathers on its head are rather mane-like.  Take a look at the iridescent gold-green edges of the feathers on its shoulders.  

It was making some rather sweet sounds, which is what caught my attention at first, because it sounded different from the Great-Tailed Grackles with whom it was keeping company.  The grackles are very vocal, verging on raucous.

Great-Tailed Grackle - Quiscalus mexicanus.  This female emerged from inside the canopy of the tamarind long enough for me to get some good shots.  Their eyes are a startling yellow. 

Other excitement, at least for Barnie, was Joy cleaning fish out on the dock.  Barnie was beside herself, just waiting for fish guts and trimmings.  I am amazed that she didn't jump up on the dock, but she managed to behave.

Waiting for an escapee.

The dawns continue to be beautiful.  The sun rises so quickly, I have to be on the ball to catch these images.  No time for do-overs!  Until tomorrow, that is.

White ibises (Eudocimus albus), flying north from their roost on Little Monkey Cay.  5:58am.

A lone Great Egret (Ardea alba), also heading north from Little Monkey Cay. 6:01am.

Homo sapiens, heading south. 6:05am.

We have a little construction project going on.  I call it the upside-down roof.  We are putting a roof under the decking of the sunset balcony.  Too much rainwater was winding on the ground under the cabana, and that is space that we use for an outdoor workshop and storage area.  Our hope is that this will keep the rain out of the area.  The new roof will have gutters, so we can direct the water into collection vats.  I will post more as it progresses, but here is a shot of today's work.

The underside of the sunset balcony. The balcony tapers at the north end.  The crew have put up some of the boards that the roofing metal (aka "zinc") will be screwed into from the the underside.

The light colored horizontal piece is a metal flashing that is secured behind the ledger board of the balcony.  We have one small section remaining to install.  It has to have a hole cut out of it for the whitePVC vent pipe on the right to go through.  The rafter and some lapboard equivalents are already screwed into place on the tapered section. It will be literally (in the true sense of the word) groovy when finished!

Our first Christmas Day in Belize and Boxing Day in Englishtown

Christmas Day dawned warm and beautifully sunny, a novel experience for us.  We spent a quiet day together unpacking Dennis’ bags instead of presents.  We did have presents for each other though - mine for Dennis was a Belize activated cell phone and his for me was the hard won cell phone signal booster.  Sort of an anti-Gift of the Magi (by O. Henry).  

Our Christmas tree was a habanero pepper plant given to us by Joy that we decorated with our parrot ornament given to Dennis along with the Santa Claus snow globe and a skirt of "mosquito netting" at his retirement.

 Our special bash was on Boxing Day when we were joined by Chris and Sue and later by Martha.  Chris and Sue brought a Christmas brew by the Belikin Brewery of sorrel beer (delightful) and a real find in Belize - port!  They also brought some nice cheeses.  Dennis and I had been saving a very special bottle of cognac for over 6 years to celebrate our arrival in Belize.  We had bought the cognac in France while visiting some other friends connected to Belize – a story for another day.  We also had several bottles of Freixenet cava.  We cooked chicken breast fillets wrapped around goat cheese and a casserole of broccoli and cauliflower with cheese and sour cream.  Also served a lovely fresh green salad with tomatoes, onions, and green peppers and fresh baked bread. Martha made a spice cake that Dennis served with sautéed sweet yellow plantains in a reduction sauce of Kahlua with shavings of the locally produced Goss chocolate on top.  Now to those of you not living in a third world country, this may seem pedestrian fare, but in these parts, this is haute cuisine!  We started in the early afternoon and enjoyed food, drink, music (yea! Dennis brought down my Bose IPod speakers!), each other’s company, and then more of the same for many delightful hours.  Martha, whose husband we met back in 1999, and who we finally met in 2004 when she helped us find this very property, and Chris and Sue, who we met in 2005, are the folks who we have been anxious to join in Belize.  It was all the celebration and more that we had been looking forward to for 8 years.