I guess I spoke to soon about the wind having been turned off…it came back!!!  Surging has been bad too…another chunk of the Belmont boardwalk, that was still in a mess from the storm in November, has fallen out…we got a dribble of rain last night which has freshened the air and cleaned the surfaces of things…

As quick as the wind started a few months ago, it has stopped…boom, over, that’s it, all gone…there is gentle breeze stirring the air…just enough to cool you if you are in the shade…

The days are getting hot, hot, hot, and even the nights are warming up…we had to use the ceiling fan for part of the night last night for the first time in what seems like a very long time…the night before last we were snuggled with the blankets up to our chins, and last night we were lying there thinking, this is weird, there’s no breeze…

I’m grateful that the wind is gone though…maybe now I can cook without having to close the doors in the kitchen….the wind kept blowing the flames on the stove out…and I don’t have to keep every paper on my desk weighed down…

We sure could use some rain though…we had a wonderful winter for rain and the tanks are all full, but we haven’t had any rain this month and the ground is cracking, the plants are drooping, the hillsides are turning brown and the ground is covered in leaves…

Hallelujah…it seems that the system bringing all the rain is finally gone bye bye…

We had a book sale for the Sunshine School this morning and yesterday we were thinking of canceling due to the rain, but this morning the skies were clearing and the sun was shining so we were able to go ahead with the sale…it was a huge success…

Seas are still rough here though but I don’t think that has anything to do with the rain…just glad I’m not on a boat out in Admiralty Bay…rocking and rolling…

It has been raining off and on for the past two weeks…it’s hard to get anything done…everything is damp…another inch of rain this morning…we are trying to finish a house for the owners arrival on Saturday and work keeps having to stop for downpours…at least my workers on that job are showing up for work come rain or shine, even if they do have to stand around in shelter every time it starts to pour…we’ve had 4 inches of rain since Monday, which is a lot for Bequia…everybody is happy for the rain though as it means the water tanks are full…I feel sorry for visitors though as they are getting very little sunshine…

It’s been just gorgeous lately…today it is hot 91F crystal clear views 66% humidity…a gentle breeze has just come up…a perfect day in Bequia…

Yesterday turned out to be a good day after all…once the showers went through in the early morning, it looked threateningly like more rain most of the day, but that all went south of us…we could see rain off beyond Battowia and Balliceaux…it was overcast most of the day but the sun finally broke through mid afternoon…my masons on the one job managed to diamond brite the pool…cross one job off the list…today we could see showers off to the east again, but the sky is brightening and the sun is coming up…sat. photos show little blobs of red, so there might be some brief showers today…

The last few nights have been wonderful for sleeping…perhaps fall is upon us…we’re actually able to pull the sheet up at night and last night we didn’t even have the ceiling fan running…It might sound strange but I can’t wait for winter when I can pull the blanket on as well and snuggle under it…my husband says if I were an animal, I’d be a Persian cat…I love my comforts and can be a bit standoffish…

It’s a long weekend here in SVG…Monday is Independence Day…most people couldn’t care less what the holiday is, as long as they get their day of fun, picnics, games and bathing in the sea…it’s funny, there is always a big deal about Independence in the papers and the gov’t gets upset because people don’t take it seriously and revere the day instead of going to the beach for a picnic…

Make that 3 days of showers…Tuesday we had drizzle and showers off and on all day, yesterday we had a wet morning but the afternoon was great, today already we’ve had several showers go through and though the sky is brightening now, from the satellite photos it seems there is a lot more to come…

I have masonry projects ongoing at 5 homes that I property manage and all are in limbo this week…oh well, the sun will come out eventually…

84F & 78% humidity at 9 am…

I thought the surge had likely peaked because I’d heard that the water had been higher in the early morning…however, we just came back from having lunch overlooking the harbor and it seemed to get worse while we were watching it…rather mesmerizing watching the waves…all along the Belmont boardwalk is really taking a beating, but hopefully the walls will hold and the buildings themselves will suffer no damage…the beaches at Lower Bay and Princess Margaret have been scoured…the little dock in front of the Whaleboner is gone…it appears that all that is left of the dock at Tradewinds/Devils Table is the pylons…the little building that was on that dock is gone, as well as the patio area where the band played…the water is pouring into the open end of the restaurant and out through the windows…blue boards from the building are floating all over the harbor…while we were watching the wave action picked up and the water started coming up onto the main jetty...

Bequia is still feeling the effects of Omar…storm surge continues all around Bequia…the big wharf at Paget Farm lost a big section…in the harbor though, is where the worst effects are being felt…It seems the worst of the surge is over for most, but the docks at Tradewinds are gone, and the Devils Table Restaurant is being flooded and battered by waves…lots of surge all across the waterfront in Port and Belmont, and pieces of docks and other wood floating around...people were sweeping sand and seashells and coconuts out of the Rasta Market…boats are all pulled up as high as they can be in Port and in O’car…it looks like a few of the lower shops in Port might have got wet floors, the Bequia Bookstore and Solana’s Boutique, probably the Port Hole too…Solana’s is closed and water is up to about an inch below the doors…under the Almond Tree is all huge puddles and the storm drains are all backed up right to the tops so I guess the ends of  the drains are filled with sand…I drove down to Lower Bay and it is surging pretty good there…the big boats and ferries and some boats from St. Vincent are moored way out beyond Admiralty Bay…the ferries aren’t running today as they can’t get in to the wharf in St. Vincent…

It’s a beautiful day though with a nice breeze, lots of sunshine…89F, 74% humidity

It’s a beautiful day here in Bequia, no rain so far, but it looks like we might get some from the east, and I’m not sure that the blob, now known as Omar might not be done with us yet…it seems to be moving west towards us again...currently 90F in  the shade 75% humidity…nice breeze…

Could it really be the sun…after 4 days…finally…and the skies are blue with only a few wisps of clouds…hallelujah…4 days of that blob continuing to go over us this way and that way and we only got 2.5 inches of rain…could it really be true that the blob has moved away for good this time???  84F 78% humidity

I can’t believe this weather…mostly Bequia is getting drizzles when it comes, but we had a few brief squalls go through yesterday with winds picking up and rain blowing in…we were entertaining and had to bring the dining table off the deck…the coconut plantation below us looks like a swamp and Spring Bay is brown from run off…I think the ground is saturated…oh well, it could be worse, we could be getting snow, as some of our friends in Calgary are getting…the seas have picked up to a little above normal…83F…rain has just begun tippy tappying on the roof again….

It’s currently bright and sunny, skies above and to the west are gorgeous blue with scattered white clouds…off to the east though gray clouds…whether they’ll bring us any rain is the usual mystery…

Yesterday afternoons downpour (Niagara) lasted maybe 20 minutes and we got ½ inch of rain in that time…lots of lightning and thunder after that but total rain off and on through the night only brought us another ¼ inch…I thought from the way the rains started that we would get a lot more than that…

It was another cool night for sleeping…currently 86F 75% humidity…very still, not much breeze, and the sea is flat, as it has been for a few days now…

Sounds like we are under Niagara Falls…it’s really pouring down…it only just started and there is so much rain the gutters can’t handle all the water and are overflowing…

Somehow I think we will get more than ½ an inch this time…

Yesterday the weather came from the west and gave us ½ inch of rain, a little lightning and distant thunder…today it looks like the same blob has now turned back on us and is coming back at us from the east…yesterdays weather cooled us down beautifully…it was a lovely night for sleeping…best sleep I’ve had in I don’t know how long…it was actually cool…how refreshing…

There’s something we don’t see very often…a system coming from the west…and in hurricane season too…weird…looks like we should be getting rain in a few hours…but for  now it is sunny and gorgeous, 91F and 66% humidity…

Well there goes another day of outdoor work lost to rain…

The rain started about 11, and we’ve had about an inch of rain already…it’s blowing pretty good…I had to close all the windows and doors on the east, south and west…thunder and lightning now too…fortunately the temperature has dropped a little, down to 88F from 90F…

From the direction the big blob just east of the Lesser Antilles seems to be moving, it looks like we are in for another wet weekend…

Woke up to glorious sunshine and no clouds…88F 76% humidity…just a little bit hazy…a lovely morning…it was wonderful to be able to soak up some sunshine after 3 days of gloom…from all the rain (5 ¼ inches at Spring) the pool is cooled off to 82F…verrry refreshing, reminds me of Lake Kawagama this summer…before the rains on Thursday it had been up to 92F, which was too warm to be enjoyable…

By noon it has gotten very cloudy, although the sun is still shining…came in to check the satellite photos because of thunder rumbling, and although it looks on the satellite photos as if there is nothing over us, there is a lot of cloud over us and thunder in the distance…for a while it sounded like it was getting closer coming from the south west, but now the thunder seems to have moved somewhat north of us…quite ominous sounding though…

The rain in Bequia has slowed to a drizzle for now…we haven’t had a break in the rain all day, but a drizzle is better than a downpour, the sky has brightened a bit…the coconut plantation down below us at Spring is a huge pond for now…Spring Bay is brown from run off…

I had to go and lower the level in the swimming pool and checked the rain gauge when I was out…3 ½ inches over two days…that’s a lot for Bequia…St. Vincent has likely had twice that amount though, if not more...

Animated satellite photos show that we are in for more yet…it almost looks like the system is coming back over us…on the positive side, our water tanks are now full and overflowing…that’s very good news...I can stop feeling guilty about using the rain shower shower head…

Wow…I often forget to look and see what is coming off of South America…I tend to just look east…lots of very loud thunder and explosive bursts of very bright lightning…not sure how much rain yet as I haven’t ventured into the garden to check the rain gauge because it is raining again…not very heavily at this point though but from the looks of the satellite it looks like we are in for a long wet day of it….

We had representative from Ecostar roofing here a few days ago to show some of my guys on one of my job sites how to apply their shingle…I’m just glad the rain held off until the training was done…

We got just over 2 inches of rain from that tropical wave that supposedly had no precipitation in it…looks like there is another one coming our way later in the week…I just drove some workers into town and they said their water tanks were giggling…ours isn’t overflowing yet, but hopefully soon…

Wow, I’m sure glad we don’t normally get the big storms, like Ike…my prayers go out to everybody in Ike’s path…

We got more rain through the night, just over an inch, which isn’t a lot, but when our average rainfall is only about 40 inches a year, we are happy for it…we can hear lots of thunder far off this morning, it’s overcast with dark clouds appearing to the east of us…presumably we are going to have a wet day as the wave continues to make it’s way through…hopefully this one won’t build up into anything nasty as it moves west and north…

Just had a huge crack of thunder and it sounded like it hit something…the cable tv went off…oh well, with the heavy rain we wouldn’t have been able to hear the tv anyway…might be a better night for reading or just sitting on the deck watching the lightning…hopefully the electricity won’t go off…

Great thunder and lighting over Bequia right now…it’s really rumbling…we’ve been getting showers off and on all day…not much to speak of so far, but it is coming down pretty heavy right now…from the satellite photos we should get more through the night and tomorrow, though according to the National Hurricane site, there is no precipitation associated with this tropical wave…wrong!!!…we need the rain...as much as we’ve been getting showers fairly often, it hasn’t been enough to fill the water tanks yet, though it has been enough to keep everything green and growing…the last decent rainfall was when Gustav went over us as a wave, and that only gave us an inch and a half of rain…gotta go calm the dog down…she isn’t too pleased with the thunder…

We’ve had showers off and on all day today and it looks like there is more to come…just when you think it is safe to leave the car windows down, whoosh, another downpour…at least the rain cooled it off a bit from yesterday…that had to be the stickiest hottest day in Bequia history…the gardens are starting to bounce back and the hillsides are greening up again…great for the water tanks too…

Yippee…we had to get out of bed and close windows last night as we were getting sprinkled…and I woke periodically to the sound of light rain on the roof…just before 8 am this morning the heavens opened, the sound on the roof is incredible…rain is coming down so hard that it is overflowing our rain guttering at the down spouts…it does appear after only 25 minutes of downpour to be letting up somewhat as I can now see across Spring Bay, whereas a little while ago I could only see the tops of palms down below…hopefully we will get a lot more rain from this wave…This has to be registering on the water gauges…in spite of all the showers we had last Saturday, none of which was like what we are getting now, the bottoms of the rain gauges were barely damp…I’m sure there is dancing in the streets of Bequia somewhere rejoicing that the rain has really come and the water tanks will fill again…

One of my gardeners showed up to work in spite of the rain, and he’s either hiding from the rain somewhere, or taking advantage of it and having an outdoor shower…I’d go dance naked outside if he weren’t around…

Well, we got lots and lots of rain Saturday…the wedding wasn’t washed out…fortunately the showers stopped for a while mid afternoon, and as we took a water taxi to the beach it looked like the rain was all over…not the case…as we arrived the wedding organizer was putting out the seat cushion, which had to be taken back in about 10 minutes later when another deluge hit…but the sun came out and dried things up a bit so the cushions were only slightly damp to sit on during the ceremony…lovely wedding…the groom and his brothers wore kilts, Scottish style…good thing there wasn’t a wind, though they ended up mooning everybody later in the evening…

Back to the rain…the cedar trees are now covered in blossoms, and the birds are going crazy…tree frogs are now singing again…the regreening of Bequia has begun…amazing how quickly the trees respond to a little rain…hopefully lots more to come to get the water tanks filled…

Earlier in the week, I reported 3/4s of an inch of rain…friends who were at Young Island with their boat said after the same system/wave/front/whatever it was, they had to bail out 15 inches of water from their dinghy…amazing the difference 7 miles and a few mountains can make to a rainfall…

I’m not going to get too excited about the possibility of rain tomorrow until it actually happens…I thought we would get more rain at the beginning of the week and it fizzled out…We have a wedding to go to on the beach tomorrow so I hope it will hold off until after the ceremony…Haniff the pool is 87F…do stop by and bring your swimsuit, just call ahead and let us know you are coming across…I had some time this afternoon to lounge in one of the floating chairs with a nice cold shandy…it was divine…if it gets too hot at night this summer, I think that might be where I will sleep…

Is this the start of rainy season?  I hope so….3/4’s of an inch of rain last night…it sounded so wonderful on the roof…and esp. the sound of water running down the guttering to the water tanks…plus we’d had a teaser of a shower the night before as well…amazing how quickly some plants respond to the slightest bit of rain, and the leaves sprout out…

90 in the shade, very hot in the sun…

Not only is it hot, it is very dry…it’s 90F in the shade…when you walk by the doors you feel the heat boiling in…the best place to be is in the shade in the breeze or in the pool, except the pool is in the sun still…the things we suffer to live in the Caribbean…the pool is 87F but late in the day once the sun is gone it is refreshing…

Bequia continues to get browner and drier…I think we had a total of ¼ inch of rain in May…hopefully June will bring us some good rain…we almost always have rain the first week of June, so fingers crossed, this year will not prove to be the exception…except that it is hotter than usual…

That little bit of rain the other day was just a teaser…everywhere you go lately you see water delivery trucks…even people with big cisterns are running out…the shrubs are looking so sad…I keep seeing iguanas lately, just about every day…I’m not sure if they are out of the bush looking for water…love that neon green colour of the younger ones…

Last nights rain only amounted to about ½ an inch, but like I said it’s a good start…we had a little downpour this afternoon as well that made some nice big puddles but within a ½ hour when I was driving back the way I’d come through the downpour, the road was dry already…cleaned the dust off the car though…already that was enough to bring out some mossies…

We got a sprinkle of rain last night that was enough to keep the patios wet until morning and the ground looked damp too…just got some good noisy rumbling on the roof showers…It’s a start...

It’s been overcast all day today but there was no rain for us in all those clouds…it’s very hot and humid…fortunately the pool is cool and clear…

I heard some excited chatter earlier today about a little rain shower that part of the island got last night…we didn’t get it, but we sure need it...At 5:30 it is 86F in the shade…a little hazy to the east…a gentle wisp of a breeze…I’m off to water the plants in our courtyard…everything is dry and drooping…