Well, has anyone noticed how quiet Grenada is just now?    I think Hogan’s  on a cruise in the Greek Isles...... just kidding!    Up this end of Paradise, it continues hot and dry but the humidity is down and some days the clarity is wonderful.  I can almost see them eating breakfast in Carriacou!  The mornings are stunning.  I sneak out of bed at six and take a peek at the lovely sunrise.  Himself and Marie leave at five thirty for their daily swim at Levera.  I know it is a wonderful experience but I can’t be enthusiastic.  After I have acknowledged that I have made it to another day, I go back to bed much to the relief of the dogs who have remained curled into the pillows.  Strictly not allowed by himself but they wait until he has gone. 

More and more people are moving up into the Bathway area.  When we first came here nine years ago the hillside was green and house free.  Now it is beginning to look like a little village.  We even have our own restaurant on the beach and a rather swish hotel in Mt Rodney.  Our little Utopia is fast disappearing!  Soon the snowbirds will arrive and the party season will begin.....George’s pig roasts are fabulous.  His Cuban friends show us how it is done!  The first pig roast we were invited to George announced the pig would arrive that day and would be slaughtered on the premises.  Now George doesn’t live too far away and I know from my Irish upbringing that pigs don’t like being butchered one bit and they make a lot of very high pitched squealing noises.  I couldn’t bear the thought so I bullied, threatened and cajoled George into acquiring a dead pig as opposed to a live one.  I think I ruined everyone’s fun!

It is Wednesday 14^th and we crawl nearer to safety and the date Hurricane Hattie hit Belize...31^st October.  So I ain’t tempting fate!

Tootle pip

Sally

I have to clear myself here, I meant was that the outer  band  or effect of Henri, not actually the passing of Henri?  I can’t have Hogan believing I’m  totally do lally!!  The sudden onslaught was interesting as usually we sit and watch the weather approaching and have the departure to shelter timed to a t.  This time the stormy wet weather arrived sneaking in over the trees and I was caught...guess where!  Watering my garden!  Oops!

I am awaiting the next band of rain promised by Hogan but so far all is quiet on the Eastern front,  I have just planted eight new trees so I need that rain. 

I regret to have to announce that Mr Rat has met a sticky end and is haunting us.  None of us could eat supper to night, the eau de rat passé, was overpowering.  We are a bunch of wimps, not one of us wanted the task of tearing the house apart to find the body.  So I rang Kelly....”er, Kelly  you know that rat I was telling you about.........”  He sighed.  To morrow he prepares for the Sabbath but I know he’ll come.   He once persuaded me to buy those sticky rat thingummys where the rat walks on to the mat and is trapped.  It was on a weekend when everyone goes home.  Himself was in South America so there was just me.  I awoke on Saturday to the sight of three rats stuck to the mats.  I was distraught!  I spent the whole week end giving them water I felt so sorry for them.  On Monday I fled as soon as everyone arrived.  Terrible loss of face! 

Well I have wittered on again.

Have a safe weekend with some rain, some breeze and a few drinky poos watching the sunset across the Caribbean.

Tootle Pip

Sally

One night I’m sitting on my balcony moon gazing and the next I’m battening down.  Where did all this rain and wind come from Chris?  It started at 3.OC this afternoon just as Mushy and Kelly were due to arrive to start digging out my new pond area.  (Terribly ambitious project.  Think I’v done it this time! ).  The wind and rain roared around for twenty minutes destroying whatever it could and then vanished.   Kelly turned up Mushy didn’t so I rang him and gently reminded him  that his presence was required .  He pointed out that we had agreed three thirty and I gently and in a sainted way pointed out that it was now three forty five.  Mushy informed me that at Madey’s where he lives, not a drop of water had fallen!!   Astonishing!   Madey’s is ten minutes away.  Both chaps were rather irritable so I kept away until phase one had been completed and good humour had been restored.  I digress as usual.  About twenty minutes after their departure  wind and rain  returned from wherever they had gone and it has been very Decemberish ever since.  Very cool too which is rather a bonus.  I wonder if anyone else has had strong wind and rain?   Maybe it’s my reward for spending three hours in Church yesterday!

Tootle pip

Sally

Dear Delia.  That all in one cake recipe on page 541 of Delia’s Complete Cookery Course  does not work!  Well, I didn’t have self-raising but neither does anyone else and my Magic Chef has lost its magic but so what!! Even when Jammed (strawberry) together the cake just about made an inch.   To top it all I’v just seen a Huge, well , big , rat scuttle out from underneath the cooker.  There goes the thermal stuffing again.  Oh....  Pity I can’t curse on line!  And why do I keep two terriers, even if one IS smaller than the rat!

But wait for it!  We have had rain two nights running and although it continues hot during the day there is the slightest whiff of a breeze wafting in from..... well, somewhere.  How about Barbados?  Julian and Himself have promised me a weather Vane.  I am not saying a word but the first onslaught of the Trades and the weather vane and part of the roof will be in River Sallee!  Watch this space! 

The moon rose in glory to night and the path  of light across the ocean was  stunning.  What a wonderful full moon so with Delia in the dustbin, a cooling drink in hand I will settle back and remember just how lucky we are.

Who needs cake anyway.

Tootle pip

Sally

I am sure I am going to burn the house down with my non-stop fans!   There must be rain out there somewhere.  I blame it on Hogan!  He’s supposed to be telling me what’s happening but he’s gone to ground or maybe Vista is too much for him?  He’s getting all the rain HE wants over there!   The days are beautiful but there is little breeze and it is way beyond me to suggest where it is coming from.  By the time I have rushed out with my hankie...it has passed. We can leave “Tiger” happily on the balcony without fear of him being whipped over the side!   Energy levels are low!  “Walkies” generates a slide into a dark corner even at four o’clock and I am not just thinking of the dogs!    There’s a yacht moored over in the lee of Sandy Island;  I believe it is waiting for a good wind.  Usually the little yachts zip past with all hands on deck doing clever things to catch a hearty blow.  Well best not complain too much, it seems selfish when one sees what is happening elsewhere .  May the gods continue to smile on us.... I can say that sitting on my balcony looking nervously at Kick ‘em Jenny!   I asked Himself “how high are Tsunami waves, realistically speaking....”  he gave me a withering look!

Ah well,  drinky poos time again, and this glass won’t be water!

Tootle pip

Sally

I think it got lost in translation!!

We watched the rain sweeping in across the sea from Barbados and had time to close the windows.  Marie was unfazed, “naw it won’t come in, there’s no wind”.  Close the windows I said in my best “jump to it” voice.   Mrs “Vastly experienced” here knows that a big sheet of water rushing across the sea is not doing it under its own steam.  Oh those lovely big ploppy rain drops!  And the cool of the following wind! The garden loved it.  We had a few rumbles of thunder as the rain swept past and now we are back to dead calm, sticky and hopeful!  But it does look as if more is on the way.  The bowl of the sky is white and the sea is grey.  Strangely the sun is shining on the white strip of sand on Sandy Island.

Last night we all went off to Cabier in Crochu ,St David.  It is a Boutique Hotel on a glorious site.  It is away from it all so it is a bit like a safari to get there.  The hotel has been around for awhile but is under new management now and this was the launch.   The small chop was cuisine minceur......rather new to Grenada where we love luverly great plates full ham and such like.  Himself who has fingers like bananas,  was all over the place with tiny dishes of, well I guess the green stuff was avocado but it’s anyone’s guess what the red stuff was.   Whatever it was I wolfed it down having missed lunch and wandered around with fists full of tiny glasses full of  dessert .   Someone must have spent HOURS putting all those little things in those tiny dishes and glasses.  Oh and there was a chocolate fountain with tiny marshmallows to swirl around.  Need  I say how much of that went down the front of my best tank top.  The delicate Punch (non-alcoholic) and the fruit filled wine cup  soon had the hardies among us groping our way  to the bar for Caribs and wine without fruit.  I think himself has to return to pay his bar bill!  Oops!

Ah!  The sun is belting down.  Obviously had our lot for to-day.

Tootle pip

Sally

Wow, it’s hot!   The days continue dry and beautiful but don’t get too excited about anything or you will melt.  There is a light , really light south easterly breeze drifting in and you can tell by the congestion, which part of our balcony it cools.  Remove yourself from the adirondack for one second and a dog moves in.  The wonderful green of the slopes around Bathway is giving way to a less verdant shade.  My water bill is climbing and still the plants droop.  Anyone see rain anywhere?   Hogan where are you, haven’t you mastered Vista yet?

Hard to believe that in two or three months the Trades will roar in and blow the pictures off the walls.  That’s when we have to tie Tiger down;  right now it’s the chicken hawks we have to watch.

Tootle pip

Sally

With Hogan tucked up under his duvet in blighty I seem to be the only one left to comment. Bit scary as I know absolutely nothing about weather patterns, can’t even go around a roundabout without ending up where I started from.  But I have to say the last two days the weather has been truly lovely...hot but it’s that time of year; the breeze has been a lovely gentle cooling breath  The visibility has been very good and we can see the islands of the Grenadines stretching into the distance.  The sea is calm and a lovely shade of blue.  Not the fabulous blue of the Pacific but a very good second.  Himself says the swimming is lovely at Levera and the water temp is cool.  Not a soul on the beach....amazing in this day and age. What wasn’t so  delightful was the bunch of Crochu boys who started to party at 11.30pm on Saturday and continued to thump out the music until six am Sunday!!  Sauteurs police hadn’t read the law on Noise Abatement and decided not to wake the Sergeant but he got an earful next day from all the sleep deprived residents and there will be a line from here to next week outside the Commissioner’s office soon.......sounded like a good party ‘though !!

Having had no sleep Saturday I was anticipating a lovely long sleep Sunday night but Tiger messed that thought up!  Tiger is the four pound sois –disant Yorkie who trips us up.  He decided I had been mean to him so he pushed off into the dry forest at 11 pm and  reappeared two hours later when I was run ragged and torn to shreds looking for him.  It took all my strength of character not to drop a brick on him.

Well what a lot of chat !!  Sorry but Hogan will be back soon hopefully and at least I am not commenting on strong winds etc etc.   But I had better not put a hex on things..

Tootle Pip

Sally

PS  I didn’t call him Tiger, he came with it!