Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Hello from paradise!  Today I took a nap, a nice long one.  In the night, Richard woke me up as it was raining.  It rained about one second!  A big wind had started and brought us a few drops.  He was planning on going fishing but at 5:30 the waves were too big at the cut so they cancelled.  These are all good excuses for a nap!  The wind was blowing this morning but calmed later in the afternoon.  It was a lovely day.  I did some jungle cutting and raked up a lot of sea grape leaves and did a workout in the morning. 

This afternoon we organized the back underneath of the house.  We have a lot of lumber left over from building the Murphy bed.  It looks very nice and clean down there now. 

Natalie and Michael arrive tomorrow.  We are so excited to see them and have fun with them here on the island. 

Monday, February 25, 2019

Today was a perfect day in paradise!  I could not have asked for more perfect weather.  We got up early so Richard could go fishing.  The boat battery problem is finally solved.  Keeping this boat running here is an adventure in itself!  We had a couple over for dinner last night and he went fishing with Richard this morning.  While they fished, I did my workout and then worked on some outside trimming.  This work could be done everyday. 

After lunch, I was reading in my hammock on the beach.  I felt the slightest tap on the edge of my hammock.  There joining me was a nice green anoli.  He was a good sized one.  He walked along the edge of my hammock and every once in awhile stopped to look at me.  I talked to him and he would cock his head trying to understand my gibberish.  We had such a nice time! 

We made a quick trip to our tiny grocery store.  No bananas, a couple cartons of eggs left that have a couple days left before expired, sandwich meat that is outdated, no milk, no yogurt.  This is hard!  When we got back to the house, I got in the water.  I forgot all about our sad little store. 

Saturday, February 23, 2019

Tonight I fixed chicken fajitas for dinner and boy were they yummy.  I wish we could catch some of these roosters roaming around our island and cook them for dinner.  All of a sudden we have a lot of chickens!  They are just wanting to be a free meal!  Ha!

Today was a great day!  The weather was spectacular and I am just happy to be here.  This afternoon, we went snorkeling.  We went to the bloody bay wall but down to a different area.  The coral was so beautiful.  Our coral is alive and healthy.  The coral off of Florida is pretty much dead now.  We are doing everything we can to keep our coral healthy. 

These two conch got turned upside down.  Richard dove down and righted them.  Poor guys.

Thursday, February 21, 2019

It was a beautiful day today here on Little Cayman.  This morning, I tidied up the beach.  The famous sticker removal job.  Of any work one can do, that is the worst!  I can cut brush in the jungle, move heavy rocks, rake dinner plate size leaves...nothing compares to sticker removal from sand.  It must be done.  I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel in the sticker maze.  Each year it is less of a problem.

This afternoon, I celebrated this glorious day in the water.  How lucky am I!!  This evening we went to a presentation on Mercury levels in fish.  It was presented by Dr. Cecelia Chen from Dartmouth College.  She is working with the CCMI research lab on Little Cayman.  When we got home we spent some time enjoying the beautiful starry sky.  Soon the bright moon will rise. 

We have finally found a few geckos on our property.  What a find!  This morning, a very large iguana named Lionel, visited us.  He brought with him two very young iguanas.  One was very small, and the other just a little bit bigger.  This is good news.  We want to have a good population of rock iguanas. 

Our new chest freezer is now safely installed in our storage room.  It arrived on the barge with no issues.  Now I can stock up on food when they have something in our tiny store.  We are really accumulating things on this island.  The freezer will be another thing to do when we leave in April.  It will have to be defrosted and cleaned too.     

Wednesday, February 20,2019

This morning I did my workout and it was a hot day for it.  Boy, did I sweat!  I did a load of laundry and other house work.  Doesn't take long to get things done here as this is not a huge house.  I also spent time enjoying the beach so I guess one could say, I get easily side tracked! 

Last night, I was in a deep sleep when I was rudely awakened by heavy rain blowing in the windows.  2:30 in the morning and I fly out of bed to close windows! Our cisterns are full again!  It is so strange how these rains show up out of nowhere.  Very different that Iowa.  As long as I wake up to sunshine, I am fine with an overnight rain shower. 

After lunch, we put my kayak in the back of the truck and headed to the north side.  It was time to do some lobstering.  We snorkeled the reef looking for them.  We put a rock anchor to secure the kayak.  This will be used to haul our mighty load of lobster to shore.  I saw tons of colorful fish and beautiful coral.  I did not see a single lobster!  Richard and Mark both saw a little one.  It was a wonderful time.  It was fine to not get a lobster.  We see really giant lobster when we are in protected waters.  It is like they know to stay where they are safe from us predators. 

Cutie Pie continues to hang out here on our property with us.  I'm so glad he is here yet.  The little bananaquits are loving our water on the porch.  The geckos are gone.  Boy do I miss them.  I hope something is done with all the feral cats on the island.  What a shame!  In just a couple years they took over. 

Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Hello paradise!  It was a beautiful morning so I went on a super long bike ride.  Then I lounged on the beach until lunch time.  What a bum I have become! 

We have the most beautiful moon rise again tonight.  I keep trying to get a good photo.  It was so orange and gigantic coming up right on the edge of the coconut tree.  I will always remember it as my pictures just do not make the grade. 

Tonight's moon rise!  It looks like the sun is coming up!  Crazy!

Monday, February 18, 2019

It was another perfect day in paradise.  I was tempted to sleep in this morning as we were out last night.  There was a fund raiser for the Little Cayman Museum and everyone on the island was there.  They were auctioning off photographs.  They were all spectacular and one could spend a tremendous amount of money bidding on them.  I did not!  I did try at the raffle though.  Before we went to the "affair" some friends had us and two other couples over for drinks and hors d'oeuvres.  We sat on their porch looking over the water.  It was a lot of fun!  They had hors d'oeuvres at the fundraiser too.  Really fancy ones. 

We got home late last night and went down on our beach.  There was a little breeze and it was so very nice.  I could have spent the whole night out there. 

Tonight there is a full moon and it is so bright.  I took a photo, but my camera skills are lacking. 

We picked up our mattress yesterday.  It is the wrong one!  This is such a total nightmare!  I called the store and they said it is not worth sending back.  They will have someone they know come pick it up and they are sending us the correct one.  They will pay my shipping fees for the wrong one also.  I must have spent $100 on phone calls trying to get this all figured out!  What a riot!! 

I tried to get a shot of the moon behind the coconut tree from the window.  Note quite right!

Watching the sunset from a hammock on the beach.

Our boat and our beach in the background.  Notice the beach chairs and house behind.

Good night moon!