mono monday

Sorry but this was just one of those Mondays that had the word q u i e t all over it. I'd go through the day, but I'd hate for you to fall asleep over my post, so I won't. Suffice to say, as I don't get bored, it was a close call. The most exciting thing was going home in my dinghy. With white caps on the bay, I was on one side soaked by the time I got home - but since it was pretty hot today, that felt good. Then I moved fenders around. Then I actually managed to clean off the porch shelf. Yeah, like that. This is NOT the shelf I cleaned off...I'll take a daytime shot and see if it's any better than a nighttime shot. Which was about as thrilling as actually doing it. No...it was much less thrilling. This is the little shelf above my laundry sized outdoor sink. It is how I wished my whole life looked right now. Very Japanese; simple and uncluttered. That should last about 3 days. If nothing else, the lizards won't let it stay this way long... The mangoes are from the firemen across the street from the cart. They are wonderful. Yes, both. I'm not sure where I got the woodcut, or maybe it was here when I showed up...but it makes me happy. If you remember Dustin and his boat, it's a lot like that one.


So you can imagine my joy when this little trivia tidbit hit my inbox! I could read and watch and smile with small happiness that there are sillier things in the world than I imagined on my most cynical days. Enjoy.

My big deal right now is to lure local chickens into the coop. I've decided I'm never going to get to the big island to buy any, so why not? Right now there is a mother hen with about 8 baby babies. They are too small and can escape under little edges of the coop and even though Mom's been inside the coop with them to eat outer lettuce leaves etc. she scares the crap out of me being protective of her babies. I mean, she's got CLAWS! that most parts of my body have no interest in getting acquainted with.

But there are four mid-size chicks, post mama time, who have an intrepid leader (translate as brave and stupid - I'm nicking her Quiznos 1 and hoping it's a her), bringing them closer and closer to me every day to eat the feed I'm lacing the path to the coop with. I feel like Natasha from Bullwinkle, and I'm enjoying every minute of it (the cat is my Boris; we snicker together in the gazebo as our plan unfolds).

Note: Just because I don't do bored doesn't mean my version of entertainment meets some sort of excitement standard. I mean, I DO live here, ya know!

So I decided to put a photo up for the blog because...I don't know, it looked sort of empty there. A decision fueled by the cat laying on the keyboard, nudging for scratches in all the wrong places. As with a few zillion people, I don't care much for photos of myself, not being one of those photogenic sorts (best to believe that than to deal with the reality of oh dear god, I look like that?). But I do like the cat's looks, so here is what came out of the series of more than a few, whittled down.

How the cat and I look at the world most of the time

How the cat and I feel after we look at the world most of the time

How the cat and I agree, screw it, we're going to enjoy ourselves anyway,
most of the time - who am I to resist her grin?

Tidbits and the other thing

A couple of times a year this flower blooms in the 'trees' that mingle with the mangroves

I read about a study today that says it is possible that 5 cups of coffee a day could help with avoiding Alzheimer's, and maybe even bring back the memory somewhat. Of course, it's early days, but if I can remember, I think I'll give it a try. I rarely drink it anymore, and I'm not sure why except that I kept forgetting to buy milk...hmmmm.

As for whatever I was going to do with the veggies for the Friday post...I still haven't done that but they seem to be disappearing anyway...mainly in sandwiches of oatmeal bread with onions and provelone and sprouts and leaf lettuce...some leftover marinated tofu...but there may still be hope, I'm NOT putting yellow squash in a sandwich!

Maybe it's the heat, but for some reason I'm sleeping more than normal and waking up feeling great for about two hours. Then, suddenly, I'm yawning and know I could very easily nod off at the cart...crossword or project in hand. For someone not used to being 'sleepy' it's a little strange. So if you see me at the cart with my head on my own shoulder and slightly drooling, please wake me gently...thank you!

Here are some photos of what has been going on the last couple of days up until right now! One of the big iguanas was doing the stroll through the yard. The cat caught sight of it and went into huntress mode...for about two steps. Once the iguana twigged onto her, he was doing the stiff arm in her direction. She curled up under a chair and went to sleep. Smart cat.








Today was our patron saint day...the Virgen del Carmen, who is the patron saint of mariners, as well as being the Virgin Mary, which, if you are Catholic, would sort of make her Mom of the World, making her quite the busy woman. Her actual feast day is the 16th of July, but...she was celebrated here today. The Virgen even has her own facebook page, which I 'm sure explains all about the multi-faceted Virgin. No, I'm not kidding...she really does have a page.





Our own Carmen (one of them!), Carmen Rosa, was supposed to remind me of when this was happening....she did, as she and some friends passed under the bridge. Not QUITE the in-time-for-some-planning reminder I was looking for - we'll have to work on that. She was a bit of the tail end herself so maybe she's not drinking her coffee either...


I've been wanting to make banana bread for awhile and every time I think I will, I find some other thing I forgot to buy to make it. But today everything came together so now there are two lovely loaves of banana/mango/ginger/coconut bread for Treat of the Day tomorrow. Yum & yippie!


To bed, to sleep, to look forward to Monday!

WIT...F catchup and Saturday misc (including Terruno addresses!)

W.I.T...F. is going veggie guy dependent today. So, hopefully whatever I see there will be inspiring, along with whatever is already in the house. It's not quite like doing a Use It Up campaign (more on that later) but close enough for horseshoes.

Well, that is how I was going to start the post yesterday but things happen...what happened yesterday is that with my bag full of veggies in tow, I got to do some prepping at Susie's in the afternoon...into the early evening and my tired self had about enough energy to take a shower, eat a sandwich and read 3 pages of my book before crashing deep into dreamless land. Soooooo....

First things first. In my email was the address needed to send your letters of opinion and comment to the powers that be making deciisions on the Terruno project. This is VERY important so if you have an opinion and can respectfully and strongly state your case, please please please do so!

"Hi MJ, I'm copying and pasting the address and the reference to the case that has to be included. The 15 calendar days to submit end on the 22nd. Make sure you send a hard copy by mail with return receipt request."

Ing. Héctor Morales Vargas

Presidente

Junta de Planificación

Centro Gubernamental Minillas

Ave. De Diego, Pda. 22

PO Box 41119

San Juan, Puerto Rico 00940-1119

ASUNTO: Consulta Número 2007-77-0047-JPU

Barrio Playa Sardinera II del Municipio de Culebra

Estimado señor Presidente y miembros de la Junta:

[your letter and signature follows here]

Next!

Here are some photos from the veggie stand yesterday - Luckily I'd imposed a budget on myself (a nice way of saying my eyes would have been much bigger than my ability to use what I wanted to buy - which was close to everything).






If you have awesome farmer's markets where you live, don't take them for granted. Here, this is like manna. Yes, it's more expensive. But it's HERE! And even more than that, these folks are consistent, bringing us an opportunity every Friday (or according to holiday schedule). I know I've mentioned this before but it's worth another mention, just because.

I'll work with what I bought later on today and post then. Now it's time to make some banana bread and go water the gardens, sort of but not at the same time.

Happy Saturday!

Last second additions and corrections:

The Coqui Fire anniversary party is going to be held Friday the 17th rather than Saturday, due to a conflict in schedules somewhere, so re-mark your calendar if you were planning on it.

Here is a partial list from Zain Deane with more festivals around Puerto Rico this month, starting with today - because if you didn't go to the other ones starting from the first, it's too late anyway! His site has the links turned on.

July is a month of festivals in Puerto Rico. For one, it's a good time to be a patron saint, with several towns celebrating their chosen saints. There are also homages to hammocks, towns, and even film. But the biggest event of the month is all about salsa.

Highlights:

• The Puerto Rico Salsa Congress is the biggest salsa event in the world, and takes place from July 25-August 1.
• One of the the largest artisan fairs on the island comes to Barranquitas from July 14-16.
• The La Parguera Film Festival, featuring Italian and Puerto Rican cinema, takes place in Lajas from July 24-August 2.

Events Calendar:

• July 6-15: Barceloneta follows suit with a weeklong festival for its patron saint, the Virgen del Carmen, the patroness of fishermen.


• July 11-14: Cidra has its town festival, with five days of music, food, and its highly anticipated crowning of the festival's queen.


• July 11-20: Cataño goes all out for its patron saint, the Virgen del Carmen, with nine days of festivities.


• July 13-15: La Virgen del Carmen gets more love from Arroyo.


• July 14-16: Barranquitas is the place to be for arts and crafts. The Feria Nacional de Artesanías is one of the biggest annual artisan fairs in Puerto Rico, bringing together more than 200 artists.


• July 15-19: Vieques throws its Fiestas de Pueblo, or town festival, with 5 days of festivities including music, contests and food.


• July 18-23: The Adjuntas patron saint festival honors San Joaquín.


• July 18-27: Fajardo isn't done celebrating, and hosts another festival for its patron saint, Santiago Apóstol.


• July 18-27: The Fiesta del Pueblo de Guánica, in Guánica, of course, is a very popular regional festival in Puerto Rico's Southeast.


• July 22-27: The town of Aibonito honors its patron saint, Santiago Apóstol.


• July 22-27: Loíza has an interesting and symbolic festival, known as the Fiestas Tradicionales de Santiago Apóstol, which celebrates the African heritage of the town and the island. You can catch folk and religious ceremonies, including costumes, masks and bomba dancers.


• July 24-26: San Germán's patron saint festival commemorates San Germán.


• July 24-August 2: Lajas kicks off the La Parguera Film Festival, featuring indie and foreign movies celebrating Italian and Puerto Rican Film. For more information, check out their blog.


• July 25-August 1: Isla Verde brings salseros from around the world for the annual Puerto Rico Salsa Congress. Now in its 12th anniversary, the congress features exhibitions by professional and international dancers, nightly dances, workshops, and some of the best salsa bands on Earth.


• July 28: The Carnaval de Fajardo in Fajardo is a combination artisan fair and carnival.

Excellent storm

Out of seemingly nowhere, we had a wonderful long rain(s) yesterday that turned into a thunder and lightning show as the evening went on. It stopped just in time for a sky show at sunset, the air purple and sun rays bouncing off breaking up clouds, making sky paintings in the cool, fresh air left from the storm. Glorious!



This morning one cloud seemed determined to keep my attention as I bailed out the dinghy....






Unfortunately, the way these photos show up here, unless something happens when I actually post them, are a pale shadow compared to the real thing - or even the real photo!

Why our world is in trouble and a couple of corrections

Of course I'm in love with Williams-Sonoma - the catalog, that is. Lots of good eye candy (sort of like guys might look at skin mags, I look at kitchen gadget catalogs...lust in my racing heart). At least I get recipes out of the catalog. N...no, I'm not going any farther with this analogy, as I sense that way lies madness. Seriously.

But, I must say, even if I had all the dollars in China, and god knows they've got a handle on our dollars, I'd never order this 'avocado masher', on sale for 15 bucks! And I tremble to think about who does order this. And to carry that to the nth degree, if YOU ordered this, you just wasted perfectly good money. You DO know that that is why god made forks, to mush avocados into guacomole. Comprende? If you have money like that to waste, send it to Feeding America (old name: Second Harvest). Really. You'll still be doing a foodie thing, but in the right place for the righter reasons.

Next. In my post on the Terruno meeting I put up their slide on Fish and Wildlife, which included the, to me, offensive word, collaboration. They used that to imply that F & W was sanctioning what they were doing. Well, I found it pretty revolting to believe and asked a bit and found they do NOT sanction anyone.

These are parts of the very qualified response I got:

"What they are doing is responding to a request for biological consult, like they do to any person who asks for it regardless of their economic status or development/non-development plans. They can't discriminate when someone asks for services which they are mandated to provide."

"...called the office in Boquerón to ask about this "contract" [the one that the Terruno lawyer made sound like it was an exclusive with them and their project] which is really a loose plan to grow more cactus and plant it in other places, just like they would do with anyone in the world."

Point is, facts are like statistics, they can be twisted any way the user wants. The facts of FWS *supporting* the Terruno project are a twisted version of the truth (and why am I not truly surprised?). So I gladly submit a correction for the erroneous impression I made.

The other error could be my assuming (and in this case, it's just too obvious to pun out on this one, so I won't) that the big guy is a Dubon. Not the fat guy who is a "very serious" person, he IS a Dubon. No, I'm talking about the big guy holding his nose. I don't know where I got that impression or if it is wrong or right, but I am hearing I might be wrong, so sorry about that! Maybe it was the birds of a feather thing. I will try to find out who is who and make it known here.

Quantifier: I rarely have a problem with being corrected but in this case, truthfully, I could maybe care less, but I'm not sure how. I feel this is a group steeped in slimy greed - and after yesterday, I'll go so far as to use the words disrespectfully evil - and the same brush colors all of them, related or not. Shame is not a word these people give a toss about, so I'm just making myself feel better here... But facts are facts and I try to adhere to them, so...I shall.