Where Was I?

These busy days caught up to me, so I took a little blog break. All is well, life is good!

Right now there is a gorgeous tree in bloom around Culebra. I've seen them big and little, the blossoms bright as the sun...and I mean that! They are such a startling yellow...pow to the eyes. (I went to take a photo of one in my neighborhood, in the yard of a house where I hardly EVER see anyone. Of course, the porch was full of people, so rather than explain that I was not taking a photo of them, but their tree, I decided I'll wait until I see one of the other ones. Semana Santa strikes again!)

The night sky has also been putting on a show. See if you can tell which one is the photo I took. And if you haven't been checking the sky at night, get yourselves out there: it's free, it's beautiful and it's the only sky we've got, so enjoy it!

This is NOT the yellow blooming tree mentioned above. This is my frangipani that, year after year, barely grows but then, with the slightest heavy rain, blooms with these gorgeous flowers. When I got it, the flowers were coral.  Then it didn't bloom for about five years. Now they are this color. Surprises are good. Sometimes.



How are the chicks, MJ? Glad you asked, because they are growing so fast, I can literally see big changes in them every day. See the tail buds? That's new on some of them, moving on from just cute fuzzy butts. A few of them are also showing white/yellow feathers around their eyes. And, I had to amputate a chicken toe. Aiiiiiieeee! Really.

One of the chicks had been standing around with its foot tucked up under it like a flamingo. I wasn't really worried, until she seemed to be sitting down a lot and that toe seemed really swollen. I took her inside and washed her little foot. I could now see that the claw/nail was almost sliced off. Some astringent, some salve and then trying to wrap the toe (which probably isn't really called a toe and which wasn't at all easy - just in case you've ever wondered, hey! how hard could it be to wrap the middle toe of a baby chicken with gauze and tape? Hard.) I put her back in the big pen but the other chicks were bugging her bandage. I moved her to another cage and then she began bugging her bandage. It was still on when, after one more check, I went to bed.

In the morning the bandage was off. Looking at the toe, the swelling had gone down some but it was really looking pretty dead - the claw part, not the chick. I washed it again and decided to just clip it off with some scissors. The teeny toe stub bled a tiny bit. More salve and back to segregation. She is peeping like mad for her sisters, but I'm going to wait and let some more healing happen first.

Send positive vibes her way, she needs them. I, on the other toe, am traumatized for life and nothing will help; don't waste your energy. I'm not posting a photo of Little Stumpy just in case something happens and we get sad. She's about cracker size though, so all would not be lost. Just kidding.

Dinner at Zaco's Taco's with Sue, Alex and Alex's friend Lexie was yum, more yum, really yum - repeat. The pork burrito will let me have lunch for tomorrow. I am as stuffed as that burrito, I'm pretty sure. Must have been the chips.

Our outside table was near Zach's kitchen window. He heard me whinging on about no pork belly (sold out, natch) and surprised me, somehow coming up with a mini pork belly taco; at least I'm 99.9% sure it was pork belly. I'm 100% sure it was incredible, and Sue got her first taste of the addiction. (Would this not make a great birthday cake? So pretty.) Maybe it wasn't just the chips.

Have a free-from-toe-stubbing Thursday! Do something non-traumatic.