Flora & Fauna and Look Up!

The other morning it seemed as if everywhere I glanced, something beautiful was in front of me. Well, it was.

There is this crazy flamboyant that, instead of the usual graceful crown arising from a sturdy trunk, grows manically wild, its branches up and down and laying on the ground like the experiment of a crazy Daliesque obsessed botanist on steroids. This is the first time I've seen it blooming grandly. 

The atmosphere continues to produce clouds of whimsical wonder.

Goosey gandering

Bright light, no city

Even the dill was turning water into diamonds

This peahen was out and about finding goodies in the grass

Yesterday at Dinghy Dock I mentioned how spectacular the clouds have been and a couple of people said they'd been sitting there watching the cloud banks form and melt and merge; they had been naming the clouds as they went by. We're an industrious bunch here. Yes we are.

We were also talking about good stories that seem to happen here in a rare but regular flow. Here is one. I needed some scissors yesterday. Well, I'd needed them for a few days but by yesterday, I REALLY needed them. Not hair scissors, not little scissors, but a large pair of sturdy scissors. I went to the school supply store but, I'm guessing, due to the holiday celebrating the birthday of Luis Munoz Rivera - which isn't really until tomorrow but we'd never let that interfere with making a 3 days weekend - it was closed. As was the bank. As was Cheli's.

So I hoped that Randaluz, the ferreteria that sells almost everything including alcohol, would be open and would have scissors. Yes, open. Nope, no scissors. But wait, wait, she gestured. After a brief phone call a pile was dug into and a package of 3 pairs of scissors emerged. Exactly the sort what I needed. She handed me a pair and I asked how much. She said, These are mine, it's nothing. I said, No really, I want to pay, si si si. She said, laughing, no no no. I recovered, remembered where I was and gratefully received the gift. On the way back to feeding my critters I thought, eggs! I bet she'll take eggs! Which she did, with surprised laughter.

It took longer to type this than for it to happen, but sharing it makes it even better, one of hundreds of moments that make Culebra the one I fell in love with when I first got here, a generosity of spirit, a kindness, that never fails to move me, to remind me that despite the things that drive me wild with frustration, the foundation of why I live here is rock solid. Pun intended.

Have a take time to tiptoe through the tropical Tuesday. Do something transcendental.

transcendental

transcendental