A Lot of Flora and a Little Fauna

One of the fun parts of house/pet sitting is getting to see different views than my own, even if my own is ever changing. Whether or not it is a place I've been before there is still a captivating differentness in the sameness. Then again, I'm easily entertained. But I've already mentioned that. More than twice.

The stinky starfish flower before it blooms
Also known as the, get ready...
Carrion Flower, Carrion Plant, Carrion Lily, Toad Cactus, Zulu Giant
or Hairy Giant Starfish Flower

and after
(you can read all about them here)

I'm not sure what the cottony bits are from but it's a good look

Yes, yes, it's phallic. But not in a tempting way.

The orchids are deep in show mode

Cacti in bloom

The fauna! 

Last time I was here there were a lot of pelicans, flying, feeding, diving. This time, nary a one. I think that's a seasonal thing. I hope. I did see some kind of raptor, quite small with gold edged wings, but it was gone long before I could have gotten a photo. I'll never know what it was except to wonder over the memory, in a golden frame.

Sol kept trying yesterday. Over and over and over.

I didn't see this one until late in the day. It was hiding. I can see why.

This sailboat sailed about 10 yards farther and then came into the wind
dropped its sails and motored into the bay

Then the couple on it went for an exploring ride. I thought that was pretty cool.

Last night was another one of those where sleep was elusive. No, I didn't go wrestle with an eel. But I did go outside and look at the moon. 

Don't you just want to touch it? Just once?

It was lightly raining when I woke up this morning (meaning I must have gone to sleep eventually; leave it to a boring book to do what it is intended for). Misty and grey and eventually, the sun came around. Sort of. The day is still deciding what it wants to be when it grows up, as the breeze blows strongly, I can hear thunder somewhere but the sun is (I actually had to go outside and look all around to see if I could see the sun; I can't find it) out there in the wispy clouds hanging in a baby blue sky. Weird.

Apparently good fishing weather though.

I really like tanbark sails. There's just something about them on a classically built boat that completes it. Way out in the misty morning there was a vision gift. 

Thank you!

Because I wanted to see if tanbark was one or two words, I looked it up. Wow! There is quite a bit of heated discussion on various forums about these sails, who knew? Well, probably lots of people know, but I didn't. From their history of canvas being dipped in water colored with bark tannins to the modern day dying methods on contemporary sail materials, it seems to me to end up being a matter of taste and money. But you can decide for yourselves. I just like the look and yes, it is one word. 

Have a free from fear Friday. Do something fervently for the future.

Always and Always, it is the Little Things

From 'The Origins of Moving Day'

Anyone who has ever moved house before (I've read about those people who live in the house they were born in and never move - can't relate) knows the chaos of that pile of 'what the hell did I put in that box marked 'kitchen' that doesn't have kitchen in it'. Along with, conversely, the pleasure of finding one thing often used, not really often seen just because it is so familiar. I'm relearning that and that is good.

Before I came to Culebra, moving was a way of life for me. Circumstances for moving could be boredom, curiosity, some place in some prettier spot, disasters,  relationships formed or undone or any of a few more things. I moved a lot. I became a brilliant packer and organizer of stuff and dragged around things like piles of beach found lumber (and yes, that 'one day' did come and I DID use it) or six sets of china or 30 boxes of books or all my condiments. 

(I finally gave up on the condiments, which made friends really happy since I was an addicted condiment queen. The fridges got smaller, my collections kept being bigger than the food itself. Traveling? Buy local deliciousness in a bottle or tin Addicts always have an excuse.)

Um, I'm digressing aren't I? Ok. That was then, this is now.

What sent me off on this tangent was my orchids. I noticed after I hung them up in their new space that the big purple one, the one I call the Francie orchid because of its big purple blooms, had three new buds on it. And my first thought was, NO IGUANAS!!! Oh my oh my.

Over the course of the last couple of days the buds opened; I think this morning's rain really kicked them into the last spreading of petals, greeting me this morning with a wide open hello. 

"Hello!"

A transplanted white orchid had started blooming before the move and it is still happy. Happy is good.

I use the word transplanted loosely. A stem had broken off and I stuck it in an empty planter with some old leaves. Then I needed rocks to hold the stem up along with keeping the whole thing from flying off the table in any wind. Orchid, she don't care.

Healthy happy roots

I've said before I don't really know much about orchids. I don't. I just spray them with water, tie them to trees, throw them in dirt or lay them on rocks and they grow. The big thing I do know is to have them in filtered light and Culebra is nice that way. There is always something giving shade to hang them from or tie them to and it works. 

So right now, while I'm between hither and yon, my orchids feel like home to me. When the houseboat becomes home, the Francie orchid will move up another hill, the rest will stay here and I will visit them, weirdly enough back where I got them from, two land/home owners ago. Those circle things of life keep on entertaining, though my circles are more like 

Fibonacci Sequence  

which is mathematically beautiful and even though it really is fairly simple it isn't to me. I do understand this though.

Circles and spirals of the fiddlehead.

And if you can understand that, you can understand.

Have a trust the transparent Thursday. Do something tubularly trial-ish.  Then triumph!

That time of year...

In the next week and some, there is a sort of mini exodus from the islands. People are heading to the states to see family and friends or off and away somewhere else, more businesses are closed until the weather cools off and the season begins. It is getting very, very quiet. For those of us not going away, it is sort of the reverse of Spring Cleaning, a time to refresh, renew, repaint and revive ourselves and our belongings. Except it is so hot, it takes three times as long. Which is okay, because we HAVE three times as long!

Today I will start a repaint on the cart. I can't do the front, that is Mark's job, and will wait until November so that the sun won't beat it up before the paint is dry. But I can do some, and I will. Some of the colors are bound to change and change is good. I hope.

As a pale light comes over Culebra, I'm checking out the colors in the yard in the yard for inspiration. Purple and green....hmmmm.

The one orchid blooming is in full glory.

Up on the hill, honeysuckle is growing rampantly

And finally! My sugar cane (3rd attempt) is coming up. Excitimento!

The heat has given the gardens some stress, but hopefully that will be past sooner than later and I can get back to eating tomatoes from the vine.

Good Wednesday to you! Good trip, CH!

When Yesterday is Today (a common Culebra phenomenon)

Saturday morning Carlos the Engineer came by the cart, incognito. In other words, instead of jeans, button down shirt, boots, hard hat and a look of desperation, he had on baggies, a tee shirt, large dark sunglasses, a floppy hat and a huge smile. One source of the smile was that he'd brought "the love of my life" along with him. To go to the beach. To not think about the Project From Hell. But there he was, trying to cross the street from the fire station and he couldn't help himself...he started directing traffic! Sue and I called for him to stop it and come on over. He did, to let me know the bad news, that the crew would be working in the road by the cart on Monday so I'd have to be closed.

After a few deep breaths and really wanting him to go to the beach, I figured I'd go to the big island to see our friend in the hospital and use the day another way. So I did. Except...when I got back there was no crew anywhere doing anything. A call from Carlos confirmed I wasn't not seeing things. Apparently, the foreman's father died...so no one came to work. Don't EVEN ask me about that. My response was to order a Bloody Mary at Mamacita's, believing tomato juice and olives are a wonderful calming combo . Then I opened the cart, sold a bumper sticker to the last remaining person who hadn't gone to the beach already, closed the cart and went to birthday lunch with friends (not my birthday!).

This morning I called Sue (who lives in the house right behind the cart or one might say the cart is before the house) to ask if the crew had recouped enough to be working. She held the phone out...bang bang bang...loud grumble of engines. I had my answer. I'd get to stay home and play.

Which meant, it was time for the games to begin! Jack had bought my new 100' extension cord for the chain saw at Home Depot, Linda delivered it this morning and vrrrrrrroooooommm, baybee!!! Seven years of incredibly irritating tree stumps - if you can call a four foot leftover tree a stump, that kept re-growing new sprouts with the briefest of hint of moisture, are now almost gone. And I was only scared a little, for a second or two. We're talking serious fun here! I have to eke out the pleasure though, so I'll leave the rest for other days.

In other news, life stages continue to abound around me, in every form. Here is a bit on my take of what that means...

I love it when this orchid blooms - now it is truly Spring

I usually see these guys in their strollers...so seeing them walking around with Mom 1 & 2 was a little bit strange, as in, oh my, they aren't babies anymore! They were very good about posing but I think that they were really wanting a Treat of the Day. Sorry, boys! Try again tomorrow!

Finally! Some papaya blossoms that the birds haven't eaten first. So here are all the stages of a papaya coming to being. And nicely, these are at a height I can reach...if I stand on a chair.

This is the CWIM practicing for next year's Kitty Passion Play. She was quite disappointed to only get the part of a regretful prostitute this year but has high hopes for next. In the meantime,she's enjoying Passover a lot.

How hot peppers get hotter

I haven't grown sugar snap peas in decades. I forgot the initial beauty of their gentle curls unfolding, their tendrils reaching. I guess I really didn't believe they'd sprout, so I'll have to plant some more. Why is the garden so magic this year? I have no idea.

Strange...

Obviously I stole this...because I think it might be right up there with one of the weirder things that have made me laugh online. The original page has a quiz and a bunch of ads...so I took the best and left the rest. As they say. After taking the quiz it appears there is a 78% chance that the CWIM is trying to kill me. Frankly, I think that's a wee bit on the high side. Because I believe, with all of my heart, that if she wanted to kill me, I'd be dead. I never really thought about it before...and now I have to purge this from my brain. The rest of me will still be a little worried. Though lucky me, we don't believe in kitty litter around here.



Have I ever mentioned that native Culebrense (as defined from the rest of us who chose to live here) have supernatural powers? I mean, it's other worldly. Stuff that would just go poof to anyone else just...works for born here types. I guess that is why they don't care much about OSHA sorts of things...they assume the rest of us are the same. News flash!!! We're NOT. Here is the latest example.

My little car that broke in the sewer ditch has been sitting in my yard lo these seven or eight months. I cajoled it into a spot to rest, out of the way, until...well, something happened. I finally got a check from the construction company as mentioned before. Not enough to fix the car, but enough to fix my sense of justice. So a couple local folks decided they'd seen my car sit there long enough and said they were going to fix it. Ok. Today they showed up in my yard...with a canister of air (no compressor, it just...worked) they filled the one flat tire. I handed over the key and then realized they weren't planning on towing the car...one was going to drive the car and the other two would follow. I told the (they speak English as well as I speak Spanish...it was entertaining if nothing else) guy planning on driving the car..."You can't drive this car! It won't drive...it's really..." He nodded, yes yes, ok. Then he got in the car, turned it on and drove it away. The last I saw, it was going over the hill, the chase vehicle behind it... I stood in the yard, staring into the setting sun...laughing so hard I was crying. Maybe one day my car will come back. I have no idea where it is. Something happened. Indeed.

I did a lot of transplanting today. My brother sent me a bag of weird seeds and I planted them. Now they are growing and I have no idea what they are. Maybe something recognizable will show up on them one day. Thanks, bro!

I did recognize these orchids though. It's been awhile since the purple ones have bloomed and they are as lovely as ever. Something magical though understandable during yet another day in Paradox.