Magic Light Time & One More Thing

Magic Light Time ~ Winter

I'm always saying (to myself) 'This is my favorite time of day!'. Maybe it is dawn, maybe it is dusk. Maybe it is 3 in the morning and the electric is out island wide, silent except for lapping water, rustling leaves, a few birds. Yesterday, Magic Light Time was my favorite time of day. A small mangrove island I call Iguana Island, for the obvious reason, cast its shadow, splitting the end of the day light on the water. The hillsides were gilded while a massive cloud took over the sky. 

At the end of the yard, the bay was molten gold. A sea of gold. Take that, Midas.

Magic light time doesn't last long, scarce minutes. It changes everything it touches, which is everything. You can bathe in it.

It fades, it flees slowly, and poof. It's gone. 

Cwim plays rock the balance beam waiting for me to come up from the dock. Surely it is dinner time.

And one more thing. A letter from Helena to all of us here on Culebra, to all of us who love Culebra. Every line is truth, yet I don't know how words alone can express the bigger truth of the strain that is put on some incredibly dedicated people here, doing their best to deal with an un-pretty reality of our daily lives, particularly their daily lives. Capturing and fostering strays, ferrying them back and forth to the vet - it isn't unusual to have this happen a few times a week, a day of life spent to save an animal - on a bare bones budget that often has them reaching into their own pockets. Even saints get tired.

The Mayor needs to respond, ACDEC needs to respond. The breaking point has been reached. The helpers need help. Now. Please add your voices to Animal Welfare of Culebra. Get on the phone, encourage the powers that be to use that power, for the good of the animals, for the good of Culebra. Thank you, Helena. Thank you, volunteers. Thank you, people willing to act. Thank you in advance, Mayor Solis and the government of Culebra.

Thousands of dogs wander the streets and beaches of Puerto Rico every day because they have nobody to care for them. We have the same situation in Culebra. 

Packs of abandoned animals search for food, water and human compassion. Many of them are un-neutered, malnourished discarded pets that breed. There is a whole new generation of wild dogs living at the dump site above Tamarindo. They frequent Flamenco Beach, and often in search of food, kill feral cats who live there.

Animal Welfare of Culebra is doing all it can to rescue abandoned animals, often in desperate need of veterinary service. A few dedicated volunteers can only do so much. We don’t have a resident vet on Culebra so volunteers are making several trips to Fajardo every single week to help rescued animals.

If Flamenco beach is Culebra’s pride and joy as well as island’s bread and butter that attracts numerous tourists every year, what will happen if tourists and locals alike get attacked by hungry packs of animals? Do we actually need to wait for a child to get bitten by a wild animal before we actually do something about it?

We need a sustainable and humane Animal Welfare program to be fully supported by Culebra’s local government. Please help! Take a minute, have friends and family call Mayor Ivan’s office as.

The more of us call, the greater are our chances for help.

THANK YOU.

1 787 742 3521 (Linda Cavalla is Mayor Ivan’s secretary)

email: alcaldecul2013@gmail.com

and

ACDEC (open 7:30-3:30) Director: Cindymar Villanueva 
1 (787) 742-3525 (Yvette is the receptionist)
adculebra@gmail.com

Have a willing Wednesday. Do something wondrous.

Magic Light Time

No matter where you live, unless you can't get the sun to stream near your sky right before sunset (and I'm sorry if that is your situation), magic light time makes everything more beautiful. And so it was this afternoon.

Earlier, out of almost nowhere one of the radar bits turned into a rain on us. First glittering in the sun while I played with the dinghy engine, in drops that looked like 1/2 inch slashes of wet light, so individual you could almost count them. They felt good after a hot day at the cart, like someone holding a hose on mist a long way off and only the last of it reaching my skin. I walked in it to Genesis to see if they had the spark plug I needed, but alas, no...out of 30 or so! He'll get them for me though, next week. Once home, the rain got more intense and I decided to concentrate on what to make for dinner, day 2 of eating down the house.

I had some leaf lettuce and eggs to make a salad (after my leftovers from the pasta/chicken for lunch, I wasn't hugely hungry). Best of all, I had a little jar of bacon grease put away from one of those times I got a craving for bacon, twice a year or so. No bacon but who needs it when I had the grease? Get it smoking hot - I sauteed some minced onions and garlic while it was heating - and drizzle in a beaten egg or two. The egg blows up, light and feathery. Now work fast. Take it off the heat, adding a good splash of vinegar - plain cider or white is fine, I happened to have some tarragon vinegar so I used that. Dump the mix onto the lettuce, add a pinch of salt. Mix it up, with your hands is best. The lettuce wilts down, the sharpness of the vinegar wafts up, mixed with the bacony grease smell and it is time to eat. I tossed on a few mini purple basil leaves. This is one of the few things I make that has to be eaten right away to have it at its best. So I did!

(right before mixing)

While I was eating out in the gazebo, I noticed magic light time was approaching. The rain had stopped. I got my camera and took a photo of what first drew my eye to the light. The mangroves have pretty much circled in my little dock making a good frame for viewing.


Walking out on the dock I got dessert in the form of a double rainbow out the bay. Joy! And another hit of gold. This all happened in about four minutes...magic light time isn't called magic for nothing!



Full on Saturday night...