Poolside Crock Pot

Our power's been out so we've had to resort to using an outlet up the hill at the landlord's pool.

Richmond Update

Our avocado tree has sprouted its first limbs!

Fancy

The Corwith Cramer and Roseway have stopped by to visit.

These, we can't afford.

Still Daydreaming

This is Gizmo.

We might be able to afford it.

We might not.

Jump Up

Jump Up is our quarterly celebration during which Christiansted is blocked off

for dancing in the streets

and steel pan orchestras.

This time it was also the first appearance of Christmas lights on palm trees

and light posts.

I think maybe the snowflake is taking things a little too far.

Thanksgiving Surprise

After a delicious Thanksgiving dinner

the younger folk opted to walk it off a bit

with a hike up to the lighthouse

for the sunset.

Kept it classy with an un-boxed bag of wine.

Then got to see a green flash!!!

Plenty to be thankful for around here!

Well Okay Then

The Result of Seven Months of Effort

The only picture yet in which a mongoose is perceivable.

Its Been Stormy A Lot Lately

Apparently its causing me to go grey.

Almost Missed It

Foiled Again

On our visit to find an apartment back in February we made the hike to Analy Bay

Today we made the trip again with some friends.

It makes for some nice photo ops.

At the end of the trail is a beautiful pebble beach.

At the end of the beach is the tide pool, but once again we made the hike on a day that the waves were too high to reach the pool.

So we went to the other end of the beach for some picturesque snacking before hiking back.

A most pleasant failure.

P.S.- Second (or maybe 3rd) hand "river shoes" do not constitute proper footwear for this hike.

They are not up to the challenge.

Sometimes

its still hard to believe

we live here.

No Fair

Sailboat sinks. Owner abandons it. Handy guy who would love to salvage a boat and renovate/restore looks into it- finds out there's an $18K lien on it.

It'll likely be scuttled.

Place Holder

more about this soon come

We Got Our Beaches Back!

Its deep and fluffy like ankle-deep snow!

This season's storms (most notably Earl) stripped nearly all of the sand from the beaches on the western side of the island.
A big slow swell for the last few days has pushed a lot of sand back where it belongs! In fact the ridge on the left of this picture is where the beach stopped last week. The woman sitting on the sand would've been 3 or 4 feet under water.

Its a good time to visit.

Spelling

We spent far too long looking for a misspelled word.

We Got Our View Back!

After 7 months the jungle was creeping up the hillside and starting to block us into our little yard, but today a crew of 8 guys came and chopped back the weeds.
Its like we're on top of the world!

Now I just hope we don't slide down the hill next time it rains.

Mid-November

Time to clean the pool.

What A Sufferation

When cabin fever goes wrong....

Is It Over Yet?

After days of rain, small land slides, severe flooding, a bridge collapse, half of a road collapse, and at least one person who didn't read yesterday's post it was nice to see some sunshine today.

Then it rained all night.

Don't Drown

From NOAA-

Tomas

Its been a rainy few days as Tomas has done a wide lap around us- never close enough to be a worry, but close enough to send plenty rain and waves.

I'm thinking I need to find a boogie board or surf board for weather like this.

If we can't dive, we can surf, right?

.

Speaking of, hopefully the weather's getting all of this rain out of its system because we've got a pair of sofa surfers flying in next Thursday!

Lionfish Tournament

The waves on Saturday ruined our chance to be part of this weekend's Lionfish Tournament. Lisa and I had planned to go hunting after I got the boat put away, but we got word that the near-shore visibility had dropped to near-zero.

The other participants killed 12 before things went bad and took them to Coconuts on the Beach for the weigh-in.

This blurry fish won the prize for biggest at 251 grams.

And you might think this guy was smallest


but you'd be wrong.
This tiny fish took the prize for smallest weighing in at just 2.1 grams!

The larger fish were cleaned and cooked into Lionfish Fritters. They were quite tasty and may turn out to be a viable menu item.

Now the goal is to keep hunting them and stop them from growing to breeding size and beyond. The Lionfish I saw daily while working in North Carolina were big enough to make make proper filets!

Let's hope filets stay off the menu here.