24 December 2011

"Die Hard"

     Home less than a week to grey skies, falling weather, freezing temperatures, good wine, and a decent steak.   
     My landlady/attorney/friend said to me, at 5:30 on the morning I left Bluefields, "I'm not going to even say goodbye.   You're just going to Virginia for a visit.  This is your home now."
     But here I am with my dogs and cats and birds and three months of dog hair and dust.   Christmas is tomorrow.   Tonight I'm going to watch the all time, best ever Christmas movie.   "Yippee ki-yay, motherfucker!"

22 December 2011

Our small canal, one year later...

     Take a ride down the canal at False Bluff out into Smokey Lane Lagoon...





20 December 2011

Little papayas, big papayas

     The papaya trees were planted from seed less than a year ago and are already loaded with fruit.   
     The smaller, round papayas are about the size of softballs.   They cling to the green tree trunks like Christmas ornaments and are picked and eaten as soon as they turn gold in color.   The white flowers, that also cling to the trunks of the trees, are very fragrant.

     The other variety of papaya growing at False Bluff is much larger and hangs from the tree trunk until showing streaks of yellow near the bottom (most of them weigh more than a beagle).   The fruit is then picked, the top and bottom sliced off, and multiple shallow cuts made in the rind, top to bottom, so that the ripening fruit can 'bleed' and finish ripening:  after four or five days it's turned almost completely yellow.  Then peeled like a big fat apple, it's cut into bite-sized pieces.   Delicious.............








03 December 2011

Paint

     My history with paint has been a litany of white:  linen, celery salt, eggshell, sand dollar, ivory, cotton boll, cream, white dove...   
     There's always a white I haven't used yet.  
     But recently I spent days dipping a brush into a can of paint labeled 'Flamingo' and carefully applying the bright pink color to woodwork.   I may need to go into therapy when I return to Virginia, but right now I'm going to buy another couple of gallons of this stuff.