Lemongrass harvest

Lemongrass is easy to grow,
makes a tea that is good for you,
tastes delicious, and provides a fragrance
that soothes, revives and repels
mosquitoes.
























It does not give these gifts kindly,
the leaf edge
does cut like a razor blade,
albeit anti bacterial, anti fungal, antiseptic.

























Effective against fever, flatulence, inflammation,
cramps, stress and indigestion,
toxicity and hypertension.

Trueway Cobway

Washday

These were drying in the sun on our way home from work today.

Mango Magic

After a morning spent weeding, there is nothing
quite like sucking on a Julie mango, in the shade.

My Music

I love music. I love how it revives me, moves me, uplifts and surprises me. Life without music is no life at all. I love soca and reggae, I can live without Celine Dion and most of the Top 40 but there are times that I long to hear something other. Not being in possession of a credit card or a budget sufficiently large enough to purchase C.D's, or any idea of what I wanted, I had, until recently, a bit of a dilemma. How was I to give my consciousness a little shift, for those times in the studio, when ideas are brewing, or when I want to drown out the sound of the cartoons from someone else's T.V., or when the heated, rum enhanced, discussion,

"Watch, le' me tell ya sumthin'"

flies in from the road, at the very moment when the artwork was balancing on a tightrope of completion, or what about when I just feel to sit and sip on a glass of wine and gaze across the valley?

Little did I know that help was at hand.

Free Albums Galore is an excellent blog that brings you succinct, interesting album reviews, drawing from a truly eclectic mix. I really like the format and the download is free, simple and safe, and doesn't require me to know one end of an ipod or an MP3 player, from the other.

Today, I chose;

which you can read about and download here.

At the Lisztonian website, you can enjoy

"free classical piano music from popular composers and works".

Once again, this is a secure site, safe and easy to use but the interesting thing about this site is the pianist. Jeremiah Jones is hoping to buy his own Steinway. I hope this mention will excuse my lack of financial contribution, but for anyone else who feels the need for a personal pianist, in their own home, I can truly recommend Jeremiah's recordings.

Of all the breadfruit trees in all the world and you had to fall out of mine.

These two fell out of the breadfruit tree today. They are
temporarily housed in this little cage, to protect them from
the yard fowl and the cat, but I am hoping their mother will
return to claim them. The nest is not their own. They are,
approximately, 2 -3" long, have black and tan wing feathers
and their bills are slightly hooked. Baby ground doves
perhaps?
What to do? If no birds come to claim them,
what and how to feed them? I like birds, but
not in the house, owing to a bad experience
with next door's budgie, as a child.

St. George's.

Having paid the light and phone bill we enjoy
the shade of the Sendall Tunnel, on our way
to pay the water bill.
























On our return, school is out and we take a
five and drink a soda and watch this building
that once was known as 'Our Place', on the
corner of Halifax and St John's Street,
























where jazz once played, with Preston Holas
and Bumpy Jones, where Dave Stewart
once jammed with them, as Jerry Hall looked on.

Weather

There

is

a

palpable

change,

as

the

rain clouds

threaten

the

dominance,

of

the

tail end

of

the

dry season

sun.

Forest canopy

The only place to be, when waiting for a rain to fall , awash

in waves of deep heat, on this, the first day of hurricane season.

Osprey nest at Dyfi junction?

My daughter told me to watch out for this,
on the train journey from Aberystwyth, in Wales,
to Neston, on the Wirral.

(The usual apologies for the quality of the pictures.

The nest is on top of the pole.)

Herring gulls nesting on a garage roof in Aberystwyth.

A Red Kite was seen above the town on Sunday morning.

I am astonished at the seeming influx of magpies, crows
and wood pigeons since I left the U.K. The wood pigeons
seem to be thriving, much bigger than I remember.

My Beautiful Mother

My
mother
was
a
beautiful,
special,
person,
who was
funny,
entertaining,
elegant,
extraordinarily
brave,
very
loving
and
forever
young.

I am
going
to
England
for a while.

My Curly Headed Baby

For my Mum who died yesterday

Tarrus Riley -

Enjoy.

On the corner of Hillsborough and Grenville Street

I sometimes
forget,
especially
when in
St George's,
in the heat
of the day,
on my way
to the
bus stand,
dodging
the traffic
and
the drains






















to stop

and look

and see.

It is my
ignorance
of history,
or former
occupancy,
that shames
my
latent
curiosity.

Caught in the act.

The face

of

the thief

who

sneaked

a bite

of

my lunch,

mistaking

Marmite

for

chocolate

spread.

Tillandsia

Cattle Egret

Bloody hell,

there's a lot

more to this

birding lark,

ha ha,

no pun intended,

than I thought.

Having been

entranced

by Darrel's

superb

photographs

at

Green Withens Birding,

I thought I'd

give it a go,

after all it

can't be that

difficult can it?

Having spotted the birds, which took a while, there was the little

problem of i.d., and as for the shots?

Usually, if close enough, the noise of the lens extending, scared

them off, or, if further away, it took me so long to find the

zoomed in spot, in the camera window, they'd flown long since.

I despaired, this was hard. I was miserable, how the hell some

people manage to actually draw birds is beyond me.

Rescue was at hand. Just as I was about to give up, I read

this at Blyth Birder, made me feel much better.

Banana

Produce

Yesterday,

I

was,

mostly,

picking

beans

and

cucumber.

Saturdays

are

when

we

go

and

sell

what

we

have.

It

is

also

our

day

out.

Birds in Grenada

Today was
weeding
more tomatoes,
fortunately,
there were
plenty of
diversions.

A new
Antillean
hummingbird
and nest







with
apologies
for the
quality
of the
photographs













but,
just to
give some
idea of
the size,
here is an
old,
abandoned
nest,
next to
a Coco Cola
screw cap.







A party
was held
by the
Smooth
billed
Anis
in the
bamboo












and
a
Grenadian
fly catcher,
on the
bamboo
stick.

Click and
zoom please.

All
corrections
on
i.d.
welcome.

Bordering on Birding.

Corn Buck
is situated
above the
waterfalls.
We park
close to the
track that
crosses
the river.
A pair of
blackfaced
grassquits
welcome us.
They are
fascinated
with their
reflection
in the wing mirrors.

Still from
the van,
a pair of
Lesser Antillean
Tanagers,
in the peas
tree.




Honestly.









A male
and female.
















Aaah,

Zooms
has
found
the
zoom.













A male
Lesser Antillean
Bullfinch
















shows
his true
colours.
















In
the garden
a
Zenaida
dove














and an
Antillean
crested
hummingbird.
A
camera shy
Grenadian
flycatcher
was also,
momentarily,
present
and an
unseen bird,
that sounded
exactly like
a phone ringing,
had me
confused.

For Chocoholics

There are
still some
cocoa trees
remaining
in Corn Buck,
and despite
years of
neglect
and the
passage of
Ivan,
the remaining
few,
valiantly,
continue
to bear.



The pods
display
beautiful
colours,
from the
deepest mauve,
(not ready yet)
through to the
red
and
orange
and yellow
of maturity.






They have
to be cut
from the tree,
as they do not
fall
by their own
volition.
When they are
cracked open,
with a cutlass,
a sweet, sticky
mass
of creamy beans
is revealed,
which is scooped
out
and left to dry
in the hot sun.


This year,
instead of
taking
the wet beans
to the pool,
we are drying
and, later,
roasting,
them
ourselves.










Hopefully,
this work
in progress
will result
in
our very own
cocoa tea,
or, if I am
really lucky,
chocolate.

Eared Dove

Ross Hill

This is

Ross Hill,

as seen

from

the

shade

of the

Julie

mango

tree.

The

Immortal

Tree

is

in flower,

announcing the arrival of the rainy season.

Acrylic on ply. 12" x 12"

Champions League - Liverpool dump Arsenal in thriller - Yahoo! Eurosport UK

Champions League - Liverpool dump Arsenal in thriller - Yahoo! Eurosport UK

Spoilt child.

It was a measure of how sick you really were, if, as a small child, growing up in the 1950's post war Britain, when your mother was heard to ask,
"Could you manage a dippy egg, with soldiers?"
The proper response, so as not to sound too enthusiastically well,
" I'll try"
would herald the imminent arrival of a tray, (naturally being sick one was confined to bed) upon which would be, a boiled egg in an egg cup, a teaspoon, with which to hit the top of the egg to remove the shell, attendant 'soldiers', (slices of buttered toast cut into strips of a width that could be dipped into the soft yolk once the top of the egg had been removed) and a cup of weak, sweet, milky tea.

I have a tickly cough,
and a bit of a temperature
no egg cups, toast or butter.

Cocoa riggee for Guyana-Gyal

It was fun
yesterday
flying my
cocoa riggee
kite,

that T made

from

a cocoa leaf,

with

dry fig straw

for tail

and

sewing thread

for twine.