Passage Interdit

My boy is full of surprises! Here he is with the Eiffel Tower in the background. How'd that happen? Why, somebody frisked off to Paris without telling his parents, first! I hope he was studying for his French Exam!

Jessie and Bill's Visit

Bob's parents came for a week to help him usher in his 2nd half-century. Bob woke up on his 50th birthday and said his joints hurt. He looked in the mirror and said he looked like hell. I'm sure it was due to having spent the night on the floor, and not his imminent descent into the grave. We had a lovely dinner at Shirley's beach bar and many friends showed up to give him hell.

The next day we took the car ferry over to St. Kitts for a little adventure. Bob's parents hit the casino at the Marriott and came out winners, much unlike their recent trip to Las Vegas. While they flexed the slot machines we got mango smoothies by the pool. Then drove over to Caribelle Batik to get a demo. I was expecting a little sweatshop filled with boiling vats of water and wax, but was astounded to find the most lush garden plantation with a VERY nice batik demonstration and shop. We came back with a dress for Ava (she can't wear it until her birthday, so no picture) and a bit of cloth that I'm supposed to sew into a dress for Ava (but I can't sew, so no picture.)...lunch on the beach and we just pulled onto the ferry right before they raised up the gate.

Ava was devastated to see Jessie and Bill leave, so we threw together an impromtu pool party to take her mind off of her grandparents. That and some homemade ice cream with chocolate syrup for breakfast the next day seemed to do the trick!

Finding Mishka

Those of you who follow the every move of Matthew McConaughey may know that he spent some time in Nevis last year getting to know a reggae recording artist named Mishka, who lives here on the island part time. They developed a friendship and are collaborating on a future album together. Anyway, I have been keeping my eyes peeled for a Matthew sighting, just in case, but ended up stumbling right into Mishka's home! We met his parents, wife and children, and spent some time drinking lemonade and letting Ava play with his kids, who are also homeschooled. It was funny, because I had no idea at the time whose house we were at, even though his mom said her son was a singer and songwriter and artist. It wasn't until I saw him and got his name when I shook his hand that the coin dropped. I thought it was pretty funny. Anyway, I've been playing his music at home for Ava, compliments of www.mishka.com/music ...peace out, doods!

Ava climbs a mountain

Last week we took Ava to White's Beach, which is near the island's racetrack. We drove past the horse stables -the dirt road ran RIGHT behind the stalls-and saw about a dozen horses peeking out. It was a battle of wills to keep Ava in the car--she wanted to go pet ALL the horses. The place looked like a ghost town, but I didn't want to trespass. The beach was deserted and we climbed up the big rocky hill at the end. (Well, Ave thinks she climbed a mountain, but she's not reading this.) She found a goat horn. Yay. There was a little hollowed out area in the rocks at the top and Ava had fun exploring her own personal cave. The view was spectacular from the top! She found a sand dollar on the way back to the car and was thrilled. I think she thinks she can spend it somewhere or something. Probably wants to save up for a sea horse. Looking at the pictures, I remembered the bracelet she is wearing. She made it out of the cardboard strip you tear off the top of a box of Kleenex. And to think I was trying to throw it away! Treasure everywhere.

A lovely bunch of coconuts...

Wow, has it been three weeks? I am the world's worst blogger. And now that I know my photos don't have to be so tiny, but don't know how to make them bigger, I am really starting to question.

Bob's at graduation this evening, so while Ava stuffs her face with popcorn and watches Underdog, I am going to steal a few minutes on the computer.

The weekend after Easter, we spent the better part of two days with our neighbor down the road, Clarastine, while she turned 40 coconuts into three bottles of coconut oil. It was quite an experience! This great-grandmother used a pick ax to open the outer shell, a hammer to open the inner shell, and she DRANK the coconut water out of all 40 coconuts. The next day she was SO pleased to tell me how many times this caused her to use the bathroom. Between bathroom breaks she had chopped all the coconut meat into little chunks, and we spent serveral hours putting this through her food processor. I tried one coconut on the pick ax and about had a heart attack before Clarastine took pity and finished the job. We poured boiling water over the shredded coconut, and then started stuffing and squeezing. Stuffing it into pillow cases and squeezing out the milk. This milk sat in a huge tub (there's Ava with it before it was full) for 8 hours, allowing the fatty "cream" to rise to the top. This was skimmed off and boiled, then strained and bottled. A lot of time and effort, but she sells the oil faster than she can make it, and that is her spending money. Her house is so tiny it reminded me of the Berenstain Bear's tree house, but in miniature. One room divided with walls into three teensy weensy rooms. There is a basement but you have to go outide to get into it, and I didn't see into it. But she has TV with cable, a landline telephone, and the internet! What I thought would be a great coconut learning adventure for Ava turned into her sitting three inches away from the TV watching Wonderpets then roaming the yard picking weird fruits. The yard is lush--coconut, avocado, tamarind, citrus trees, plenty others I didn't recognize. Clarastine eats a lot of the stuff from her yard, including a lot of coconut. I walked home exhausted and felt very lucky to have everything that we do have, and even though I can't wait to move into a larger place, I realized what a PALACE this is compared to her house!

Ava's Special Day

Woke up and there were NO more episodes of House, MD to watch. And there won't be anymore for several more days. Sigh. Ava woke up and not 5 minutes later was in tears because there is no sushi on the island. So, I told her that Surprise! It's your Special Day! Oh, was she thrilled! I work well under pressure; I was sure I could pull something out.


So we slathered on bugspray and suntan lotion, donned hats and sunglasses, packed bottled water, a big handful of the cute Nevisian money and my cell phone and off we went for a Special Day Adventure. We made it to the end of the street before Ava announced that she was hot, her legs hurt and she wanted to go home. So I Special Day Insisted that she press on. We had to stop in every piece of shade to rest and drink water before we made it down to the main road, crossed it and staggered into Nisbet Plantation lobby. This should have been a five minute walk but I think it took us 45. They have games and a "help yourself bookshelf" so we sat in the lobby next to a window and played Jenga, Operation, tic tac toe, etc. I helped myself to a couple paperbacks before we started down to the beach. Ava had perked up by now, and was looking forward to gathering baby coconuts from beneath the palms that line the yard between the hotel and the beach. (It's really pretty--there's a picture on the link down there.) And today did not disappoint; it seemed like each palm tree had a baby coconut under it and Ava was in heaven. She loves these things. They are cute, and she plays with them at home. http://www.nisbetplantation.com/


We were able to find lots of shells on the beach, which was fun. I've never shell-hunted on this beach before, but the winds have been so high there was a lot of ocean debris to poke around in on the shore. We had lunch at their beach bar, and walked home. Of course, by then it was the heat of the day, and uphill, but Ava ran most of the way. We're just not morning people, but we rally.

When Bob got home we decided to go explore some neat ruins on the east (windward) side of the island. This land on this side is mostly government owned and undeveloped. Broad expanses of hilly pasture sloping down to rough ocean. We poked around in an old stone windmill base and other old buildings. A few had bats up in the top and I was able to find a bat skull for Ava. I had to pluck it off of the bat body and I could just hear a list of diseases being rattled off by Dr. House's team. So I held my breath and washed my hands in the ocean. On the way down to the ocean we had to cross a huge pasture and climb down through a rocky gorge. Ava found two bleached pelvis bones from a donkey (I guess) and then...jackpot! An entire bleached skeleton of a goat. In case you haven't been following, Ava *loves* finding bones, but she can't keep them unless they are bleached out. This skeleton was perfectly clean, and all parts accounted for. Ava exclaimed, and I quote, "This is the best day of my life!" Deal closed on Special Day commitment.

And that was before we got to the beach, where she found a dead sheep (not decomposed) and another skull that was very curious to us in that the horns were still on it, bleached hard just like the bone...usually horns don't do that. Anyway, it was quite a haul and Bob had to drive the car down the pasture to pick us up with all our loot. We never saw another soul on this entire excursion. Thank god!

Easter on the Island

Easter is pretty cool here! We've been having a surprising run of windy days and cool windy nights, good kite flying weather. The Nevisians fly kites for Easter. There used to be some master kite-makers on the island, but their skills aren't being passed dow n fast enough to the next generations. But still, everybody buys or makes a kite (the kids make theirs in school in all grades) and hits the beach to launch them on Easter (thinking all the while, I am sure, about Jesus rising from the dead and ascending to the heavens while trying to keep their strings from getting tangled)...spectacular! Higher on the mountain there was a kite flying contest and I heard there was a four-man kite--I wish we had been able to see that!

The only kite I know how to make is the kind where you tie a string through the handles of a plastic grocery bag. Failproof but kinda trashy, so I just let Ava fly hers in the back yard.

We were invited to a party on Crishi beach by a couple that bought the hotel located there. They closed it for renovations after buying it, but never re-opened anything but the beach bar. They just live in the rest...gorgeous beach, pool, a low trampoline and a painted wooden sailboat sunk in the sand on the beach for the kids to play in. Nice! They are Norwegian and have a little girl Ava's age (I'm guessing that's how we got invited, because we didn't know anybody else there)...they had rented a bouncy house (NOT the Dora the Explorer one. How many choices can there be??) and hidden eggs in the palms along the beach. They hadn't dyed them, but I figured that's a Norwegian thing. The brown and white eggs looked kinda pretty in the beachy setting. Oh, and they didn't BOIL the eggs either, which we found out the hard way when Olympia dropped her egg on my foot. The kids were supposed to 1) Find an Egg 2) Gently transport it to the nearest participating adult and 3) TRADE it in for a Peep. Well, Ava did the math on that pretty quick and decided she'd MUCH rather have a WHOLE RAW EGG! Hers did not survive the day, either, but at least it didn't happen inside the bouncy house. Fun was had but we left before the partying started since we had another stop to make. Also, it was starting to rain again...

The school hosted an egg hunt for the children. I thought it would be moved indoors because the ground was wet, but no. The students in charge of the hunt figured out how many eggs each kid could get for it to come out even and the number was four. It took Ava about 10 seconds to find hers and the whole thing was over pretty quick (the eggs were just sitting on the grass) so the rest of the afternoon was spent with the kids playing tag. Oh and there were cupcakes. Ava's friend, Nyla, who is also home schooled, came late and missed the hunt so Ava split her haul with her. So Ava comes home Saturday night after two egg hunts covered in mud and with only two eggs. But she had a super great day.

Sunday we drove up to Rick Ishmael's house on the mountain (mad scientist, big house, huge fenced in garden) and Bob hid eggs out there. I had stuffed over 70 eggs and there was only one other child hunting with Ava so she was able to get her fill of the hunt. The other boy's granddad was out there "helping him" find the eggs. He would find one and point and shout until John could scramble over and bag it. John is five, and didn't need any help, but granddad (who teaches at the school with Rick and Bob) is a cardio-thoracic surgeon and very, uh, Driven. Bob says that's not uncommon with heart surgeons. Thank goodness there were plenty of eggs!
The rest of us sat up on the porch (from which you can see all the way to Montserrat) and laughed. And drank Ting (a soda made with local grapefruit juice) and ate cucumber sandwiches.
We had to save our appetites for dinner, because our neighbor, Pat, invited us for a meal, along with a few other folks from the school. And she doesn't fool around! It was like Thanksgiving (Ava's observation) but no dishes to wash. Yes, I offered! We left as they were breaking out the game called Pass the Pig (not the drinking game, as it turned out) so Ava could get cleaned up and tucked in. Hope you all had a fun Easter!