St Lucia .

We had a wonderful time in St Lucia, a beautiful island and lovely people. We were really lucky with our choice of time to visit. As it is hurricane season, it is the quiet time for tourists, we almost had the beach to ourselves. We stayed in Rodney Bay which is north of the island very easy to get around with some great restaurants.

We flew via St Vincent and flew over the Grenadine Islands which are owned by St Vincent, lots of small tropical islands which looked beautiful from the air.

Lots of pictures to show, will start with some of the Grenadine islands and the beach.

At Last..........................

We christened our dining table, we have been in the house for 9 months and this is the first time it has been used. Doug and I normally eat outside.

We entertained some colleagues of Dougs, some were visiting from Canada some were here working. We had a great time and judging by the number of empty bottles, I think everyone enjoyed themselves.

Getting excited as we are going to St Lucia at the end of August for 5 days. No work just relaxation, we are both really looking forward to it. Planning to do a catamaran trip to see the The Pitons, which are two volcanic plugs that rise from the Caribbean Sea. Apparently it is quite a climb up them but I think we will pass on that adventure and just enjoy visiting them.

Remember When...........

You were a child and you waited for something special to happen and you were a very good child doing all you could to be nice to people because you thought that would help make your something special get here quicker. Then when the day arrived you were disappointed...........................WELL GUESS WHAT

I have just had that same feeling, back in February I planted some tomato seeds, with the heat here the seeds split within a couple of days. I thought this had to be a very good sign and we were looking forward to a bumper crop of tomatoes. I was even working out in my mind who I would give some to if we had more than we could use.

Slowly and very spindly the plants grew, I said to Doug we should scrap them and try again but he persevered, talking to them feeding them and generally being a very good farmer.

Imagine our excitement when one day we could see one tomato forming on the plant, it grew bigger and bigger and became like a member of the family. Fast forward several weeks to last week when we noticed it looked as though it was starting to ripen.

We poured through the recipe books trying to decide how best to dish up this very special tomato and after great debate we decided it would join our salad which we were having with steak at the weekend. Day after day we watched it getting riper and riper and Friday evening it was nice and red, Doug wanted to pick it and I persuaded him it would be better to pick it Saturday and add it nice and fresh to the salad.

After a night of dreaming about and tasting fresh tomatoes, Saturday arrived the day of the great gourmet meal with our home grown tomato. I went out to pick it and that was when that"moment happened"
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The birds had started making a meal of it as they were up earlier than we were.The moral of this story is ......pick your tomato when you husband says so.

Our trip to Grande Riviere

Very excited we set off for the road trip to Grande Riviere to see the baby turtles. Once we had left the highway most of the journey was on very narrow winding roads. (this was the main road in and out) we did have to stop once and let a crab cross the road, he really took his time.

After driving for 2hours 45 minutes through very lush rainforest we arrived at Grand Riviere a small fishing village, booked into the hotel and went for a walk on the beach. We were very surprised to see the beach littered with the turtle egg casings and a lot of vultures. There were also stray dogs trying to dig up the nests. This was in total contrast to the beach we had seen the turtles on previously. We didn't see any baby turtles.

Later in the early evening, Doug went to get our permits to tutle watch, the office opened at 6.30 and that is where he learnt that they collect the babies througout the day and release them between 6.30pm and 7.00pm. We rushed onto the beach permits in hand and could see a group of people approximately 1 kilometer ahead. No one told us about releasing the babies and we missed seeing 750 baby turtles heading into the water. We were so disappointed, we went back to the hotel and had a bottle of wine!!!

Later that evening we were taken on to the beach to see a female turtle nesting but the group was so big we couldn't hear much or see much, all in all very disappointing, however we are planning to go back next year earlier in the season when they say there are as many as 300 turtles coming ashore each night.

We did in fact have a lovely dinner at the hotel and went to bed with the sound of the waves crashing on the shore.

Next morning I drove most of the way home and we did pass some lovely coastline and the cutest little church in the middle of nowhere, a little dilapidated but well worth a photograph.

I am back

Was going to say "I am home" but it is hard to decide where home is. This year I have been in my home in England, Canada and of course Trinidad. It gets even more confusing when you have three currencies in your wallet, and you block your Canadian Credit Card because you used your Trinidad password. Confused? yes I am. Thank goodness I do remember to drive on the correct side of the road.

This weekend we are going to Grand Riviere, to see the leatherback turtle hatchlings who will be returning to the sea. We are staying overnight in a hotel with balconies overlooking the beach. We are looking forward to dinner as there is a lot of local fish on the menu which is caught and brought straight to the hotel. You cannot get much fresher than that. The drive will be interesting as we are travelling to the other side of Trinidad, should be fun.

Whilst I was packing my suitcases in Canada last Saturday, Doug was busy planting saplings. Last year during a very dry season there were a lot of fires which destroyed trees and plants. RBC is involved in many local projects and this was one where volunteers planted hundreds of saplings in an area that had been destroyed. Doug was a little shocked to find that he had to walk up a mountain (his words) to get to the site, they had to clear the areas for planting, dig the holes, plant and water. Many bottles of water later and a very sweaty T Shirt the task was completed.

Busy day today catching up with laundry and ironing, even in paradise you have to do mundane jobs.

Having a wonderful time

With our little girl and favourite Son-In-Law.

The weather in Burlington is almost as warm as Trinidad, just perfect.

We have spent the past week running around to banks, doctors, dentist, optician,trying to get everything up to date. Today is a relaxing day shopping in the US. Tomorrow we are going to my favourite primitive store in St George. We will have lunch at the St Georges Arms and probably have their very naughty dessert "fried jam sandwich" so naughty but oh so good.

Friday Stefanie and I spent the day together as Doug went into Toronto to meed his friend Rob for lunch. We had a lovely day shopping and also went to a wharehouse book sale I bought so many books to take back to T&T.

Finished the day with a glass of wine and a chinese takeout.

Perfect day and perfect company.

Leaving this morning

For Canada.

Looking forward to seeing our kids and of course Buster.

Doug has to make this visit short as he is very busy with his projects being launched, he is only staying for 10 days and part of that will be spent working.

I am looking forward to shopping with Stefanie having a massage and a pedicure. I am also going to Toronto Zoo with Stefanie and Tim.

We will also be celebrating Tim's birthday on the 7th July.