We’ve been working all weekend to get our new gutters up to catch the rains tomorrow.
AccuWeather have forecasted rains for Monday and Tuesday. Metaphorically speaking, we were lining up “bananas” because, if you are familiar with Belizean construction, nothing is straight. Gnome used a laser level (yes, ha-ha…what a joke!) to line up the gutters but discovered that he had to strip it back down because the roof was not straight. After much sweating and roof gymnastics, he lined the gutters against the line of the roof which ended up having a slight downward angle to the right anyway. This is actually quite amusing because the downward spout used to point towards the left! That’s why the gutter leaked in so many places!
So, Gnome had to climb on the roof and perform all manner of gymnastics to get the gutters up…
At one point he said,
“It’s scary up here!!”
And I replied,
“Yeah, it’s scary looking up at you!”
All the hard work has been done…now we just have to wait to see if it actually rains! This rain which usually occurs once during the dry season is known locally as the “Iguana Rains” because it is supposed to soften the ground for iguanas to lay their eggs.
Go on then…time to lay eggs!
It has been soooo hot and dry lately…as they say here in Belize, “The heat punish me.” The other morning, Gnome left the house and said that he was going to mow around the farm. He was gone for a fair bit and I didn’t hear the motor starting so I went to look for him. Well, he certainly wasn’t mowing because the cat had nicely settled down for the day!
So what’s our latest tout…or clout? Not only do we have Zazen duckies but we have Zazen soap! I have noticed that at some point, when we have done enough hours of an activity (Yes that 10000 hours thing), it evolves into an art. The other day, we had a moment of clarity whilst mixing up soap; we realised that by clearing our head of the internal dialogue (you know…the usual blah blah blah voice in your head) the soap mixes perfectly with no hitches. In contrast to this, when we are feeling chaotic, we get early thickening of the mixture and lumpy bits so that the soap has to be poured in haste. There you go…The Zen of Soap making by Munchkin and Gnome!!
Tonight we have a Bengali style curry. Thank-you Rumpa for the priceless cooking lessons back in the good old days in Glasgow. This curry has our own coconut cream (which you can purchase at Green Supaul’s in Punta Gorda).
Can you believe what the wee wee ants are doing on our farm? We have one soursop tree here and the ants are systematically peeling the skins off the fruit. They leave the fruit whole and intact like this…you have to catch them before they go splattt!!
Hello Everyone!! We went into Punta Gorda today to deliver a fresh batch of coconut cream to Green Supaul’s. Just in case you are wondering, we make it by grating the coconut:
Hello There!! More farm pictures for you all to see and the promise of wonderful exotic fruit in the next few months. The mango trees are blooming all over Toledo so it looks like it will be another wonderful “stuff-your-face-with-mango-season” this year. Our running joke on the farm is that we never started planting mango until a few years ago…which was pretty silly of us since it is our favourite fruit! Anyway, we have our first blooming mango tree!!
I have updated 
Hello Everyone!! I have not been so regular with writing the Blog lately due to…the weather of all things! It has been dull with thick grey clouds which block the sunlight. When it gets like that I just feel, “Ugh!” and Gnome reacts with, “Oh, dear!!” and then we start a fine merry-go-round of ranting and complaining!
