It was THIS BIG honey!

Came home from work to the digger today - levelling our plot and filling in the old site of the swimming pool. I shouted out to him that I'd changed my mind but he didn't find that very funny....This is the first time I have walked down to the bottom of our plot, tottering down in fact in my dress and kitten heels - yeah I know I should have got changed. A picture of me would have been funnier than these I guess. Anyway, it's amazing what you find when you clear a site - besides lots of rum bottles from the mini distillery that was here before us - we discovered grapefruit and avocado trees. In danger of sounding like a fisherman, well any man in fact, they are THIS BIG - huge ok - not sure my photos do them justice - do my photos ever do justice to Dominica mind.....you need to visit Tropically Tied for those or just come and visit. Sisserou Lodge is now taking bookings....

Compost / If only

So, the grass/trees/borders etc are all cut down (thanks Derek/Andy) now to keep our landlord happy. Now, the farmer opposite won't take it because we've mixed our grass and our trees - completely forbidden.


So now I've got to get this lot into tiny compost bags for compost collection day or pay the very expensive gardening maintenance company to remove it for me in their little regulation compost disposal truck........ Anyway, I went to Ikea today and bought quite a lot of essentials (scented tea lights are essential actually - power cuts remember? and Celia said so, so it must be true) anyway, there's not much left in the budget now for compost disposal. Now, if only we could burn it without setting light to the garage...........


Yes, he is my designated 'Compost Disposal Truck Driver' actually.

Baywatch to Bushwacker

One Sunday of the year, a huge sports emporium here is open, so this morning we went - it's Father's Day here today and Andy was keen. Having got the flatscreen out of his system we're now onto ping pong (think he prefers me to call it table tennis but ping pong is so satisfying to say isn't it - now repeat it really quickly.....) in a big way - it would be wouldn't it - big that is. No little net with little screwy bits on (with the net permanently tangled) that you can attach to a suitable table for us - oh no, all swinging (keep up!) all dancing all weather is the only option. We looked at them, felt them up a bit and then walked on, only for now I'm sure. Our purpose of the trip was actually to buy Ben & Miriam (who live in Dominica) some sea shoes - rubber and not dissimilar to attractive Crocs, fins (don't call them flippers), mask, snorkel and that was it. Well, the big 'convince you it's summer' displays were all out in force and Andy spotted a boogie board and said the kids would like it. I said no, don't be ridiculous they will float away. He then did his 'you'll regret it once you're there' speech which always terrifies me so I said ok. So we now have 5 boogie boards (one each for Ben & Miriam) and 1 adult size one - well it is Father's Day. I will use it to float on and improve my tan at least.

We got home and then broke the law. Well, in Belgium you can't garden on a Sunday - well use any noisy machinery, surprisingly kids are still allowed to play outside. However, we're under real time pressure now and yesterday it was pouring all day. So feeling incredibly guilty we got out the chainsaw - well the borrowed chainsaw and started cutting away madly. My job was to make sure the plug stayed in the extension lead so there I am ducking and diving desperately trying to avoid this manic machine. My other job was then to gather the debris and dispose of it in the correct GFT/Compost (2 Euros each) white bags. Our landlord says the garden has to be as we found it - well we moved in in December when it was hardly a green wonderland but we will do our best to comply. I can't wait to have a real gardener - my jobs were all the rubbish ones today but it might take a while to be trusted with much else unfortunately.

No doubt we will get some fixed penalty garden fine through the door tomorrow. You think I'm joking.....

Jock's photo!

Dox arrived in DOM. Money's in the bank Frank. All systems are go. Our builder, Oliver, is very happy and so are we. Andy says we can open the $100 bottle of champagne tonight and even drink it. Wow! Then it's Cava from then on I guess. Desmond the gardener can start landscaping too. I sent him some exotic Latin names from my 'How to Garden in the Caribbean' book. He thinks I'm bonkers and sent me a plan of what he is going to do with all English names on. At least I showed an interest. Yesterday I bought 2 water barrels - they come with little taps on and everything (!). Then came my fatal error. I explained to Ollie how they worked. In an island where it rains most days I'm not sure our water barrels will be topped up for long.