Suspicious Behavior!

Just 10 days left on land, and I should really be thinking about packing, an exercise I usually leave until the night before, which is not always the best plan, and normally guarantees that I leave without all the things I had planned to take with me.  Wow, that was a long sentence, I didn't even stop to take a breath.

So I woke up in a panic at 5:30 this morning thinking about what I needed to take this time.  I have to carry back everything I need for the next 3 months.  This includes an outfit for my niece's wedding in South Africa (an outfit I have yet to buy), also clothes for a 10 day safari, and then clothes for 6 weeks in Europe. Who the hell knows what I'm going to need there, raincoats, thick sweaters and tank tops probably!  

Bob said Europe was really damp and cold last week, but then it can throw you a curve ball of having the occasional days of surprisingly warm weather.  I can see that I am going to easily exceed the baggage limit, OH dear.

Anyway, I came down to my office to make a list on my computer, of all the things I think I will need.  Making list's gives me peace of mind, because I have the worlds worst memory.  

It's only about 6:15am and I'm sitting here with my mind a complete blank, when I notice a red car passing  that slows down almost to a stop, and crawls past the house, there were 3 guys in the car and the one in the back seat had his arm out of the window pointing at our garages as they passed, they drove on slowly past the house then turned around further up the street and came back to drive slowly by again.  I had the desk light on and as they passed my office window they must have seen me looking at them because they suddenly sped up and drove off. 

So now my mind is completely off my packing list, and I'm panicking about whether these people were planning a burglary or something.  I mean, what were they doing at that time in the morning, and crawling past (twice) and pointing?
The house security here is pretty good with motion detector lights, and alarms, and of course Skye, she's so old that she doesn't exactly qualify as a great guard dog, but she is quite a noisy alarm.  Also we have Justin in the apartment and our landlord right next door, so all things considered we should be OK, but I'm still going to alert everyone to be extra careful.

Anyway back to my packing list (sigh), life is never dull!

Car boots etc...

Did you guys get a chance to check out my new foodie blog?

http://daisysgalley.blogspot.com/

I return to Daisy in 9 days, and then the fun will really return to this blog of mine, all previous reference to Peonies, and other random unrelated stuff will cease.

Hang in there, Daisy will be back before you know it, kicking and screaming!

Yeah Daisy!

:o) x

Off to Bocas del Toro

Barely 2 weeks now until I return to Daisy.  Yeah, that means new material for my blog, I think my recent posts on quiches and Peonies, have been possibly lacking a tad in readable entertainment!

Hang in there, it won't be long before you can read more about my terror and adventures on the high sea's, God help me!

Our next planned destination is Bocas del Toro, although as with everything in my family this plan could change at any time, much depends as always on the weather, and everything on Daisy being in good order.

Hotel Punta Caracol

Popo Paradise Resort

.    

I'm so excited to see this beautiful corner of the Caribbean, from everything I've heard it's really beautiful, and the wildlife is supposed to be spectacular, meaning more chasing monkeys and expeditions into jungles looking for fabulous species of flora and fauna and colorful creatures to capture on film with my trusty camera.

Niki is joining us for the trip, which will make it extra special

I really hope I get to see one of these little guys.

How Fickle is the Weather?

Just because I wrote about the consistent rain, rain, rain, wouldn't you know it, the day cleared up so beautifully it's possibly the loveliest day of the year, and I was able to photograph some of the amazing peonies at bloom in my garden...

Such incredibly beautiful flowers.

The day that started with black skies, thunder and pouring rain ended like this!

Who would have thought!

What a truly lovely day.

One of my little visiting chipmunks, helping himself to the seeds dropped from the feeders.

Just look at those cheeks!

Illusions of The Black Swan!

So it's raining again, and stores are quickly selling out of waterproof clothing and footwear, not to mention the run on umbrellas.  I can't help thinking planet earth is preparing to get washed away by another great flood, even though the Bible says the world would never be taken by flood again.  

Sorry, I'm not trying to preach, but after living in America for 13 years, I can honestly say I have never ever seen this much rain. 

One expects rain in England and Wales, countries where compulsory fashion requirements include a variety of sturdy raincoats with hoods, wellington boots (green Hunter boots if you're wealthy) and a bunch of umbrellas in various colors and patterns.

It's always baffled me that so many America houses have "mud rooms," a room that couldn't possibly be needed more than in England and Wales.

But wait, England and Wales have had sunshine this year, lots and lots of it,  even drought over the last couple of months.  

Last winter in the Caribbean we had so much rain, I remember being in Curacao in November, normally a dry month, yet we had non stop rain for a month, heavy, heavy rain, the sort of rain that will flatten a house, and wash a hillside away, it was their wettest season on record.  One of the few times I was actually happy to be on a boat! 

Colombia suffered dreadful effects from all the rain, with whole villages being washed down the hillsides. The government even put out a request to all boaters in the area to please help, by picking up the people that were left homeless and stranded on beaches. 

Bob was complaining recently about all the rain in Panama, although it is their rainy season right now, but there was still much more rain than normal.

It certainly looks as though the planets weather is changing!  

However, quite possibly,  when I leave next month to return to Daisy, the weather here in Ohio will clear up and be beautiful, and I will be stuck in Panama, once again in heavy rain. 

Perhaps the rain is following me?

I think I'm developing webbed feet, and starting to suffer from illusions of becoming a "Black Duck!" Hey perhaps this would make a comical sequel to "Black Swan!"

Just can't Win!

Despite my best efforts I didn't get accepted into the foodblogs site, apparently I have too many posts on my blog that are not associated with food, so I started another blog, called "Daisy's Galley" and it's just for food.   www.daisysgalley.blogspot.com

So those of you that were not interested in my foodie posts, don't fret, I will not be posting any more on this blog, but those of you that enjoyed them you can just look in on Daisy's Galley .

"There we are then" (as they say in Wales) back to my nonsense posts, which always attract more readers anyway, funny how everyone loves the mindless stuff!

I was sitting in my office this morning watching the birds outside the window squabbling over the feeders,  they became quite aggressive at times, which was ridiculous because there was more than enough food to go around, and enough feeders to accommodate a dozen birds, as well as all the ground feeders, squirrels and chipmunks, but quarrel they did!
And it got me thinking, about how we all quarrel, people, animals, birds, fish, anything that has a heartbeat quarrel's! And it's all usually over simple nonsence.  Really, what would it take for living creatures to live in harmony with others?  It's not possible, it will never happen, it's just not in our nature, we all need to fight in some way, maybe it's just the gladiator inside us.

I watched 2 cats in the barn yesterday, they were in the thick fuzzy tail, arched back mode,  growling and meowing eerily and noisly at each other for over an hour.  I kept breaking them up but they just kept getting back together to, well,  basically just quarrel for the sheer hell of it, with neither of them prepared to start an actual physical cat fight, and I couldn't help thinking while I was watching them that they were just doing it because they could, not to achieve any real purpose, it was quite simply allowed aggression!

What do we get from a quarrel? Just being right, or winning a point, or getting something over on someone does it really make us feel better about ourselves? Does it make us smarter simply because we were quicker with a winning response? The rare times when I have actually won an argument, I can honestly say it didn't make me feel better at all.

I have reached a point in my life where I will run a mile from a quarrel, while I may possess a colorful quality with the written word, verbally I'm just dumbstruck!  I never have a quick, smart reply, I'm one of those people that always knows exactly what I should have said after the event.  But I'm at least smart enough to know that when you can't win, why waste energy fighting in the first place!

I often use my blog as a tool to voice my grievances, then Danni comes along and say's "Mum you really shouldn't have written that" so I delete it and then worry about who may have read it.  Does this mean that I'm using my blog as a way of inadvertently winning a fight, without actually having to participate in one?

Maybe I just need one of these!

Countdown to Daisy

Only 23 days until I return to Daisy in Panama, and my emotions are already in turmoil.  I’m both excited and depressed at the same time, excited at the prospect of all the upcoming adventures and new countries I’m about to experience, and depressed at the thought of leaving Edi and Danni and my new home.

 I’ve become so comfortable in the new house, I feel very safe here, it actually feels like a home, something I haven’t had in 4 years.   I’ve always longed for adventure, travel and exploration, but after 4 years of it I’m really quite tired, and find myself longing for a boring suburban life, although I’m pretty sure that I would tire of that quite quickly and find myself longing for adventure again, but for the next 23 days I intend to just enjoy being a housewife and Mother again.

I love all the lilac and honeysuckle that grows with prolific, unrestrained abandon all around the house, filling the air with the most exotic perfume.  I love all the birds that flock to my garden to gorge themselves on the feeders hanging from my front porch. I even love the sound of the occasional train as it passes, the distant rumble that still causes me to look at the sky wondering whether its thunder rolling in the distance.

I like feeling safe; it’s not something I commonly feel when I’m on board. As you all know I’m terrified of the ocean, as well as all the giant sharp-toothed critters, and slimy stingers that inhabit it.  

Strangely, I’m actually quite proud to tell my tales of swimming with sharks, stingrays, turtles and even a crocodile, my fear of the ocean certainly hasn’t kept me out of it, although I’m not quite sure how daft that makes me sound!

 Bob has been very busy for the last couple of months getting lots of jobs done on the boat, but the jobs are never ending, there’s always a long list of “to do” jobs waiting, and it won’t be long before I have to re-varnish the toe rail again, a job that gets harder and harder as I get older (sigh).

Paradise Awaits !!!

Just Because! I love my cat

I love my cat, who, as you can see has a really tough life!

Nicho won't sleep on my bed, he has to get under the covers.

But he's so adorable I just let him do whatever he wants, how true is the saying 

"dogs have owners, cats have staff"

I have an embroidered cushion on the boat that say's

"The cat and his housekeeping staff live here"

Sleeping with Bunny

Watching television, quite the favorite pastime for Nicho after napping!

 Sitting on Dad's lap

Sitting up on deck, looking out for dolphins. 

I think my cat has an interesting life!

At Work !

My little helper Nicho-San , regularly by my side when working on an evening.

Beetles and Generators!

So, the day that I'm happily preparing for my dinner party, poor Bob was on board Daisy dealing with one problem after another, it made me realize why I prefer to be in a house ON LAND!  Any of you that are envious of our wonderful lifestyle floating around the Caribbean read on and maybe you'll change your minds, OH yes, I just remembered I'm returning to Daisy in a few weeks, so I will have all this joy ahead of me...

Always fun on board where, chaos, disorder and mechanical mayhem reign supreme

However I'm never far away with my trusty screwdriver and adjustable wrench!

This e-mail received from Bob this week.

Life is never boring on a boat! !

Late last night the x*a##?x!!  Generator refused to start ( I still believe its an intermittent fault in the emergency off switch)

I left it until this morning.   ZZzzzzzzzz

6:00am - read voltages around emergency off switch ........fiddle and after a while I got it started.

So anyway having Breakfast early and thinking how much good a simple diet will do me while I am trying to overcome this digestive disorder. Drinking Green tea and Banana porridge, all good natural ingredients, they use real bananas for flavour, look they even have the little black banana seeds in the porridge. ......wait those seeds have legs!!!!

A closer inspection showed some 30-50 beetles or weevils still in my Bowl (I had eaten 1/3 of it)

I examined the other packets in the plastic air tight container and sure enough, about 60% of the paper sachets had holes chewed on them (apple and Banana flavour, they like both)and when left quiet, after a few minutes the inhabitants come out to explore. 

I thinks weevils are healthy protein, I believe for many years we gave them to our sailors in their biscuits?

.......But maybe their eggs could be part of my digestive disorder. So these little sailors and their porridge all went swimming. 

So here I am sat down to start Breakfast again, tea is cold but never mind and its no longer early but at that moment the Generator coughs to a stop, so down I go again. 

Oh its not quite that simple, I skipped over a little distraction last night, early evening, when I was about to start the x*a##?x!! Generator, I thought I would just check around it before I started it (I had run it about 10 times no trouble since I worked on it electrical issue).   

Shit! under the generator was water. After 40 minutes of checking stuff. Concluded Header cap Pressure release valve had weakened and the coolant was expanding back into the expansion tank until it over flowed. 

  .......So an hours clean up and another hour rigging a temporary method to run Generator with the bad pressure release valve. Ran the generator, my temporary fix had worked. (It was then later in the evening when I thought I would top the batteries up, that it did not start)

Anyway while I was tracking down the source of the coolant under the generator, I at first thought it might have been a blown hose on the watermaker. So while I was all hunched up in that area I checked the hoses on the high pressure tube on the watermaker located in the cupboard under the work bench.     Shit everything was flowing in water. 

I spent 2 hours getting everything out ( all the tins of paint that would go rusty)

And drying everything out, I soon identified there was no issue with watermaker, and I remembered 2 nights ago when I was not feeling well, I missed shutting the porthole over the work bench. We had a big rain that night and in the Morning, I had to dry the water off the top of the bench. I did not realize at the time that it had also drained into the cupboard below. 

So anyway that was why I was up late and why I tried to start the generator for a 2nd time that night, when it didn't start, I left it and went to bed. 

So now I will go down and try to run to ground why the generator has stopped ........ Probably that switch, but on a boat you never know what you will find........and you certainly never have time to get Bored!!!
Bob x

"I'm so grateful for the few months of the year that I have the opportunity to be bored!"

My Galley

This is where I work when on board.  My galley on Daisy

Looking back from the living area.

Danni's last Birthday Cake,
I went all out for this one, and I was pleased with the results,
although it took me the best part of 3 days to shape and decorate.