Happy November

The best thing about being a teacher is all of the lifelong friends I've made out of students and their families. The Moore's grandmother, Suzanne, stopped by our island by way of the Emerald Princess today, so I picked her up and showed her what island life is all about...

We went to Caribelle Batik to ooh and ahh at the pretty handmade designs


I wanted to take more pictures of the fancy fountains and lookout pavilions of this 17th century sugar estate, but Calvin had a little mind of his own today and ran to find something to climb the moment I let go of his hand.

This Saman Tree is 350 years old and covers ½ acre with twisting branches and leaping vines. I think it could be home to the best treehouse in the world.

I showed her our villa and we lunched on the porch


I so love getting these little doses of home.

Happy Halloween

There was a Halloween parade at Ross's elementary school today. Calvin was a blue bunny. Before motherhood I never imagined the delights of dressing somebody up as a blue bunny (he's going to kill us for this ten years down the road) and the joy of taking pictures of that person.
It was a funny parade...



Peter Rabbit

Pam and her sailor Tegan


Marvelous Miss Chrissy, who takes care of the children at daycare

and Melissa, sweetest teacher in the world, who takes care of them too


Normally cameras aren't allowed on campus, but Halloween was the perfect opportunity to show you what Andrew's vet. school looks like.


A little fairy darling



Happy Halloween!

A Boal Family Visit

It was a heavenly reprieve.

Art Class

Omar

A Category three hurricane shook our island awake in the wee hours of the night Wednesday into Thursday. We were prepared, unscathed and our villa stayed safe, but it was noisy as jet engines as it rumbled and thundered and stormed through the night.

The calm before the storm



The weather was eerily calm, but people were a little frantic as they scrambled to buy food and retrieve money from the nearly empty markets and out-of-service ATMs.



Timothy Beach before Omar


Timothy Beach after Omar





Sand came up and filled these little beach shack restaurant bars



Many awestruck gawkers came to see the damage


This pond was a road


And what hurricane is complete without a surf session of double overhead, glassy walls of waves? Calvin and I watched the brave boys from a distance. Here's just one wave. The face of it is over 10 feet high.


Oh, and Calvin James got his (much to my reluctance) head shaved. He looks SO very big now.


St. Kitts lost several houses, boats were shoved to shore, there was flooding and now there are piles of sand to put back into the sea, but as far as we know everyone was safe and unharmed by the strong arms of this storm.

Hopefully this is the first and last hurricane post on this blog.

Pillowy Billows

This fall we don't get crunchy leaves or to sleep under downy blankets at night, but we get these . . . pillowy, billowy cities of castle clouds (and a sweet M. Pants to cherish) . . .