One last story.....

When we were in Freeport, Judy and I often went to the local Sally Ann to check out the stuff. Early on, maybe my first visit, I found this gorgeous red hat. It had a large brim. It was kind of a stiff material. It almost felt like paper. Fit like a glove. I decided I wanted to buy it for $4 and wear it to church. Then one of my local friends told me that in England a red hat meant "No knickers" so I rethought wearing it to church!!!!!!!! In fact, Jubilee Cathedral was not a big hat wearing congregation so I didn't feel too bad in not wearing it but definitely wanted to bring it home and to sell it in my store this summer.

When we arrived at Pearson Airport in Toronto and went to pick up our baggage we did what we always do in airports, I stand off to the side and the man grabs the bags, wrestles them to the ground and brings them over to me to guard. Now, I had to wear the red hat in transit because it wouldn't squish into my case as the other two hats that I wore regularly had done. I was standing there minding my own business when this elderly woman approached me.

"Where did you ever find that hat? I just love it!!!!"

"I bought it at the Sally Ann on Grand Bahama Island"

"I'm a member of the Red Hat Society. Here is my official travel tag. I would just love a hat like that."

"Thanks Ray. Go get another!!"

"I really wish I could find a hat like that!!!! I would just love to wear it!!!"

"Would you like to try it on?"

"Oh, really? Do you mean that? I would be so honoured to try on your hat!!!?"

"Hey, it looks great on you!!!"

"Oh, I just love it!!!! I so wish I had a hat like this!!!"

"Ok, I'll tell you what, you give me $20 and the hat is yours!!!"

"Really? Oh, my gosh, I'm so thrilled. Thank you, thank you, thank you, ............"

And that is how I lost my Red Hat!!!!

Blog #12 Da las weeeek!!!!

Our relative Scott arrived Tuesday afternoon at about 4. He flew with Bahamair and was supposed to arrive at 1. I hear their motto is - "If you have time to spare, fly Bahamair!!!!". What a delight it was to have him stay with us. He has to be the world's easiest guest. Ray and Scott played golf three days in a row. We went to the casino, beach blah, blah, blah and above we are at the Wednesday night fish fry at Smith Point. Ray and I had ribs and Scott had the fish.

The fish etc. is cooked on open wood fires and then put on these platters. It is a fun experience. We got there pretty early, before 6 and within half an hour, you couldn't get a seat at "The Bus" where we like to eat.

This Friday and Saturday there was a trade show in Freeport. I managed to get there for the opening ceremonies. This "choir" opened the show with a couple of tunes including the national anthem. What a lovely anthem they have here!!! I don't believe I'm the only one who can be reduced to tears by national anthems. Well, some of them. Not the history lesson types for sure!!! Jerrisma was selling her lovely bags so I went both days. There were a number of folks selling plants and trees and on Saturday a display of farm animals.

I liked this basket of crabs. Not a lot of meat on them but very colourful. They really aren't in the ocean with me are they? Nah, they must live on the land?

I presume most of these fruits are grown here. Many people have fruit trees in their yards and there is a movement to have home gardens. Great idea!!! Everyone in the world should have one. Bit difficult with high rise apartment buildings but we can find a solution to that.......

Yesterday Jerrisma and Charles came to church with us at Jubilee and then we went out to lunch together. Jerrisma has been the highlight of this trip, getting to know her and her family, especially Tristan!!! Last week Judy and I took him to the beach and I thought he was going to drown the two of us!!!! Jerrisma has gone way out of her way to make us feel welcome and a part of her family. Anything I wanted to see or know about she has accommodated. She may have come into our lives as our ambassador but she is now a cherished close friend. Thank you Jerrisma from our hearts. We love you!!!!

And so we get ready to leave Grand Bahama today at 5:45. Time has flown on this trip. I think we will be returning next winter. If any of you want to rent next winter, let me know and I will put you in contact with our wonderful landlady Janet who came this morning baring gifts!!!! Sure hope we get through customs with the hootch!!!!! If not, we will just sit there and drink it!!!! Love ya Janet!!!!

Bye Bahamas til soon.................

Blog #11 Beer, Bananas and Beaches.....

As most of you know, I'm not much of a beer drinker but I really like Sands beer. Sands Light is the best!!!! It is made right here on Grand Bahama Island and I was curious as to why this beer was so yummy so I planned a tour of the brewery.

As you drive along the Queen's Highway going west out of town, you suddenly spy this lovely wooden carved statue of this fine looking fellow at the entrance to the Bahamian Brewing Company. We paid $5 a head and the 15 minute tour began.

These are big beer holders. See how I got all of the fancy lingo?

A few bottles are pulled from the line every few hours and tested in this lab. If they are not up to scratch, the whole line is shut down. This has never happened in the 6 years that Sands has been produced on the island. In all this brewery manufactures 4 different types of beer; Sands, Sands Light, Strong Black, High Rock, Tripple B ( a malt drink that is totally disgusting ) and a new one to be released soon with a could be rude name. We all had little sips and I realized all too soon that this is what the $5 was for. Most people come on this tour to get ripped!!!!! We went at 10:30 in the morning. Do I need to say more?

The bottling facility was fun to watch. They recycle their bottles. We took back a case of 24 that took us 3 months to drink and got $2 back. The brewery is the only place you can take the bottles back to.

Now here is the Sands secret. All of the barley and malt come from Germany. The two brewmasters come from Germany so naturally the beer is great!!!! It is German beer!!!! Yum!!!

How is this? Bananas growing in our backyard right outside of our unit. They are very fat short bananas but taste excellent!!! There are lots of fish in the canal but they are so amazingly smart you can't catch them!!! We feed them bread and they come in herds of lots of different kinds. Really fun to watch.

We thought we had found all of the gorgeous beaches that Grand Bahama Island had to offer and then we found Barbary Beach. Just 30 minutes from home and just as gorgeous as the Lucian National Park.

We still enjoy our Xanadu beach just 3 minutes from home. Yesterday we took Tristan to the beach. "Sure I can swim but only in little water." Didn't take me long to realize what that meant, I love to play and jump and scream a lot in the water but I sink like a lead weight. He had so much fun. I hope Jerrisma agrees with me that dirty kids are happy kids. He sure was covered with sand when I returned him!!!!!!

Blog #10 Teaching Knitting plus.......

In my estimation, Butler's is the best place to shop on the island for groceries. We are constantly reminded that we are living on an island and our lives are some what affected by that. You don't try to buy milk on a Thursday or Friday as the supply is so limited. One week there was no Kahlua on the island. Believe you me, I checked. Most groceries come from the USA. Chicken comes on Thursday so don't buy it on Wednesday, as I have done!!!! One week you will buy something, find it delicious and never see it again on the shelves. It's a fun game.

Last Thursday I went to the West End and brought Judy along, thank goodness she agreed to come. I had been asked to teach knitting to a group of seniors who meet every Thursday as part of an Urban Outreach Program run by the government. We arrived at 10 only to learn that it started at 11 so off we went to find some conch salad as I had heard the West End has the best on the Island.

This little stand is a crazy busy place on the weekends. We arrived and no one was about but one guy yelled to another guy and then the owner yelled at us that he would be right with us. He came across the road with this buggy on the left full of the fixings, tomatoes, onions, limes, vinegar and salt.

The conch are caught in these basket affairs you can see here called condos. They are placed on the bottom of the ocean floor and the conch wander in and can't get out. The helper is removing the live conch from the shell and "cleaning" it up some, throwing it in a bucket of water and throwing the shells back into the ocean.

The conch man then chops the conch up into pieces, adds the other ingredients and voila!!!! For $7 you are now eating a bowl of what was alive and kicking only minutes before!!! I actually like it. I also like conch fritters but cracked conch is a little like eating the inner tube from a bicycle!!!

Judy is getting a serious lesson on playing dominos. Playing dominos??? Hey, stop that!!! Start teaching knitting!!! The quiet woman beside her is actually crocheting under the table!!!

These were the only two men brave enough to come into this bevvy of women. They had a great time playing dominos. It seems they didn't want to learn how to knit. You have to love the smiles. This was such a happy group of people. A real joy to spend time with!!!

I loved working with these two women. While I sat with them, they did fine. As soon as I left, they became what I called "creative knitters". Needles anywhere, yarn anywhere. Just keep doing it!!!

These cool ladies looked on and must have been thinking, "Knit on you fools. I'll just sit here in peace and crochet quietly on my own. Thank you all the same!!!"

I'm getting ready to clap as this new knitter finally had it!!!

"Hey Judy, you're right. Playing dominos is much more relaxing, fun and enjoyable than teaching knitting!!!"

We had a great time and were surprised to be served a yummy lunch!!! We're going back this Thursday and then I only have one more after that. Tomorrow afternoon we are going to teach knitting to 9 young women at the Pace Centre which is a day program for pregnant teens. This should be fun too!!!! I'm looking for donations of knitting needles and kinky yarns if any of you are interested in becoming part of this next year. I spent $130 on the supplies for tomorrows class and would appreciate some help from all of my generous friends and family. When you go to the dollar store you can often find interesting yarns for a dollar of $1.25. Thanks for all I anticipate getting from you!!!!!!!!

This is the car that has gotten us everywhere we wanted to go during the last three months. It is pretty old. Nothing is automatic. Very plain but practical. I really like it. Driving here has been a real challenge. It took me weeks before I was comfortable driving on the left. I have grown to really like the traffic circles. Stop signs are just a suggestion here. No one uses an indicator so I continue to use mine just to confuse everyone. Seven out of every 10 cars shows some form of body damage. They beep their horns all the time. It doesn't always mean you are doing something wrong. Most of the time it means hello!!!!! They like to drive in the middle of the road. The scariest thing for me is the overtaking lack of skills. They weave in and out of traffic as if they are invincible. It is so bad that a sign on the highway going west says, "Undertakers love Overtakers." Says it all!!!!

Bahamian people are really lovely people UNTIL you put them behind of the wheel of a car and THEN the devil takes over them!!!!! They are to be feared when driving!!!!

Blog #9 Bad Hair/Good Hair

What fun they had on Saturday at Tristan's 7th Birthday Party in the West End!!! Kids yelling and screaming, music blaring, an abundance of food!!! Perfect!!!

This is Ray's idea of going to the beach!!!

I don't wear makeup. I don't colour my hair. I don't wear 6 inch heals. I don't care what this years "colours" are. I don't care what is in fashion and what's not BUT I DO CARE THAT MY HAIR LOOKS GOOD!!!!! Even when I arrive at my destination via canoe, one of the first things I do is brush my hair. Maybe even a little OCD so I was very careful (I thought) about who I got to cut my hair down here. Highly recommended this cutter was. I thought it was kind of strange that she had my back to the mirror most of the time. Then I noticed she kept sweeping up the back with a brush. Little odd. She used a hair dryer. She used gel. She used a curling iron. I started to wonder what was going on and then I saw it. I was speachless. Yes, I know, a rare occurance. Notice the whispy sides and the slant on the bangs!!!

I went nextdoor to Silk's Cafe to meet Ray for lunch. "What has she done to your hair? You look like a Spanish conquistador." Thanks, I thought I looked like the Flying Nun!!!

Oh, what to do. Why call Jerrisma ofcourse. "Help!!!"

This is Tamika, Jerrisma's daughter, "fixing" my hair. Tamika studied hair cutting, part-time, for 8 years in Washington, DC. She studied "white hair cutting" in school and obviously knew what she was doing!!! Thank you, thank you Tamika. I CAN come out of the house for the rest of my stay on your lovely island.

Happy hair, happy me!!!

Our wonderful landlady, Janet, took us on a road trip the other day. Just to make sure there wasn't a hidden corner of this island that we hadn't seen!!! This is a Catholic Church, originally built in 1843, that is presently being renovated. The two guys working on the inside were so proud of their workmanship that they gave us all their business cards. There is a new modern church on the other side of this one and at one time their was also a school running here. It is in Hunters Settlement.

Approximately 10 years ago, Janet was employed by a company that tried to get a dairy operating on the island but alas in the hurricanes of 2004/5 the dairy above was destroyed. There was a previous dairy at this location but due to the wetness of the land on the north side, the cows got hoof and mouth disease and died. It is interesting to me that only the south side of Grand Bahama Island is used. The north side sits there vacant.

This is taken from the highest point on the island in the Dover Sound area. It is actually a hill. I think this looks like a good place to buy a few acres on the ocean. Just think what you could develop here........

We found this at the end of one road. A dead stop!!!! There is a canal on the other side of this hill and the bridge just never got built. So, this seems like a good place to stop this blog!!!

Blog #8 The Girls Come for a Visit!!!

The Big White Bird landed and then it took forever to get the stairs in place and unload the passengers. All the guys on the ground had specific jobs to do and no one hurried. I was getting ready to climb the fence and give them a hand!!!



There they are, The Girls, just coming off the stairs!!! I was so excited. Yelling, waving, laughing , crying, you get the picture. Generally making a scene!!! Good thing there was no one around!!!



Don't The Girls looked relaxed??? Not quite. This is Natia who had had three meetings with me organizing and making lists for the dinner which was to be served at 6:30 on the night of The Girls arrival. Well, dinner didn't arrive until almost an hour later!!! We were all starving. When we finally got to eat the peas and rice, baked chicken, coleslaw and cabbage and carrots, we were all very happy!!!



Here I am at Paradise Beach, Deadman's Reef, practising snorkeling!!! Even though I practised for quite awhile, it didn't go well when I got into the water. I think I'm a dry land snorkeler!!!

The Girls on an island playing in the sand.

Sand and Kids just go together.

The day we went to Junkanoo Beach Club for free kayaking and paddle boating it was really windy and the sea was very rough so The Girls had fun playing under dock. I tried to take out a kayak with the Older Girl as she is an experienced kayaker but her wise Mother came out and said, "Mom this is not one of your better ideas." and as I tried valiantly to hold on to the bucking bronko of a kayak, I had to agree!!!

This is the end result. Now let's look at the process.

One night after work, Jerrisma and Paulette came over and Paulette braided The Girls hair. You can see, this is a very serious business. Not all woman know how to braid but Paulette is an expert!!!

Thanks so much Paulette for making The Girls look like Bahamian Girls. They love their new doos!!!

The Girls are exporing one of the caves at Lucayan National Park. They were really interesting and spooky!!! We were disappointed to learn that there are no bats until the summer!!!

We took bread to feed the fish and then were suddenly surrounded by raccoons. "Ok, you guys start running and I'll explain we are all out of bread!!!"

There are many up turned trees with their roots showing to climb on and The Girls enjoyed this perch. They had a great time and we didn't need any bandaids or ice!!!

Here Mom is enjoying some quiet time to sit and read in the wonderful warm water. Well, almost quiet time.......

Nice Artsy Shot by Ray.

This is one of Ray's what I call, "Where is Waldo?" pics. Can you find the lizard without a tail?

Saturday we were invited to the West End for a "grill" at Jerrisma's. Here her son, Charles on the left and another expert chef, cook up some corn, chicken and a big pan of seafood like conch, crawfish, potatoes, peppers and plantain. Wow, what a feast. It was wonderful!!!

This island is full of black women with gorgeous hair and I always wondered how they got such amazing styles and colours in their hair. Well, Jerrisma's daughter, the one with the beauty salon in Freeport, was doing a weave on someone and I got to watch. Absolutely fasinating!!! You go to a hair store and buy the colour, length and texture that you want. It comes in a big long strand. It is then sewn onto a fully braided head of hair. Incredible!!! Maybe I'd like..........

We were all loaded into the car when Jerrisma suddenly remembered that she had coconuts for us. The Youngest Girl had been asking for a coconut all week and we had promised her one on Saturday. We had forgotten about the promise and would have had a huge melt down on the way home if it had of been remembered but Jerrisma to the rescue. Here she is attacking the coconut with a saw as the Youngest Girl looks on.

"Mmmm this is so good!!!"

We had a very busy week. It was so much fun to be with The Three Girls and to be able to share out winter home with them. Thank you so much for coming and we will see you soon back home!!!