Hurricane Earl

Earl gave our little island a swing by yesterday... bringing high winds and a lot of rain and sending all of us inside for a day.  Fortunately, although a category 3 storm when he passed just 90 miles north of us, we did not have too bad of winds and the damage was minimal.  A few down trees, a lot of debris, a day or two of clean-up... but all and all not so bad.  We weathered the storm with fresh baked oatmeal cookies and a big pot roast.  Yumm.

Today.. lots of yard work is waiting for me outside but I just don't feel like getting off the couch yet.

:)

chasing chicks

So I woke up this morning as usual and step outside with SpeedBump and Loki.  They take off to do their business and I hear a bunch of clucking and pio pio pio from the garden bed on the side of the house.  Turns out Momma Hen has somehow gotten herself and her chicks down in the bed and her little babies are just too small to hop out.  Now Speed thinks this is a wonderful opportunity for a little breakfast but I scold him away and head to the rescue. I try shooing the Momma out of the bed , but as I reach in to get her little babies out, she comes rushing back in at me trying to scare me away. (she did).  She seemed to think she was a rooster and was trying to actually flog me, silly girl.  So I look around and see the pool net, netted me two little chicks and did my good deed for the day.   Now... she had three chicks yesterday, so I'm thinking that one of them fell prey to the night.   I head back inside chuckling at the way my morning started.  A short while later I have to head down to get something out of my car and I hear these desperate pio pio's from the parking area.  Upon investigation I discover the third chick who is frantically trying to find his mother and running literally around in circles.  He is terrified as I approach and tries to hide but I'm able to catch him and walk him across the pool deck to the other side of the house.  Momma is not happy to see me... but was delighted when her little chick jumped out of my hand and ran to her protective wings.  Another good deed done.
Funniest part is I hate that damn chicken.  I don't want more chicks on the property and the best thing I could have done was to have let Speedy have his fresh breakfast....LOL.  Baby chicks by the way are very cute.

The Bracelet

My niece Christine and her family visited me last month.  What a beautiful, strong and fun loving family.  Charlie is a lucky father and grandfather to such a fine family. 

The weather wasn't what I had been hoping for, but Chris and her family exceeded my expectations. We had a great time despite the fact that a tropical storm (Bonnie) formed overhead the entire length of their stay. We went scuba diving, had a rib cook-off, enjoyed some beach time, and made the best of a wet and windy tropical island.  We made the most of it though and had us some fun. While here, I introduced them to the crucian tradition of hook bracelets.  They all (except Kevin of course, he's like John... not a jewelry man) went home with a Sonya hook around their wrists, properly positioned with the hook facing in to show that their hearts were taken.  :)   It was fun to see them "get" the concept of our island hooks.  

For the girls, we went one step further and in commemoration of their visit, and our first chance to really get to know each other, we visited Crucian Gold and I got us all Nathan's heart bracelet.  It is a beautiful bracelet with a gold heart featuring the crucian knot, mounted on a silver band.  I chose this bracelet because of the well recognized symbol of love, and the idea of a love knot being binding.  I wrote a poem for us to remind us:

The Bracelet, by Laura Ballard

A gold heart for love of family, a gold knot for the ties that bind us.
A silver bracelet around our wrist, meant simply to remind us
That it’s common folk we come from, and common genes unite us
We’ve many similarities that surprise and delight us
But the greater gift we’re given, the one that matters in the end
Is that we are now not just family, we are each other’s friend