The Hoya there, the hoya here

Baldwin's transformed table. We ate poached tilapia in coconut milk here last weekend, inviting their near neighbor who is originally from Australia to celebrate the new furniture. Karen is in the process of building a sleeping second floor on her small square yellow house. The kona roof is inplace and she has been sleeping upstairs. The walls will be slats with venting between. A wonderfully compact bungalow. She has a small motor bike, but unfortunately has not mastered the traffic in town - having had several wrecks. It is wild, motorcycles, ATV's scooters, cars and trucks! Now Baldwin seems to have started a trend: tuktuks. Karen has moved here with her mentally challenged daughter (a lovely young woman with piercing electric blue eyes) who lives in a tree house (well, plywood box on stilts) near her mother. Her daughter has walked away from several assisted living situations in the states; here in Las Terranes, she walks into town and is directed home. So far so good. 

True's water bottle which has acquired an interesting patina, on the kitchen window sill. The turquoise wall looks green. Hoya can mean hollow!

Pantaloons Mean

My rooster spurred me this evening when I leaned down to check on my ailing red hen. I tried to thwart his aggressive jumps at me, but failed. He broke skin on the inside side of my right knee. If there was a cockfight down the road, like there is on Sundays just outside the gate at Jurassic Park, I would throw him in the ring. Fat breasted bully that he is, I'm sure he would meet his match. But instead I will just avoid Pantaloons; hopefully check on my red hen in the morning after rooster has left the coop.

Speaking of cock fights, Baldwin and Mindy left me with the kids and several kids from the neighborhood on last Sunday afternoon. They went to look for a tree they wanted to plant in the outer courtyard. The kids played until suddenly great excitement: men running through the trees just by the courtyard, one man clutching his rooster under one arm, jumped up onto the patio. They laughed as they ran. I figured the police might be raiding the cock fight. The two local boys who were playing at the house, ran off to see what was happening.  We returned to play and Baldwin and Mindy showed up as the excitement diminished. They confirmed that the cock fight had been stopped as someone in the neighborhood warned the participants that the police were coming.  There is a big public cock fight in town - legal. The one that goes on at the edge of Jurassic must not be approved!

More DR

Baldwin brings coffee to Mindy in the morning, and when I was in the pod across from this one, I also got coffee. Pearl and True would get ready for school and  Baldwin would take them in the tuktuk to town. 

Most mornings we had eggs scrambled with the delicious red peppers - Dominicans don't favor much spice, but their sweet peppers are fantastic, and easy to pepper! And fruit with yogurt or just a passion fruit alone. Papaya and lime juice. Pineapples. Bananas. I haven't forgotten mangos but there were few out this visit. Avocado every day. The house is surrounded by cacoa trees and I learned that the kids love the fruit. Our chocolate made from the seeds being an afterthought, I suppose. 

Cocoa tree, fruit just beginning to grow (red in the light).

Memories of a Visit

So many things changed in the 11 days I lived in Pearl's pod in the house in Las Terrenas. Mindy painted the turquoise wall in the kitchen area (which is half of the bathroom pod). The bathroom pod opens to the inner courtyard; whereas the kitchen opens to the outer courtyard. Baldwin made a wonderful door for the moon gate which secures the outside pod from public scrutiny, since there is a hotel  just up the road and construction just down the road! With gate up and also painted turquoise, the stove and refrigerator which were in the master bedroom pod could be moved. Next Baldwin made legs for the butcher block table top - and the kitchen was fit for use! Baldwin and Mindy are making a concrete counter top for the sink soon. While I was there we had a convenient outside faucet just outside. The large pod across from the kitchen in the outside courtyard, holds the two hammocks. Its roof is of woven kona alone (the other pods have more permanent wooden ceilings and roofing, then kona. A picture of the large pod with hammocks and the table Baldwin made from scrap wood that will be transformed!

Playa Coson

Have to begin traveling back in my mind to house in DR with a beach picture! Baldwin says that the many down palms are due to global warming, the beach being eroded by sea level rise and weather changes. It was cool when I was there, and there was unusual rain. We slept under duvets. The ocean (Atlantic here) was cool - I waded, but didn't swim until the last day. Pearl and her friend Zaden are playing on a palm down the beach. I miss this!

I'm home, heart full of color

Pearl on top of the roots of the coconut palm speaks of the delight of every day in the DR (Dominican Republic). I am immensely grateful to have gotten out ahead of the snow storm that brought 1 foot of snow to the hollow.  The house Baldwin and Mindy are building, much of the heavy building is done, consists of an inner courtyard of  3 circular pods with a larger pod in the outer entrance. I have many pictures, so I can better illustrate the compound! I spent many mornings tackling a mold issue on their clothes which developed when they lived in one room at the Hotel.  Between rinsing clothes, I bent over the cracks between the concrete forms on the patio and carefully fitted river rocks into the spaces. We gathered the small stones from the creek bed near their house. The house has many cocoa trees, a giant African red tulip tree and many varieties of banana. The passion flower vine climbs around the electrical pole - my favorite fruit, chinola - is the fruit of the passion flower! Hyacinth  grow wild, hedges of them. There is bougainvillea, tree poinsettia and oodles of other tropical fantastic flora - including the flamboyant. Every afternoon to the beach!