Apologies for not posting to this as intended and promised. Will try to play catch up now.
The time since our return from the adventure tour through Guatemala and Southern Belize has passed so quickly. We have been back and forth to Belize City a number of times for Les's dental appointments. While over there we do our shopping which, after much exploring of other stores, now mainly consists of purchases from the Ace Hardware and Brodies Department/Grocery store. They are within a block of each other and conveniently located near the water taxi terminal. We take a rolling suitcase to town with us and manage to fill it as well as several large bags.
Lester is buying parts and supplies for the boat (recently someone remarked that a sailboat was a hole into which one throws a lot of money. Pretty accurate description as it turns out.) Little by little he is finding necessary items or figuring out what else might work instead.
Besides groceries that cannot be found on island, I have been buying little items for the house. My redecorating project is about finished for this year. I have bad news for those of you who were fond of the lilac interior. It is now desert sand although I wish now that I had gone with a lighter shade of sand. (Jackie I need you!) But it does have a fresher look. In addition to painting, I bought a wall fixture for the bathroom so that we now have a place to put dental and grooming tools instead of trying to balance them on the little ledge by the sink. I bought a scrub brush and attacked the shower walls and floor while Les installed a new shower drain in the floor so we no longer have to stand in ankle deep water while surrounded by mildewed walls. A great improvement. We now have a rolling cart with shelves for towels. etc., another hanging basket in the kitchen for misc. gadgets that before we searched for and complained bitterly over "not being able to find anything!" (Actually that was me complaining.) A plastic canister set allows us now to store packages of salt, rice, flour, sugar and various seasonings in a relative humidity free location.
In the bedroom I now have nobs on the drawers instead of stubs that were hard to grip and open but were waiting to stab you if you came too close.
Meldy supplied us with a small table for the balcony and I bought a couple of plastic chairs from the plasticware salesman who tours the island with a mound of plastic items tied to a wooden basket attached to his bicycle. Now we can sit outside to eat or clink glasses (while smugly congratulating ourselves on enjoying the "good life" at the end of the day.)
Another thing we have been collecting on our trips to the city is potting soil. Big 20 lb. bags of the stuff. we have been planting sprouted coconuts out on the property and are getting ready to plant a small banana tree grove just as soon as we can find some sprouted bananas, (Ha!) Actually new trees sprout from the roots of older trees and we just need to collect a few and plant them out there. Also had 10 boatloads of sand delivered and spread out there. Back at the house we now have two hanging baskets in which I am planting herbs and they are sprouting up and doing very well. You do have to be careful when you say you are growing herbs here though as I've been told that an herb garden here could have an entirely different meaning.
The boat is coming along slowly. I offered to help this morning but was assigned a cleaning chore inside where it soon became too hot to work. I managed to stay a while by shedding some clothes which I won't specify except to say I had to stay out of sight of passing boats as it was not a pretty sight!
Anyway, we are extremely happy and enjoying our time here. It has been a bit cool at times but I won't go into that as we have been watching weather reports from your areas and know not to expect any sympathy when I tell you that occasionally we have had to pull a light blanket over us at night.
You all take care and I will try to do a better job of keeping this blog up to date in the future.