More goodness

I love soup and I love pie and daughter dear knows this....the way to her mum's heart is through her stomach.

 

 She made a big batch of split pea herbed soup enhanced with coconut milk and it was enough to keep us both fed for three days....it was lickety split tasty.

She also made a delicious Lemon Meringue Pie.......

.......which was her first attempt and it was finger licking good.

After the first slice was cut, it was so hard not to cut another and another and another.
I did share a few slices with my neighbour and some friends.

Thank goodness I did share a few slices if not I would have eaten the entire thing all by myself....no....not in one go....I do have some restraint but not that much....

....soon only one slice remained.....and that didn't last too long.....it died a  natural death.
I've washed the pie pan to be used again.  I'm hoping if I return it to daughter dear that she will make another pie....wishful thinking?  I hope not.

All is mine!!!

Just like us humans, animals have the funniest antics, especially our beloved family pets.
Speaking of beloved family pets, if you want to see something funny, try taking away Brownie's dish that's been sitting there for a while with ends of chow remaining.
Don't try this while he is licking it clean.
Mind you the dish may already be empty and sparkling clean, but woe betide if you try to take that dish before he's finished licking it to smithereens, you're in for a bellyful of laughter.
It's a theatrical production worthy of the Canine Carnegie Hall stage.

Brownie you don't want that leftover chow do you? It's been sitting there for ages.

Of course I want my chow....it's in my dish isn't it?

I said I want it....leave my dish alone.

I'm not going to let you take it away from me.

Here he is blocking my hand in a defense move that would make any sports coach envious.

You can't get it!

No way....you have to move me.

When he throws his body in a protective mode over the dish, there is nothing I can do but burst out laughing.

Over my dead body!

After this ritual of pretending to want the chow and not eating any, he lies down keeping a close eye on me and the dish.

In two minutes he's sleeping and dreaming......

.....and dreaming and sleeping as the cool air from his fan caresses his body.

It's a dog's life. 

Lola Boo Girl Update

Today I have news about my other favourite bow wow who lives in VA with my girlfriend Ellise.
You remember my sweetie pie Lola Boo, don't you?
Remember that bad dog incident?  Well thankfully she's all better now.

New chairs have arrived at the household, however they are now made of leather and poor Lola kept on slipping off as she tried to climb up to take up her prominent spot on the back of her new favourite chair.
Yes, her mummy laughed at her efforts......but............

She finally made it!!

As you can see she is still ruling the roost....Go Lola Go!!

I'm bringing lunch!

I'm bringing lunch!!
What does that mean to you?  I'm sure it means the same thing to you as it means to me.
When someone says "I'm bringing lunch!"  then a full lunch is expected.....right?
Yesterday when daughter dear said those infamous words above "I'm bringing lunch!" it meant that once again only a part of the lunch was prepared.....one would have thought I would have learned my lesson from before about expecting a full lunch....but nooo!!
In she sauntered with bags of semi-prepared items and placed them on the kitchen table.

"All you have to do is fry the fish and the plantain and steam the veggies," she said with a big smile that lit up my heart.
So said so done.
While I was preparing the food she playfully stood around taking photo after photo. 
"You're the best mommy in the world!" she said mockingly.

I didn't take a photo of our delicious lunch but the menu included:
Basmati Rice, Fried Marlin Steaks, Fried Plantain, and Fresh Steamed Veggies.
It was really GOOD!

Today after lunch

Today after lunch................

Time for a good old nap after a great tasting lunch.

Belly full of brown rice and cheese-filled meatballs.

Hey you're disturbing me....go away.....

The Kindness Bus

In my life the wheels of The Kindness Bus go round and round, round and round all the day long.
My friends tell me that I'm the conductor of The Kindness Bus and they're just going along for the ride by following my lead, but that's not true....we all give and share freely all the time.
My neighbour down the street gifted me with a large avocado and several bananas during the week.
I ate the avocado pronto, but as for the bananas, they tend to upset my asthmatic tendencies, so I can only eat them baked in a cake or bread.
And....that is exactly what I decided to do....bake a nice banana bread to share.

In my pantry I found a Yellow Cake Mix and a box of Banana Muffin Mix...lovely.

I mashed the bananas in a bowl.

Added the eggs, vanilla essence, milk and oil according to the package directions and mixed everything together with my trusty hand mixer which I've had for eons.
Greased and floured the baking dishes and filled them with the yummy mixture.

The two dishes were placed in the oven to bake at 300 degrees for 50 mins.

No need to ask who was in control of the items above.....

I couldn't wait to taste the banana bread.. ....I even forgot to take a photo after they were taken from the oven.
The photo above is what's left after I shared one with my kind neighbour and some with my daughter.

Spaghetti with cheese-filled meatballs, Corn, Steamed Veggies, Plantain and Garlic Bread.

Yes, The Kindness Bus had stopped outside my house again....daughter dear came by with a lovely lunch that she had prepared...don't mind I had to finish it off....I had to cook the spaghetti, fry the plantain and bake the garlic bread!!!
I didn't mind at all...it was yummy, yummy yummy.

Cubana Airlines Disaster Monument

On the west coast beach of Paynes Bay in the parish of St. James, there stands a monument in memory of an aircraft disaster off our island back in 1976. 

It's hard to pass it by without sparing a thought for the souls that perished so senselessly that afternoon.

On this peaceful beachfront.............

.......with gentle waves and puffy clouds scuttling across the sky....

we have this reminder.

A reminder of the horrific terrorist act on that afternoon.
Before the word "terrorist" became an everyday word, there was terror in our skies....hard to believe isn't it?

On the afternoon of October 6, 1976, as my dad drove me home from school, we heard on the radio that a Cubana airline had crashed off the west coast of Barbados.
Even though I was in secondary school at the time my young brain still could not fathom a plane crash of such magnitude. It was something that one expected to take place in another part of the world, but not here in peaceful easy-going Barbados.
It was the worst act of aviation terrorism at the time...the first time a civilian aircraft was bombed by terrorists in the western hemisphere.

On that sunny Wednesday afternoon the Cubana de Aviacion ‘Flight CU-455 was a flight leaving Barbados for Jamaica, part of its scheduled route.  Originating in Guyana via Trinidad, Barbados and Jamaica it was headed to Havana, Cuba.
Little did the 73 passengers aboard the Douglas DC-8 know that they would not touch down in Jamaica as planned.
 All 73 passengers, including the flight crew lost their lives that afternoon....among them 57 Cubans (which included government officials as well as 24 members of the 1975 National Cuban Fencing team who were returning home after winning all gold medals in the Central American and Caribbean Championships, many were teenagers), 11 Guyanese (including medical students on their way to study in Cuba) and 5 North Koreans (including government officials).

Eight minutes after takeoff from Seawell Airport (now Grantley Adams International Airport) and at an altitude of 18,000 feet, the first bomb exploded in the rear lavatory of the aircraft.
At 1.24pm, the captain, Wilfredo Pérez radioed the control tower,  "Seawell! Seawell! CU-455 Seawell. . . !   We have an explosion on board, we are descending immediately!  We have fire on board!  We are requesting immediate landing!  We have total emergency!"
The plane went into a rapid descent, and the pilots struggled valiantly to return to the airport, but then the second bomb exploded.
 "Hit the water, Felo, Hit the Water," said the co-pilot.
Realising that the plane was about to crash the pilot turned the doomed aircraft away from the beach (Paradise Beach) filled with sunbathing tourists and turned towards the Atlantic Ocean instead.
Captain "Felo" as he was affectionately known did his best to save the plane and its passengers but it was too late.
The plane exploded and crashed into the sea just 5 miles offshore....there were no survivors.
Emergency rescue personnel headed out to the crash site where a horrific scene met them.
Several boaters went out to help that day to aid with the rescue efforts, including one of my dear friends who had a boat at the time, but it was too much for him to bear because of the mutilation that he saw that day.

The story came to light afterwards. The bombs had been carried on board by two terrorists Hernán Ricardo and Freddy Lugo in a tube of toothpaste and in a camera. They had boarded the flight in Trinidad bound for Barbados at 12.15pm.  Ricardo had traveled under a forged passport with a forged name.  They had sat in the middle of the plane. During the flight they had placed the explosives in the rear lavatory and underneath the seat of Freddie Lugo.  They both got off the plane in Barbados when it landed and checked into a local hotel under assumed names.
They then boarded a return flight to Trinidad on British West Indies Airlines that very evening. 
Their other accomplices to this dastardly act of terrorism were Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch.
You may read more on their activities in the links provided below.....but beware an incredible horror story awaits you.

The inscription reads: "In memory of those who lost their lives in the bombing of the Cubana DC-8 aircraft, flight CU-T1201 which crashed in the sea off Barbados on October 6th, 1976
May their souls rest in peace."
(Spanish Translation follows)

The names of all those that perished that day are engraved on the sides of the memorial.

The Cubana Monument was designed by Virgil Broodhagen, the son of renowned Barbadian sculptor Karl Broodhagen.
The 11 foot obelisk was erected at Payne's Bay in 1998 in memory of all those who lost their lives that day as a result of the anti-Castro attack. 
 The monument was unveiled on August 1, 1998 (Emancipation Day) during the visit of Cuban President Fidel Castro to Barbados.
In 2005, it was unveiled in a formal ceremony witnessed by the Cuban President Fidel Castro and other Caricom Heads of Government who were on the island attending the annual summit.

Every year, on October 6th, Barbadians remember the victims of the Cubana air disaster by laying wreaths at the Cubana Monument in memory of those who lost their lives.

This year is 39 years of remembrance. 

May their souls rest in peace.

Wikipedia has the in depth details here.
More info here and youtube video here.

http://www.freethefive.org/updates/USMedia/USM455Pertierra101111.htm

http://www.counterpunch.org/2006/04/11/a-glimpse-into-the-mind-of-a-terrorist/

http://www.theguardian.com/world/1976/oct/08/cuba.fromthearchive

http://minhpuertorico.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2179:barbados-today&catid=74:in-english&Itemid=94

http://sputniknews.com/analysis/20141006/193739280/38-Years-Ago-Cubana-Flight-455-Downed-by-CIA-Linked-Terrorists.html

Working hose needed - apply within

I have two garden hoses....one for the front garden and one for the back....this saves me the trouble of having to drag a hose far distances in order to water/clean.
The hose I use at the front of the house is stored on the side of the house...the windward side, and so it gets the brunt of the weather.
It had developed two leaky areas which I never seemed to have the time or remembered to fix, until  I was soaked when I turned the faucet on.
Well I did "fix" it with two pieces of duct tape, but that only worked briefly....whoever said that duct tape could fix anything must have been dreaming. 
One day I decided it was time....time to fix the leaky hose....I had just been drenched once again as I tried to water my newly planted ginger lily plants.
It's kinda hard to stay dry while trying to get away from wayward jets of water....doing the dance of avoidance with spraying water everywhere may look like fun but in actuality can be very annoying.

First I gathered all my needed supplies.

What on earth is Mum up to now?  Hope she is not going to fix the hose.  I love to see her doing her best bobbing and weaving dance to get away from the leaky hose....tee hee hee.

Next I cut the bad leaky areas out.

Sure you know what you're doing Mum?

 Do you need my help?

 The Overseer was in fine form.

 Are you sure sure sure you don't need my help?

 The hose menders were then fastened on to the hose....after the approval of The Overseer.

Unscrew the hose menders, place the black tube fitting into both ends of the cut hose and then screw the hose menders back together tightly.

There!!  All done!!

Now I can water the garden and remain dry.

No humans or canines can snicker at my dance of avoidance anymore.

Ginger Lilies

Guess you're wondering what I decided to plant in the side garden bed after removing the rogue heliconias?
I knew I needed a plant with lush foliage that had beautiful flowers....long lasting flowers pretty enough to take to the graves of my loved ones.
My decision?  Beautiful tropical Ginger Lilies.
Thanks to my girlfriend Joyce I was able to get some baby plants.
I planted three colours...pink, white and red.

Pink Ginger Lilies

Pink blooms

White Ginger Lilies

 

 White Blooms...tiny now but will be gorgeous when big.

 The baby plants grow right out of the mother plant stems...plant them just as they are...the old dry flowers provide nutrients for the soil.

They tend to die if you plant them in a tidy manner by removing the old dry flowers....ask me how I know.

Red blooms

The good old reliable red ginger lilies....they look a bit ragged at first but then they settle in quite nicely.
I am happy with my decision....can't wait until I'm able to saunter out to the garden to cut fresh blooms and create lovely memorial bouquets for my loved ones.
This is the fourth time I'm recreating this side bed..... I hope these lilies will be well behaved so that we will continue to have a lifelong friendship....fingers crossed.