Another friend with benefits

On Friday, my girlfriend who lives in the north of the island popped by to say hello.
In her hand was a basket....a basket filled to the brim with sweet juicy mangoes.

 Every year, her mango trees produce some of the sweetest mangoes, and I am always happy to receive them.
To my amazement as soon as she walked through the door, she made a beeline to the kitchen sink, selected three mangoes from the basket, along with a knife from the drawer, and proceeded to "enjoy" the mangoes in a delirious state.
"Oh gosh, these mangoes so dam sweet, I just can't resist!" she cried with her mouth full to capacity.
It was a sight to behold, my crazy girlfriend leaning over the kitchen sink slurping mango juice and her only audible words between her gulps were "ooh la la," or "Gosh these so sweet."
I should have taken a photo....but alas I didn't, but I'm sure you get the picture.
Daughter dear came by in the afternoon and she took some of the mangoes home with her.

Sunday mornings are always laid back and breakfast is a meditative experience....welcoming the day in an unhurried way....no rush to do anything.
Brownie and I just finished our breakfast...lovely fresh mango slices from the last mango.

My plate on the left and Brownie's cleanly licked "don't need to wash bowl" on the right. 

When I had my bow wow crew they would also eat the skins thinly sliced, but not this boy.

 

I can't believe all the mangoes gone!!!

Auntie Helen I hope you coming back to visit soon!!

What's a guy supposed to do now that all the mangoes are gone?  Get some sleep I guess.

I hope this friend with benefits knows she has to bring me more mangoes.

HOT HOTT HOTTT!!!

Recently we've been experiencing the drought of all droughts.  Yes, we did have a few rain showers but nothing to write home about.
Naturally with a drought of such epic proportions, the heat has been unbearable.
By early morning (6am) it is steamy and the heat does not go away after sundown.  Days of unbearable heat and nights of sweating profusely in front of the fan driven breeze.
It's awful and everyone is complaining.
I try to make sure that Brownie is comfortable since his body is covered in hair and  I'm sure this makes the heat even worse for him.
His panting scares me a bit because it seems as if his body is overloaded when he pants as if he's ready to drop down with heat exposure.  No more days of throwing Big Blue Rat for him to chase because I don't want him exerting himself unnecessarily.
The garden is suffering terribly, my outdoor chores are non-existent, so are the indoor chores for that matter.
It's just too hot to do anything....I can't even think for the heat.
I worry about those construction workers who have to bear the heat to get their jobs done in the outdoors.
Darn, it's 6.18am as I write this and I am HOTTTTT!!!
My friends and I have been having the most animated conversations about the heat, some too crude to mention here, but suffice to say that the ladies are now "panty-less" most of the time and the guys are showing off their physiques in the buff as they strut around their homes doing whatever it is that guys do.
After one of these animated conversations with one of my guy friends last night, he sent me a Whatsapp message with the image below.

Makes a whole lot of sense to me now....it really does.

Friends with benefits

On Friday evening my girlfriend who lives in the country popped by for a visit.
In her hand she held a bag.
And in that bag were many goodies from her garden.

There was also a surprise treat. She had made conkies too.

The avocado was a gift from my neighbour up the street.

I love figs (miniature bananas), and I welcomed these more than ever since I can't have bananas.
She has promised me a sucker from her fig tree to plant. I'm not sure how many figs Brazen and crew will let me get but I am willing to try.

Conkies

A pumpkin that her monkeys had allowed her to harvest was cut into several portions to share among friends.
She also managed to reap a few sweet peppers despite the monkeys beating her to it most of the time.

A few wax peppers too.

One solitary cucumber....the monkeys were having a ball with her crops....she was at her wits end what her next step should be.
I reminded her about the trapper.

It will be ready

Here I go again......
Another avocado story.....another story about wayside vendors and their "tricks" that they try to play on their customers.....another Friday in the city story.
If you remember my first avocado (pear) story, it revolved around ten cents.

I spent part of my Friday morning in the city taking care of business.
I did not drive that day and as per usual I found myself walking back to the terminal to take a mini van home.
When avocados are "in season" I make the most of it by enjoying at least one per week.
I passed several vendors along the way, and stopped at most of them to enquire of their prices. 
I must mention that we have several vendors that travel from the other islands to hawk their produce here on the island.  Our local vendors don't care for this practice, but it is what it is.
Many loud disputes can be witnessed between both parties regarding "stealing customers" and "wunnah for-ners always tekking food out me mout" as well as other allegations and threats that are not suitable to be repeated on this blog.

So I'm walking and price inquiring and most folks are showing me three sets of prices for the avocados according to the sizes displayed......or so I thought.
The prices ranged from $4.00 (small) to $6.00 (a good hefty looking one).
I stopped at a tray belonging to a non-local of East Indian descent that had several avocados displayed.
"How much are the pears?"
Using her right hand to point out the various sizes she said, "Dese are four dollars and dese are five dollars and dese are six dollars."
The guy that was ahead of me selected two pears from the four dollar section.
Taking the pears from the guy she proceeded to put them in a bag and then said, "Dah is ten dollars."
"Wait wuh kinda foolie you tink I is, you just say dat dem is four dollar pears, you could keep de frigging pears" and with that he threw the bag back into the tray and stormed away.
It was now my turn, I too selected a four dollar pear and handed it to her along with a five dollar note and stood waiting for my change, and she said, "Dah is a five dollar pear dat you got you know."
I promptly handed her back the pear and she handed me back my money with a mean glare in her eye.
I walked away shaking my head...but all was not lost.
There ahead of me was a nice young Bajan lady with a tray full of delicious looking pears.
"How much are your pears dear?"
"Five dollars," she said.
The pears were big and lovely and worth every bit of the five dollars so I bought one from her.

 I told her what had happened further up the street and she smiled and said, "Yes that happens a lot."
The pear wasn't ripe so I asked her, "Do you think it will be ready for my Sunday lunch?"

 "Oh yes it will be," she replied " just put it in a brown paper bag or some newspaper and put it on the kitchen counter till Sunday......and enjoy."
Would you believe that today Sunday the pear was ready to eat.

It was like butter.
Despite the awful drought that we've been having it was sweet and delicious and juicy and just GOOD.
Just GOOD I tell you....sooooooo GOOD!

Kale chips

My friend GB recently mentioned that he had a bumper kale crop from his garden and that he was making kale chips....which reminded me that I had not made this healthy snack for a little while.
Today in the supermarket, I purchased a small package of kale which held two large leaves of curly kale.

 Came home and washed the leaves carefully, stripped them from the stem and then tore them into bite sized pieces.

 Dried them off properly and spread them out on a baking sheet lined with wax paper.

Drizzled them with sunflower oil and sprinkled liberally with an Italian herb seasoning blend and then placed in the oven at 150 degrees for 22 minutes.
I turned the oven off after twenty minutes and let the residual heat do its work for the last two minutes.

Hard to resist kale chips

VERY hard to resist kale chips

Removed the crispy tasty kale chips....it was very hard to eat just a few since they are very "more-ish" as we say here.
I munched every single one till they were all gone....absolutely delicious.

 They didn't even last 22 minutes.