Snow woman Evelyn ... Then ...

and now ... she's resting peacefully, if people would just quit rearranging her buttons and facial features and earrings ...

Now and then

Then ... December 1981 ...

And now ... December 2008 ... What a difference 27 years makes!

Merry Christmas!

What a truly wonderful Christmas this was ... it's been a bazillion years since we've all been together for Christmas. This was my first Christmas in Oregon since moving to St. Croix 7 years ago. It was fantastic! Warms my heart and puts a smile on my face every time I think about it ... :-)

Merry Christmas to all from beauuuuuuuutiful, snowy Oregon!

Hurricane Omar - We're OK!

Hurricane Omar made it's trek past our slice of paradise in St. Croix, and try as I might to get back, I missed it.

 

HUGE THANKS to my brother Brian and our friend Joyce for taking care of everything at the casa while we were away. Joyce was there to take care of the pups and cats while we were on vacation, and then Omar made his appearance. We asked Brian to help out, and he really worked hard to get things ready for the hurricane. Putting up shutters, taking down the wind chimes and relocate the hanging plants ... it's a lot of work to get ready for a storm. Brian got the generator set up and scrambled to get more gas and hook up everything that needs to have current when the power goes out. He and Joyce really had their work cut out for them, and I can't thank them enough - they did an excellent job. It's stressful to prepare for a storm, and such a helpless feeling to be elsewhere when it happens and wonder what's going on. I had to resist the urge to call every 10 minutes and ask what's happening now?

 

As it turns out, the storm caused quite a bit of damage around the island, but nothing compared to what I would have expected for a category 3 hurricane. I haven't seen it for myself yet, I'm still stuck in Puerto Rico; really looking forward to returning home tomorrow. The photos I've seen of the Christiansted boardwalk are heartbreaking ... check out the pics submitted here by Kelli:

 

http://stormcarib.com/reports/current/stcroix.shtml

 

All in all, it was a very lucky turn to the East that prevented more destruction, it could have been soooooooooooooooo much worse. I'll try to get some photos tomorrow, when I return home.

Creature comforts ...

It's a dogs life ... oh to be lounging on a big, puffy dog bed, surrounded by all your Wilbur the Weiner dogs, with your rawhide treat close by. Yes, sweet Maully ... you have every reason to be smiling BIG ... the world is your oyster ... whatever that means.

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A horse is a horse ...

OF COURSE!

Here's a picture of my new horse. I'm thinking "finders keepers" applies here, and it comes with a baby horse ... BONUS!

I went to get a closer look and noticed it's tied up to a shrub in the lower lot ... someone must be helping eliminate all that tall grass. Here's photos of Mama, I've named her Edwina, and baby horse, unnamed as of this moment ...

Baby horse below ... bright sunshine made the picture hazy ...

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Beautiful bloomers ...

I've been talking to my orchids, saying nice things to them, and it seems to be paying off. They're trying their hardest to squirt out pretty blooms ...

 

Tags: orchid, paradise, St. Croix, Caribbean

HEY ... where's the food?

None in dare

Poor 'lil feller ... he looks sooooooooooo sad, doesn't he? No worries, I refilled it and he's now a happy, sugar-powered lizard.

 

Tags: lizard

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Where am I?

This is a photo from the www.stormcarib.com web site.

Hurricane Ike passed well north of us yesterday, it's a big bad hurricane ... very scary for those in it's path.

Tags: Hurricane Ike, St. Croix,

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Just plain CREEEEEEEPY!

One of the creepiest creatures I've ever seen here in paradise, are the centipedes ... HOLY COW ... those are some nasty, awful bugs. YUCK!

I found one lounging at the bottom of our almost empty pool this morning. Our pool has been out of commission, water leakage continues to be a bit of a problem. Last weekends rain and wind from Hanna provided additional water and leaves to the mixture, and apparently the centipede couldn't resist doing a swan dive into the deep end. I didn't witness the swan dive, however, I'm certain it must've been spectacular .. toes pointed ... all 64 of them. I scooped him out of the pool, set him up in a couple of different poses ... back and front, then next to a couple of different measuring devices, then with sweet Mama cat. I could've sworn I saw it's front antenna thingie twitch ... I'm almost positive I saw movement. So promptly after the photo shoot was over, I tossed him back in the deep end ... just in case he was playing possum.

We rarely see these bigger ones alive, they're usually dead in the pool or dead after crossing the poison from the exterminator ... and for that I am truly thankful! 

 

Weiner-dog crossing

The clouds parted .... the sun appeared ... and the weiner-dogs hit the warm pavement ... pure blisssssssss!

 

It's storm season

Holy COW ... we're having some really, really big thunder and lightning and rain and wind! Watching the weather channel, they've actually acknowledged St. Croix ... as if someone told them it IS an inhabited island, and that we're being effected by TS Hanna. It's sometimes so annoying to watch the weather channel and they talk about the weather systems not hitting land for days ... meaning it won't reach America for days ... but we're here between the storms and America and it's right around the corner from us. I digress.

We do have a hazardous storm advisory, projected through 11:30 tonight .... gonna be a longggggggggggggg night, here's what we've been advised:

Short Term Forecast

SHORT TERM FORECAST
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN JUAN PR
845 PM AST WED SEP 3 2008

VIZ001-002-040330-
ST THOMAS...ST JOHN...AND ADJACENT ISLANDS-ST CROIX-
845 PM AST WED SEP 3 2008

.NOW...
A BAND OF SHOWERS AND EMBEDDED STRONG THUNDERSTORMS WILL CONTINUE
AFFECTING THE U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS...ESPECIALLY ST CROIX AND THE
ADJACENT COASTAL WATERS THROUGH 1130 PM. PERIODS OF VERY HEAVY
RAIN...BRIEF STRONG WIND GUSTS TO 40 MPH...CLOUD TO GROUND LIGHTNING
AND SOME FLOODING WILL ACCOMPANY THESE SHOWERS AND STORMS AS THEY
PASS BY. A FLASH FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR ALL OF THE
U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS UNTIL 1000 PM TONIGHT.

So far, they've been right on the money. 

We're watching Hurricane Ike, he's now a category 3, and Josephine 

behind him. Most paths point to North of us, but so did Hanna, and 

she took a HUGE detour south. 

Soooooooo .... plenty to watch on TV here ... might be experiencing 

my first hurricane ... we'll see. 

For updates from the islands, check out the Storm Carib weathersite: http://stormcarib.com/

they have reports from locals on all the islands ... providing a true look at what's really

happening. 

~Jill~

Horsing around

This horse is in the lot where the deer family were - probably thankful to have some helping mowing all the grass.

The deer are near the center of the picture, this is the shot from the road (before cropping and zooming) ...

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Oh deer!

Coming back from breakfast yesterday, we spotted a family of deer; Daddy Buck, Mama Doe, Baby Fawn ... awwwwwwww ... bless their little hearts.

Tags: deer

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Everthing's coming up orchids ...

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Big catface

Testing my new phone!

Mongoose dem

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Pretty Pootsi-Mae

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Hummer High-rise

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Birds in paradise

 

They're baaaaaaaack!

Every year, or maybe it's every couple of years ... the frangipani caterpillars appear on the frangipani. They sometimes will eat and eat and eat until there are no leaves remaining. I think there are enough leaves and enough trees that we won't have bare branches this year. We'll see. The leaves always grow back, and the process repeats and repeats and repeats.

Where's Waldo?

There he is ... in the front flowerbed ... wondering who took the pineapple!

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But wait ... there's more ...

Our second "crop" ...

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Homegrown pineapple ... YUM!

Our very first home grown pineapple ... simply delicious!

 

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Tags: flowers

Tags: flowers

Tags: flowers

Tags: flowers

Pretty as a picture ...

These are a few of my favorite things!

Tags: flowers, paradise, St. Croix, Caribbean, US Virgin Islands, ocean, beautiful

WOW

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Back to B O R I N G!

I'm late writing this ... imagine that! "Vacation" is over ... Mom & Dad have gone back to Oregon, and now it's back to BORING!  It sure was fun while they were here  Trying to add some fun photos, but it doesn't seem to be working ... I'll try again later.

The making of a snow angel

2008 Colorado Springs adventure

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