Dinner at Mahogany Room at Carambola Resort

Last night we had dinner at the Mahogany Room at Carambola resort, truly a wonderful dining experience. Chefs Rick Skogland and Dana Luppi did an excellent job of creating one amazing culinary delight after another. If you live here on St. Croix, you've just gotta go there ...

starting with a delicous salad ... YUM! ...

an appetizer of panko crusted fresh spinach, pineapple, and tuna and a sauce that I don't remember the name of ... YUM! ...

The main course: "almond crusted mahi-mahi drizzled with passion fruit beurre blanc, black bean papaya salsa and Caribbean seasoned rice and fresh veggies" ... YUM! ...

and MORE food ... dessert: Mango empanada with homemade vanilla ice cream ... YUM ..

p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-pucker up!

We've got lemons on the Meyer Lemon Tree ... FINALLY! I planted this a couple of years ago and now it's squirting out bunchs of fragrant blossoms ... and low & behold ... an actual lemon.

HALLA-FRICKEN-LOOOOOOYA!

I've been checking on it every day, making sure it's still there ... and there it is ... still there ...

Could it be any cuter? :)

This morning I took pictures of some of the other bloomage goin' on. Here they are, smelling really, really lovely ....

So there I am, crawlin' around on the ground, smelling all the blooms, enjoying my little slice of heaven ... when suddenly ... OMG ... I'm in Total Lemon Heaven! How did I not see these before, I've been crawlin' around on the ground a LOT since the blooms popped out. Guess they were covered by other leaves and I didn't lounge on the ground long enough to look up and admire it ... glad I did today ...

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ... it's the little things in life ... =)

~The End~

P.S. Stay tuned for the next chapter: Goin' BANANAS ... how did I not see THEM earlier? :)

Earthquake in Haiti

Watching the news and seeing the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Haiti is truly heartbreaking. And knowing there are still people buried and waiting to be rescued is ... well, it leaves me at a loss for words. My thoughts and prayers are with all who are there, and those that have family and loved ones there. I can't imagine experiencing something so horriffic. I keep watching the news, I can't seem to stop watching ... hoping to see some good news.

This afternoon I read a story from the stormcarib website www.stormcarib.com , from Haiti, written by the Rollings. They're living in Haiti as full time in-country directors of Clean Water for Haiti, a humanitarian mission that works to give Haitian families access to clean water.

His experience and description of that day is nothing short of a nightmare ...

http://rollingsinhaiti.wordpress.com/2010/01/13/earthquake-day-in-port-au-prince/

Everything's coming up roses ... and tomatoes!

Oh how I LOVE winter ... the weather is finally getting down to a more comfortable mid-80's during the day instead of 90's. AND ... it's cooling off at night; the good sleeping weather is here ... YIPPEEEEEEEE! The night time temperatures are dipping down to the 70's ... brrrrrrrr! Nothing like pulling up the comforter during a cold winters night and enjoying the brisk chill (as I type this I'm Laughing Out Loud because I know peeps are cursing me as they read this ... just sayin'). We have our windows open all year long, but close some during the summer when we run the a/c in our boudoir. It's nice to have all the windows and doors open again. We keep the front and garage doors open (formerly known as the revolving door for the pups), it's just easier and more convenient than opening the screen door 4000 times a day when they're ready to go out or come in, come in and go out, go out and come in and go out. They have us trained very well, it's a win-win situation, plus, it's very convenient for Frank the cat to do his walk through to the back door.

One of my favorite parts of our current winter weather is the gardening aspect. I planted tomatoes forever ago and they kept dropping their blooms all summer long ... insert curse word(s) here. Finally, it's cooling off at night and they're growing and looking quite scrumptious ... should be a bumper crop very soon. If we can keep the pups from noticing them, we might actually get to enjoy some tomatoes ourselves. Here's a picture of our first one picked last week

I've seen the pups eyeing these bigger tomatoes, so I'm keeping their personal less-than-cherry-tomato garden growing. They've learned to pick and eat tomatoes and help themselves; they really, really, REALLY love them. These are theirs ...

And there are plenty more where these came from, in fact, something we've recently discovered ... which astonished me and for some reason made me say "EWWWWWWWWWWWW" ... they're growing their own garden. Won't go into the graphic details (dog poo) but, we recently discovered tomato plants coming up from seed ... lots of them around the side yard area where the dogs do their business. HOLY CRAP ... look at all the tomato plants ... this is a small snapshot of their planting efforts: I dug up a couple of them and planted them in the pups personal tomato planter ... the supply will never end, and for that I am thankful!

Happy New Year!

~Jill~

Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree

Here's what's left