On the Ninth Day of Winter

We celebrate!

Nine years ago today on a beautiful beach in Barbados...Happy Anniversary, mi amor, mi dushi, mi querida!

And Happy Anniversary to Ola Lola's! Seven years ago today we reopened Ola Lola Garden Bar and began the wonderful adventure to what Ola Lola's is today.

For us - and for Ola Lola's - the adventure continues.

On the Sixth Day of Winter..

Happy Boxing Day!

Boxing Day is very old holiday in the Britain and adopted by the Commonwealth nations like Canada and Australia. Although there are conflicting theories of the true origins of Boxing Day (see Wikipedia and this article from Time Magazine), basically Boxing Day comes down to the English upper classes giving boxes of food, gifts and/or money to the lower classes on the day after Christmas. There are similar traditions in other European countries as well.

In Puerto Rico (which mostly has no idea Boxing Day exists) the day after Christmas is a day to enjoy the beach and stand with one's feet in the sand and let the warm ocean flow past. At least it was this year.

On the Fifth Day of Winter...

Merry Christmas!

Today was an awesome day with horses. First, Chocolate and I had a great lesson in our new round pen (Elaine's big Christmas present from me). Then Elaine on KTJ, Marie on her horse Zip and Chocolate and I had a fabulous ride on the beach. Today was one of those stunningly perfectly beautiful days. It was all the better coming behind the crappy weather we've had for the last week.

What can I say?

On the Fourth Day of Winter...

Amazing company, great friends, fabulous food in an incredibly awesome setting. Thank you Tim, Kay and Rebecca for Christmas Eve at your house.

But then we came home. Our Vizsla Jazz freaked out over fireworks. He pulled a nail out of the gate to the main part of the house. He got out and ran away. We spent hours walking the beach and driving the neighborhood calling him, looking for him. Somewhere around 1:00 am we decided we couldn't do anymore in the dark, that we we would start over at first light. We went to bed.

About quarter til two we woke up to the sound of Jazz coming up the steps to the bedroom. Christmas miracle! He was home! Shaken, sore, but home. So today he's just going to take it easy.

On the Third Day of Winter...

Elaine is back from St Lucia!! She's in PR for about a month then back to St Lucia for three more months. 

Her first day-and-a-half back she spent a lot of time with the horses. No surprise there. But we did get her diving at Crashboat on her second full day back. Awesome!

How we spend the winter...

Happy Solstice!

Happy Solstice! Today is the shortest day and longest night of the year and the first day of Winter in the Northern Hemisphere. From now until the Summer Eqinox, the days get longer, even if it is only by a couple of seconds a day.

The Winter Solstice is truly the reason for this season. In fact, it IS the season.

The rest of the story

(If our last post seemed disjointed and unfinished, that's because it was. It suffered from a bad case of  "premature post-ulation." I've tried several times to start a new post to finish the last one but power outages, Internet outages, scheduling and just plain laziness have prevented kept me from it. I apologize to everyone who read the unfinished post and said, "What the heck?" Okay - no whining! No excuses. Onward!)

To get to Cas En Bas there is a paved road through the golf course. The paved road ends at a resort and the resort's beach bar anchors one end of the beach. 

The other end of the beach is anchored by the Cas En Bas Beach Bar:

Cas En Bas, on the Atlantic side of the island, is in a kind of protected cove, at least protected from the Atlantic waves. But the wind whips down the beach, making Cas En Bas one of the most popular kitesurfing beaches on the island.

So between the resort bar and Cas En Bas Beach Bar is the "Aquaholics Kitesurf Center." (I am so-o stealing that name!)

This woman is originally from Britain. She is reputed to be the best kitesurfer in St. Lucia. Alas, I didn't get - or don't remember - her name.

The area around Cas En Bas is one area of St. Lucia we both agree we could live. There is room for the animals. It's not right in a town. The beach is beautiful - and obviously horses and dogs can swim there.

So the answer to the million dollar question posed in the last post remains "I don't know." There is still a lot to be discussed. 

We'll let you know.

the million dollar St Lucia question

Of course the $1,000,000 question everyone is asking are we/when are we moving to St. Lucia. Honestly, we don't know a) if we are moving and b) if we do, when.

The center where Elaine works would like to keep her permanently. She is doing great work there. And St. Lucia is an incredibly beautiful island.

That said, there are a number of questions. Near the top is the question of where we could live with our animals. Two horses and three dogs have to go with us.

The one area I saw is the one above. It is below Cap Estate, which is one of the high HIGH end areas to live on the island and near what is one of our favorite beaches, Cas En Bas.

The photo above is looking south and down from Cap Estate. The Atlantic is on the left. The bay at the top center is Epouge Bay and Cas En Bas is out of the photo at the top right.

This particular are is pretty undeveloped. You can see jeep and horse trails through it. And there is land available.

Cas En Bas itself is a beautiful, weird little beach. It looks wild and untamed. And in some ways it is.

  

 There is a paved road through ut the paved road ends at a resort and the the resort's beach bar anchors one end of the beach.