Wow! How time flies! Hardly an original thought but appropriate.
It's been busy here mostly with horses, getting the new new guys settled in, introducing them to the others, fixing fences behind them.
Jibaron is still a little anxious. For the first few days he wouldn't let us approach him to clip on a lead rope to bring him in from the pasture. So we let him run for a bit until he was ready. Once he is ready, he's very easy to lead.
After just a few days, Yunque felt comfortable enough to lie down in the paddock and let Elaine approach him while he was down. This is a very vulnerable position for a horse. It takes quite a bit of trust to get to this point.
We began introducing Yunque and Jibaron to the other horses. We tried Chocolate first because he's the herd leader. Oh boy! That did not go well. Choco ran Yunque and Jibaron around and around the pasture. Yunque ran right through the wire gate where I was standing and nearly ran me over. I caught him and kept him out of the fray while Chocolate and Jibaron continued to run until Elaine stopped Choco and separated them.
Next we put Cass in with Yunque and Jibaron. That went much easier. A little posturing and then all was well.
Next we put KTJ in with the new boys. KTJ smelled new horse flesh and immediately went into season. Yunque is apparently one of three percent of geldings who still thinks he can do it. KTJ was an incorrigible tease. She flirted every way a mare can but then wouldn't let Yunque near her. Meanwhile Jibaron was way off to the side. "Y'all work this out. I'm gonna graze." In the end they settled down and now we can put KTJ or Cass with the new boys.
Next will be to introduce Chocolate to them one at a time.
I did manage to get in the water twice this week at Crashboat. The first was a solo dive. Finally! A decent dive! No current, good visibility. The second time was with one of my favorite mermaids, our friend Carole.
She and Rolf used to snorkel a lot but since Rolf began getting worse her time was taken with him so it has been a long time since she was in the water. This was her first time in the water at Crashboat since before Hurricane Maria; she had not seen the wreckage before.
Like all of us who have seen it, she was amazed, saddened, but awed by the incredible forces it took to create this.
Amidst it all there is beauty and life returning.
One of the most interesting parts of diving at Crashboat now is looking at what is growing on the wreckage. Now more than ever Crashboat is a "look closely" dive. I love looking for the abstractions in the colors of the different things growing there.
Sometimes you have to look really close. One of the big surprises to me is the number of tiny tiny Christmas tree tube worms there are now. These things are rampant! And beautiful.
Most of these are smaller than a dime.
We also said good-bye to friends. An island icon, a fixture at Ola Lola's, Suzanne, or just Zan, is leaving the island headed for Boise, Idaho. Now there's a change! She's been a dear friend for 12 years and we wish nothing but the best. We hope this is the move she needs. (Shirley and Mac actually left the island in March. I just happened to find this picture of them and Zan together. We miss them.)
Finally, today is Mother's Day. We wish a happy joyous Happy Mother's Day, not just today but every day, to all the mother's, grandmothers, step-mothers, mothers who have moved on, soon-to-be mothers, never-gonna-be mothers, all of you descendants of the goddess, whoever and wherever you are.
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