Roosters, Hedges and Cats...You Know, Stuff Around the House

I just can't resist photographing the stuff you see while driving the pinball-game-type roads here in Puerto Rico. There were 2 trucks like this but it is hard to photograph while driving! This is on the main highway (highway 2) during peak hours on the weekend. Almost as entertaining as full sized horses in mini-trucks, but not a cool as the chicken riding shotgun!

What is it about roosters? This one, Big Red, showed up in the yard and was very solitary and quiet and kind of personable. He eats out of my hand and is head pimp now that I relocated Double-Comb.

The cats for some reason decided that this section of screen was the best workout area. While doing pilates they tore up the screen and I reinforced it with this lovely looking wire mesh with screen over it. Now it is a hard core work out area with Rip here doing Pilates. First you pull with your paws...

Then you pull and kick with your legs (the grimacing and screen biting tells you it is a tough work out)...

Then you rest and refuse to let your sister have a turn.

I have decided that meat is disgusting and I am not going to eat any more of it. I have also decided that food tastes better "raw." I love coffee and yeast breads so I will never be eating entirely raw, but I have been making raw meals for a little while and cooked food just tastes chemical to me now and overly sugary and salty. This is an Ani Phyo corn chowder that has jalapeno peppers, water, olive oil, fresh corn and some avocado on top. Very tasty.

A lot of the trees and plants have gotten out of hand and I decided to tackle the croton hedge. When I looked back at photos from 3 years ago the hedge was the height of the railing and didn't spill over the wall. This was a huge job that I hopefully won't be doing for another year or more. Look how bushy it was... (you can see where I started - over the shed)

Now it is tidy and waiting for new leaves.

Tuca just loves Big Red. One of the other cats, Chicken, actually lived with a group of chickens before joining our household. Why do the cats like the chickens so much? Why don't they eat the baby chicks? I do not understand but I really enjoy their interactions.

Diving and Playa Mar Chiquita in Manati

Yesterday David, Raul and I went to the cuevas at Shacks and spent over 100 minutes underwater - 75 minutes of it on the outside! Raul used an 80 and a stage bottle (40 cubic feet of air) and David used his 100...I used an 80 (and had 1600 left). It was a great dive and we saw an eagle ray, loads of colorful fish and a gigantic lobster. Raul couldn't get it, but did get this one.

OMG is that a measuring tool he is using? It is!

Today the three of us scouted out some new territory in Manati. David had been here once before and suggested we try it since conditions were pretty darned perfect. It is a beautiful little beach. We went between these boulders to the outside and headed out against a little current for an hour. We turned back when Raul had used his stage and was at 1000 in his 80. It took us 38 minutes to get back.

We headed north and then west. It reminded me of diving Neah Bay in Washington State. It was very exposed with neat rocks. Oh, but the water was 84 and the skies were blue...nope not like Washington.

This is a second little channel to the right of the one we went out. The beach is a perfect little beach with hot water in it. It was very clean and not super crowded. The parking is right there and so are the pincho people with snacky things and drinks.

This is looking to the east (right) of the rocks.

Here Raul is heading back down the rocks after checking out conditions.

This is just to the right of the rocks and supposedly nicer to dive. It gets deeper but you have to swim out. Conditions would need to be great like they were today. I say we BBQ too.

On the way home we checked out a spot in Arecibo that the guys are gonna try tomorrow. Right across from the water entrance there was a field with cows and this one, lonely pink flamingo.

The guys are gonna swim out to this rock tomorrow and beyond if conditions are good.

All in all it was nice to explore another place. Manati is past Florida so it is a little far but the beach was a really nice little beach. There was even a cavern entrance we drove by. Didn't look like it was a cave, but Manati has the island's only natural lake and there is some unique habitat as well as petroglyphs somewhere nearby as well.

Indecisive - What Should I Plant???

When we first moved in this little area at the bottom of the driveway was a mud slope that turned the driveway into a mud puddle. We built the wall and I planted Mani to stabilize the soil and then Tritaria (Bougainvillea) for the flowers. I thought the trinitaria would be a good solution for that area and now I hate it and ripped it all out! The vertical growing variegated kind doesn't really flower and bugs eat it. The problem is that I am waffling on what to put there. I cannot water so the area is dry. I want something 6-8 feet tall to hide the water lines (not ours) and soften the look of that spot. It would be nice to have color or flowers or something there since it is the first thing you see when you drive up and you get out to open the gate. It needs to stay kind of flat since the gate opens there. Here are the possibilities:(the mani is staying)

Gingers - the plus is that I have these all over and the negative is that I have these all over. They are tall, erect, flower often with big flowers and do well in sun (a little afternoon shade).

They may be impossible to get out if I hate them there (trinitaria was a ^%& to get out).


Choice 2 is another ginger, the "white" ginger with a totally different flower that looks more like an iris. It is smelly in a really good way, kind of dense, gets to about 6 feet, is fine in sun. Would smell great when we open and close the gate. I haven't grown it so I don't know if it is ok in a dry area (the nursery guy says it should be good - he steered me to my two favorite problem solvers, mani and the firecracker plant - erosion control). My concern is that it might get floppy, I should trim it after it flowers, might not like how dry it is.

Choice 3 is one that couldn't be wrong - croton. It will get the right height, is fine without water, will stay like a wall with a little pruning, is colorful. I have this coming up the driveway on the inside so it could be a tie-in but I have a lot of this.

The last choice I can think of is this bush - it is colorful, gets the right height, doesn't need much water (droops but I can live with that). No nice flowers, but the leaves are colorful. If I prune it I can keep it full. It would be flat. So weigh in on what you think might be best. If you are growing the white ginger you know more about it than I do. There isn't much soil between the wall and the slope - maybe 8-10 inches so stuff can kind of get supported by the slope. The mani will intermingle or grow beneath whatever I put there. I hope to plant in the next week. I am waiting for a good rain to soak the area, then I will plant during the second good rain so everything gets a good start. If you have other suggestions let me know! I want this area tidy once and for all. I considered Mirto also but it gets really big.

Stuff Around the Place

Blanco and Pollo lazing around in their little nest on a hot August day.

Why Tuca has decided she has to go between the cushions and the towel I have over them on the cat couch I have no idea but this is her latest thing. It is comical when the lump moves and the other cats sitting on her don't get it!

Rip still doesn't understand his good fortune - every dish is his and he puts his feet in to reserve it and growls and growls at the others who thunk him on the head...the he goes owwww.

Feet in an empty dish even after licking the other side clean! He awoke from his deep sleep after neutering and is as feisty as ever.

The torch ginger bloomed for the first time.

This ginger is 14 feet high maybe? Really tall and the flower is about 3 feet off the ground - there are several bright red waxy looking flowers.

Last weekend Shacks had FLAT water and David and I had a good dive out there.

We scouted around for a new spot and headed further east in the cars to another entry point. It is a little more exposed here but if it is flat we may investigate! Conditions would have to be perfect since we can see the reef and waves would make getting back in really awful.

Stevia has got to be the weakest, pokiest to grow plant in the universe, but those little leaves are very sweet and tasty.

This vine is Malabar spinach which is a vining spinach good for temperatures between 80 and 90. Tastes a little nuttier than regular spinach but I am a nut fan so I really like it and need to try to propagate it.

The beehive ginger is blooming again and they look fake too. Interesting flowers...