A Brush with Tropical Storm Imelda

Yes dear readers over the weekend and the beginning of this week we had a minor brush with Tropical Storm Imelda.

It really was not too bad at all. There were very rough seas on the Caribbean side of the island on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and a fair bit of gusty wind and a decent bit of rain as well. Lots of leaves and a few branches blown down but nothing too much in the scheme of things.

The airports were all closed from Saturday and only reopened on Tuesday – it certainly was too risky to have small planes flying. Of course the power went out a great deal – some of it at least was precautionary on the part of BPL so we were thanking our lucky stars that where we are staying has a generator. Very lucky !

On Monday all the schools were closed as well as the banks and all public offices so it was a bit of strange sort of holiday ! We didn’t work on the house at all and thoroughly enjoyed a day at home as it was also Bob’s birthday ! I was brought up to believe that your birthday is a special day – and looking back over the years we have celebrated many of them …..

That evening Dan cooked a lovely meal on the Cay to celebrate both Bob’s birthday and also Raymie’s – Dan’s brother in law. It’s not his until October 7th but he won’t be here so we celebrated it early.

Dan cooked a rack of lamb for the meat eaters , made a lovely fresh salad and cooked a pasta dish of orzo with shrimp and lemon which I enjoyed very much. I have just discovered the delight of orzo – I don’t know why it has passed me by until now – but I will be having a go at this dish myself. Desert was a delicious home made tiramisu – which we all thoroughly tucked in to. As you know , I always say that I am not bothered by deserts – but I did manage to have seconds of that as well !!

It was lovely to enjoy Dan and Larry’s hospitality again – they are great hosts…….

The previous day we decided to brave the rain and drive up to Hatchet Bay to the Front Porch for a nice leisurely lunch as an early celebration of Bob’s birthday. Of course we were the only ones there and the roads were pretty much deserted. We had a delicious seafood platter which included stone crab claws , lobster , curried shrimp and red snapper – plus some fabulous potatoes …….

Francis also had made Bob a special desert as a birthday treat – which we shared. It was creamy and ice creamy and had a blueberry mousse as well as caramel syrup ……. It made a great break but then we went home and hunkered down with books and a little TV.

By the way – not sure how many of you are fans of the series Slow Horses – it is on Apple TV – but there is a new series and it only releases one episode a week so there is no chance of binge watching. They are really gripping series – this is series 5 – and Gary Oldman as well of the rest of the cast all take brilliant parts.

We have all got so used to binge watching that it is quite refreshing to go back to that feeling of – great it’s Wednesday night and there’s a new episode !!

Okay folks – that’s it for this week. Have a great weekend whatever you are doing and be kind to yourselves as the season changes……