Late August in Eleuthera…..

Here we are – late August already in Eleuthera. That of course means that a lot of places are closed already or are about to ….

Tippy’s closed on Sunday, The Buccaneer closed at the end of last week. The Island Farm is closing this Saturday – just time to stock up on all the freezer goodies from there. I always buy my bags of shrimp from there as well as salmon steaks, and Bob just discovered how much he likes the small pork link sausages they sell. perfect for a simple supper of bangers and mash – for the non British readers that is fried sausages and mashed potato !

Of course we will still be able to shop at the all the food markets – although I did see that Big Rock is closed for a couple of weeks from this weekend. Between Eleuthera Market in GH and the MarketPlace in Rock Sound we can buy pretty much what we need. The biggest thing is inspiration for meals that we haven’t eaten a hundred times before.

With regard to eating out – The Cove is closes on September 8th , La Bougainvillea is staying open as far as I am aware, Sunset Inn will be closing later in October, 1648 is remaining open for dinner as I understand.

So time to get creative and find those new delicious recipes that we dream of !!

It was my birthday on August 17th and Bob and I went for lunch to The Cove on the Sunday 16th – who wants to celebrate a birthday on a Monday – unless you are away ? The meal we had was absolutely delicious – I had sushi and a great salad and Bob had his favorite wagyu burger. The service was lovely and it was a very enjoyable visit.

Later that week Dan and Larry hosted a dinner for me as a birthday celebration and as always the food was delicious – the company was great – Michele was there and Raymie as well. Lovely to have a relaxing chat and enjoy some great food. No dancing on the table at any stage of the evening ……

Dan did take a picture of me blowing out the candle on my birthday cake but I just cannot find it !!! So instead here is a picture of my sushi and salad at The Cove !

On August 13th there was a public meeting at Worker’s House regarding the second proposed development here in Governors Harbour by Jacob’s Entertainment based in the US. It was well attended and fortunately no problems with the power supply on this occasion.

In summary – the plan was not well received – the proposal is that the project be financed through a casino which is a key part of the plan. Bahamians are of course not allowed to gamble in casinos here – so it would rely on visitors to the island. It would appear that the plan wants to create an ‘entertainment area’ which is at odds with nearly everybody’s idea of what the island is about. Public opinion is not in favor of this type of development – more than once speakers from the floor brought up the well known saying here – Eleuthera is not for everyone !

To try and create a version of Nassau here is not going to be popular. And Jeff Jacobs was adamant that the casino was a non  negotiable. It was worrying to see how out of touch these developers with what people think and feel about future plans. As I have said before – we do need investment and development on the island to keep moving forward but this particular scheme has worried many people here……

One development that is coming on is the new Westreach Marina here in the harbour.  It is really taking shape – and hopefully it will be up and running in November….. Take a look at the pictures below – and thank you to Westreach Marina for supplying the great pictures….

On a different note – things are progressing down at The Jewel I am particularly happy with some new slipcovers I have bought for a couple of Ikea sofas. They have been discontinued for quite some time and although I have plenty of covers for them they are all grey and it did not work well with the color scheme in the room. A little online research and I found Masters of Covers – they specialize in covers for discontinued Ikea sofas. You find your sofa, pick a fabric , put your order in and 4 weeks later – I think mine were slightly less – they are delivered. The prices are very reasonable ….I am impressed with the quality and the fit is perfect – plus I could buy arm caps which means that you only need to wash them and the cushion covers. I highly recommend them – here is a link mastersofcovers.com   

I have had some furniture we had painted to work with the color scheme and I am delighted with the results….. See what you think ….

Okay dear readers, that’s it for this blog. I hope that you are enjoying the summer even though the evenings are beginning to draw in and the mornings are darker too…. The march of time – eh ?

By the way – the photo at the top was set up by Monique – our yoga guru. She had told everyone else not to jump at the end – but I just thought we were all going to jump. It was a set up as an early birthday celebration !!

Here it is again in case it gets cropped too much …..