Over the last month, we have had heavy rain and wild winds which have caused nationwide flooding and some landslides. The flooding was so bad one day that all schools were closed and the local river flooded into neighbouring fields and over the road making it impassable. This is the final month of the rainy season and the weather seems to be giving all it’s got before it makes way for the dry season.
However, it is an ideal time to enjoy the rivers and waterfalls on the island and Grenada has an amazing eighteen waterfalls. One of these is the Golden Falls which gets its colour from the sulphur in the water and because there are hot springs in the area it actually creates hot and cold running water! It is lovely to hear the sound of bubbling waters as I pass a local river and see rushing waters in river beds which are often dry in the Summer. It’s an ideal time to go swimming in waterfall pools or go river tubing!
This extreme weather has affected our local roads, along with heavy trucks bringing materials for a new hotel being built in the area. Some of my local friends were on national news highlighting our plight of potholes and within a few days, the local MP had arranged for roadworks to begin.
As you can see in the photo, the small road up to our house has also been affected by the weather. Without adequate drainage, it became a beautiful little stream which was a real challenge to my 4-wheel driving! It also meant that the poor delivery men who brought my large 3-foot-wide cooker for the main kitchen had to carry it all the way up from the main road before climbing the final flight of steps at the house.
Thankfully, the way things work here is that we can talk directly to the person overseeing road maintenance and so earlier this year, when our road was already bad, my neighbour and I visited the road officer in the local road office and requested some help. Recently this appeared in the form of large piles of ‘binders’ that for a few weeks we had to navigate around, along with the ongoing puddle-filled potholes and rubble. The piles of binders which are soil and more rubble are now in the process of being flattened down. The next stage will be for the side drains to be extended, otherwise, the newly laid binders will be washed away again and we will have to revisit the road officer.
So over the last few months, driving around here has felt like a real obstacle course of swerving potholes and binder piles, apart from the usual moving obstacles such as stray dogs, mongooses, crabs, frogs and pedestrians.
As I’ve navigated around the challenges on the road I have reflected on how this is how life feels in general here. There is often a new challenge and I have to find ways to get around it or sometimes reverse my route and tackle it a different way. A common challenge we face is when we can’t buy the necessary items to complete certain parts of the building work or things that are bought don’t fit with the existing plumbing or other existing parts of the house. Another challenge has been working online with drilling and sawing downstairs and not being able to find my curious cat when it has got shut in one of the rooms!
Despite these challenges, we have been making progress and I am grateful to the builders who have been steadily working on the house since I came back from the UK in September. They have tiled the two lower rooms and repaired parts of the ceilings in these rooms. They created an ‘up the hill’ storage at the far end of the garage by building a staircase to a large storage area and created two other storage spaces for tools and garden equipment. They helped me to clear out the unwanted items left by the previous owners and we moved the arts and craft things into the garage in preparation for this being an art space. They have done various other minor jobs around the house and are close to completing the major job of putting in a new kitchen downstairs. This involved drilling and hammering through the wall to create a hatch between the kitchen and the dining area and marking out what cupboards we wanted. The yellow pine wood was then cut to size on the lower balcony and concrete was mixed and enclosed in scrap wood to create the bases. It has been fascinating to watch the process and quite fun to see it steadily take shape. As I write, the porcelain tiles are being laid to create the worktops and then the sinks and kitchen appliances will be added to hopefully have it completed by Christmas.
While the builders have been doing the major work I have continued to do the small jobs such as painting door frames and burglar bars, setting up the Soul Space room and planting the salad and herb garden in the courtyard.
I have been amazed at how quickly things grow here and I enjoy seeing the daily change of the things I have planted. I now have sorrel and spinach growing outside near the water tank and lemon grass bushes at the front. I have planted a grapefruit tree which grew from a seed and I have also grown a few soursop bushes from seeds which will join the grapefruit tree at the side of the house when they are large enough.
I’m very grateful to a local friend who has given me cuttings to start growing my herb garden. So in the courtyard we now have ginger, turmeric, garlic, panadol (yes it’s a natural painkiller, especially good for headaches!!), rosemary, oregano, mint, lettuce, cress, thyme, basil and kalanchoe pinnata. This last plant is also called Miracle Leaf because the plant can grow from just a leaf. There is a children’s tradition here of writing the name of someone you like on a leaf and hiding it in a book. If it grows it means that your romance will also grow!
I’m hoping to learn how to use these herbs in cooking and also to understand more about their health benefits. Bush tea and herbs are commonly used as medicines in Grenada and I have already discovered that I can make thyme tea which helps a sore throat and soursop tea can help with sleep. I have met several people who are knowledgeable in this field including a few trained herbalists and nutritionists. So there is the possibility in the future of us offering workshops and other health events here. As this retreat place will become a place of healing and a place for people to connect more with nature, it seems a natural progression to grow a herb garden and to help people understand the natural medicines that are growing around us.
So as people prepare for Christmas and another year draws to a close, I remember my first Christmas here, last year. I had just got my cute kitten, Cosmos, who has grown into a very friendly companion. He confidently walks around the house, checking on the building work and welcoming visitors and he loves exploring the garden by day and walking on the roof at night. He has also become used to our new addition to the family, Luna the dog.
This stray dog was featured in an earlier blog as a ‘Grenadian gift’ because she would accompany me on local walks and was so friendly, even though I didn’t feed her. She is popular with a lot of people here and was known by some as Daisy but then I discovered others called her Luna. I remember joking with the people who called her Luna that they couldn’t use that name because that was the name I had chosen for when I got a dog here. Little did I know at that stage that Luna would become my dog!
When I came back from my holiday in the UK, Luna was very malnourished and seriously ill with heartworm. This is often fatal if left untreated so I decided to take her in. A lovely vet from the non-profit ‘Vets on the Go’ came and started her on medication and she is gradually making progress. Luna lives outside on the downstairs balcony, which is where she slept when she first came home with me after I had just moved here. On Sunday afternoons she knows that people are cooking food on the beach and she will often wander down to meet up with old friends and enjoy a few chicken bones. It is impressive to see how she knows it is a Sunday even when I can’t hear any music or activity from the beach. So this Christmas I will walk down to the beach for our Bring and Share meal and a swim and I’m sure Luna will join us!
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