Spring Sprang and the Dog Days of Summer are Upon Us

Dog Days were popularly considered to be an evil time "when the seas boiled, dogs grew mad and all creatures became languid causing to man burning fevers, hysterics and phrensies". Bradies Clavis Calendarium, 1813



























Hello everyone! Have you missed us? Have we been very naughty bloggers? Will excuses suffice? Well, let's give it a try. We are really busy. We never thought that would happen again. When we arrived in Belize, we took to the relaxed, laid back lifestyle and thoroughly enjoyed pretending we were retired. But, as they say, idle hands makes for the devils work - or something along those lines. Even though some of you might say that we are a bit devilish (in the nicest possible way), we certainly can't be accused of being idle. So, things started filling our time. Colette started her Be Kind Belize programme, which has kept her very busy and been a huge success. She graduated nearly 60 children from the programme this year and will be running the scheme at the San Pedro Summer Camp, which she is very excited about. We also joined the AIDS Commission and help them out whenever we can, we joined Friends of the Humane Society (FOTHS) and are constantly involved in their very important fund raising activities. We built a house and had to deal with the mess that we were left with after our contractor walked off the job (and still are dealing with the mess).

Now, we have our new business, Conch Creative, which has been such an incredible experience. Neither of us could have predicted that this would have been the path we would follow but we have had the chance to see the most amazing places and work with some really cool people - not to mention the absolutely stunning beauty queens and models we've had the privilege of photographing. They do say life is a roller coaster and we're certainly enjoying every minute of the ride. Fortunately, our particular roller coaster travels slowly enough that we get the chance to stop and enjoy the view from time to time. We never ever forget how lucky we have been to end up in such a gorgeous and welcoming country as Belize. So much so, that Colette won first place in a writing competition, sponsored by ambergriscaye.com about the first time we ever came to Belize. You can read it here along with a bunch of other wonderful odes to such a beautiful place. Her entry was called 'A Love Letter to Ambergris Caye'.

Now we can update you with what has been happening the last few months. So much has happened, we don't know where to start.

Shopping seems as good a place as any. Colette likes to take off on trips to Belize City for a bit of shopping and culture now and again. This time it turned into a really girlie trip. Many purchases were made, including a large number of shoes. Colette has been sworn to secrecy regarding the purchasers of shoes, but only one of these pairs is hers. We'll leave you to guess!


































Shopping builds up a huge appetite, so the girls all hit the wonderful Riverside Tavern, where they had delicious burgers and mucho mucho beer.









































After that it was back to the Great House Hotel, which is just a gorgeous place and Colette shared a room with the gorgeous and sassy Christine. There was much giggling, a few gaseous moments and much amusement at the hole in Colette's pajamas but the girls did have to justify their trip with some culture....and they got some great culture indeed.








































The girls got all dressed up and hit the town. The Bliss Centre in Belize City is the centre for everything cultural. It was built with money provided by Baron Bliss, who loved Belize very much. On this night, the Indian Embassy was sponsoring an evening of traditional Indian dance. It was splendid, dramatic, colourful, graceful and hugely entertaining. The whole place was packed and everyone had a great time.





































Colette and the girls were all happy and refreshed having burned off their island fever and so it was back to San Pedro. But, as we're on an Indian theme, we should fast forward to another amazing night. This time in San Pedro. In Belizean culture, the coming of age is a girl's 15th birthday and that is when they have their quinceanera party. We were honoured to share this celebration with a wonderful family for their beautiful daughter Elizabeth. We had no idea what to expect but WOW is all we can say. What a party. It was Indian themed.



























Elizabeth arrived on an almost life size papier mache elephant, powered of course by a golf cart. The party was at the local Tennis Club and they had created Indian tents and decorated quite fabulously.' The last we heard, the elephant is in hiding somewhere on San Pedro.




























Elizabeth performed some traditional Indian Dance and was absolutely, without a doubt the Belle of the Ball.


















It was just so much fun. Colette and Maya took pictures as a gift to the family. Maya often finds herself perched in precarious positions when taking photographs, so luckily she had her lovely assistant to give her some support when she needed it most. Thankfully our friend Shamir, another great photographer, was there to record the event for us. Thanks for the pic Sham!



















So many of our great friends were at the party. Maya couldn't help share some love with her 'brother from another mother', the indomitable Will.

Then it was Maya's turn to deal with her own island fever and she was lucky enough to be invited to visit the American Crocodile Education Sanctuary (ACES) in Punta Gorda. She tagged along with our friends Tamara and Nana and even became known as the 'Crocodile Whisperer' as she amazingly started a conversation with a rescued baby croc, who actually talked back. If you don't believe it, check it out on You Tube here.



















Once she came home, we had our own flora and fauna to deal with. It was time to harvest our fruit. Freshly and organically grown bananas and papayas are just so luxurious and delicious. It is so awesome to be able to pick them right in our own garden.



























We have our share of birds here too as we just about live in the trees. Some of them stay outside, like our nesting White Wing Doves but some are more troublesome, such as the Hummingbirds who find their way into the house. You should see the palaver required to escort one of these outside.



























Maya also is required to hunt and gather for the household, which she did in tremendous style by catching this enormous and delicious grouper, which was about 20lbs.



























This blog is a doozy, isn't it? I can hear you all saying - 'What happened next?'. Colette's turn this time. She decided to visit the USA where her Mum and Stepfather live in the deep deep south. This is where Colette went to school as a kid and so one of the best surprises she had was that her schoolfriend,Nancy, from way back when popped down to St. Simon's Island to visit her. They were both animal mad then and not much has changed. Nancy is helping to get a sanctuary for rescued exotic animals off the ground in Georgia called Tiger Stripes. They drank far too much, Colette had the worst Margarita she has ever had in her life (bars - if you have real limes, don't use a crappy mix to make a Margarita - it is just gross) at a local establishment which will remain unnamed to protect its embarrassment. Colette sneaked back home at an ungodly hour feeling like she was a naughty school girl staying out past her curfew. But they did solve all the world's problems that evening so we can all rest easily now.






















Now to rewind slightly. Colette had the chance to meet up with our wonderful and much loved friends Bill and Becky while in Savannah. They had lunch on the river and caught up with all the Island gossip. So you can imagine it was a rather long lunch as San Pedro provides so many fun stories. We're very excited that they will be visiting us soon again.





















Colette did lots of family visiting and eating. Here is a picture of her Stepfather, Ray, dissecting and performing surgery on the old grandfather clock.





















Here is her Uncle Mark, Auntie Ann and Mum looking like a proper family. Aren't they cute?





















Here is the amazing low country boil that Mum put together for a group of close friends. Low country boil is a traditional southern meal but Colette (and Mum's friend Rachel - who normally gets the leftovers) was horrified when Mum threw the uneaten food over the deck and into the sea. She claims she is helping more shrimp to grow. We're not sure about her reasoning. But you don't argue with Mum.





















That wasn't the only great meal to be had. Rachel, as is the custom, took everyone out for a delicious Japanese Teppanyaki food. The chefs always put on a great show and the food is yummy scrummy delicious.





















Colette headed home so grateful to be back in Belize. Her trip was somewhat grueling. All she will say is that she won't be trying to save a bit of money by traveling through Mexico again. She returned to complete her Be Kind Belize classes and of course there aren't many things that beat cute pictures of children. So here they are.







































































There is just one little project left that we wanted to tell you about. It sort of screws up the timeline of this blog, but hey, we are rebels. Over Easter, there was a kite flying competition. Now, sometime before this, a friend of ours, Paul, who is an amazing glass blower, had sent us some of his stunning marbles and asked us to place one where a child could find it. Paul owns Artemis Glass Studios.

Well we thought the kite flying competition would be ideal, so we headed to the beach and planted our magic marble in the sand. What we hadn't reckoned on was that during a kite flying competition no one looks at the sand. Everyone is bloody looking up at the sky. It took a bit longer than planned and Colette had to be on sentry duty as the occasional adult would stumble across the marble and attempt to pick it up. Colette would rush at them shouting 'that is for the children, keep your mitts off it'. You have to laugh. Eventually though a lovely little boy called Christopher from Holy Cross School found the marble and was so thrilled he couldn't quite believe it was his.





































We think this blog has been long enough, so we will bid you all farewell for now as we have so many more adventures awaiting us. We do hope you'll check out our website, Conch Creative . We update the photos and try to make sure that there is something for everyone's taste. But more selfishly than that, the more people log onto our site, the higher it goes in the search engine ratings...and well..that is what it is all about these days. On top of that you could be personally responsible for making a bride like this a very happy woman by helping her to find us.

Birds, Bees and Bromeliads

What a busy month. We have loads to tell you. Let's see - It started with Colette deciding to rescue a parrot. Someone locally had just gotten a young Red Lored Green Parrot. These are native to Belize and we have learned recently that it is not legal to own any native birds. Many people do keep parrots as pets here and all of them (except for those imported legally under CITES - and there isn't many of them) have been poached from the jungle. This usually involves cutting down the tree and raiding the nest. These poachers then sell the young birds, often with their wings cut terribly, to people who want to keep them as pets.

Parrots are intelligent, engaging and entertaining animals and it is not surprising that they so many people want to keep them as pets. Unfortunately, the wild population is being decimated in Belize by poaching and by citrus farms, who consider parrots a pest and slaughter them (legally) by their hundreds.

Colette was lucky to have been in touch with the wonderful people from Belize Bird Rescue http://www.belizebirdrescue.com/near Belmopan on mainland Belize. They did everything within their power to assist Colette so that she could bring the parrot to their sanctuary for rehabilitation. So we'll start this blog by following one young Red Lored Green Parrot on his journey back to freedom.

This young Red Lored Green Parrot had found its way from somewhere near the Macal River on the mainland. It ended up with a family who was finding it difficult to care for it. They had only had it a few months.

Belize Bird Rescue sent Colette an appropriate carrying cage with a little perch in it. This picture was taken at the local airport as she was preparing to fly the parrot over to the mainland. Belize Bird Rescue were waiting for her at the other end and whisked her and the parrot off to their amazing facility near Belmopan.

Both of us love mainland Belize and Colette was thrilled to have this opportunity to spend a little time there. Little did she know that she was going to be visiting a magical place and spending time with some amazing people.

As she got near to Rock Farm, where Belize Bird Rescue is located, she recognised a landmark from previous visits to the mainland. This is a huge Christian radio station that sticks out eerily high up on a hill, rising up out of the jungle. The drive was spectacular as always but she wasn't prepared for the beautiful place that Rock Farm is.

It is an idyllic place, clearly built with love. Almost like something out of a children's story book or fairy tale, where animals are everywhere, happy, healthy, friendly and living their lives to the max. Horses, ducks, geese, guinea fowl, chickens, turkeys, parrots, dogs and even owls are all over the property.

Colette says that it was like being a kid again, collecting freshly laid eggs, horseback riding or walking down a path to find this engineering feat of a watermill. This watermill is completely driven by water and is just made of pipes and wood. It provides fresh water for the whole farm.

So while the little parrot settled into his temporary new home (above) and got to know some of the other parrots, Colette wandered around Rock Farm.

This is the next stage for parrot rehabilitation. Once their cut wings grow back - and sadly that doesn't always happen - they can relearn to fly in this luxury aviary with six full sized trees.

But there are plenty of other trees at Rock Farm. Here are some bananas and a Breadfruit tree in the forefront.

Here is a close up of a Breadfruit growing on a tree. They are thinly sliced and fried like crisps.

Colette went horseback riding and while there are no embarrassing pictures of her on horseback, you can see what a wonderful place Rock Farm is for horses.

These are locally known as 'stingless bees' although I understand that they can sting. They were just hanging around and doing their bee thing.

There isn't a place at Rock Farm where there aren't any animals. This cute grotto is a happy place for ducks and chickens.

And there are chickens everywhere. They even came upstairs and would hang out on the balcony with the people and dogs.

Of course none of our blogs are complete without a dog picture. Here are two of the pack of six that prowl Rock Farm. Bad guys beware. Good guys watch out - you might get licked to death.

Colette had the opportunity to get some lessons from the Bird Rescue Belize people in how to groom a Cockatoo. This extremely endangered but magnificent Moluccan Cockatoo certainly enjoyed the attention. These birds are not native to Belize and this bird had been brought into the country by someone who had no idea how to care for it. As a result, he has been so lucky to end up with Nikki and Jerry who run Belize Bird Rescue, but they make it plainly clear that they are not pet bird keepers and that it breaks their heart that this bird can never be returned to the wild, nor will he ever meet others of his kind.

There were just so many things that reminded Colette why she loves the jungle in Belize so much. Flowers like these were all over the Rock Farm property, just growing wild.

You couldn't turn a corner without finding another beautiful tropical flower. When you see them in flower arrangements in the USA and Europe it is hard to imagine that they just grow wild some places. Belize is one of those places and there is a great flower story coming up later in this blog.

Here is the orange orchard at Rock Farm. It was such a beautiful place, Colette didn't really want to leave.

But this owl, which had recently been rehabilitated by Belize Bird Rescue, did indeed want to leave. He is now free flying on the property and will soon be heading back off into the wild.

Owls move so quickly and quietly it is a real challenge to get a picture of them flying, but Colette just managed to capture this one as he flew away to freedom.

Colette did have to return home and she misses San Pedro like crazy when she is away. But before she did, she went to visit our lovely friend Chap, who runs Junglewalk books in Belmopan. It really is the cutest little bookshop, run by the cutest guy. Love ya Chap.

Meanwhile, Maya was at home getting our garden started. It may look a bit bleak in this picture but those are baby palm trees that you can see growing. Some of them will provide us with coconuts when they get bigger.

Knowing that the garden is Maya's baby, Colette went and bought her the plant that you can see above. It is a pink Bromeliad. The picture above is of it where we placed it up a tree, where they grow. They are, in fact, air plants of sorts. It will grow onto the side of the tree but take no nutrients from it. Colette bought this at a great roadside restaurant on mainland Belize called Cheers http://www.cheersrestaurant.bz/. They sell all sorts of beautiful orchids and bromeliads. They promised Colette that this one is salt tolerant and will do well on the island.

Here is a close up of its magnificent flower. You can just see the little smaller purple flowers that are starting to sprout. When Colette brought it home we heard a strange croaking coming from it. We discovered a little stow away tree frog that still sits in it now and chirps loudly every night. A bit sad really because no one ever chirps back.

Maya works really hard in the garden every day, which is pretty evident if you look at her arms. She deserves some rest and relaxation with Buddica. But Colette decided to try to get some action in a completely new style (for her anyway).

Those of you who know her will be shocked, but believe it or not, Colette tried windsurfing. Here she is is trying to get up on the board. Yes that is her in the brown bikini. She no longer has that blonde hair.

Now she is getting the hang of standing up. That is difficult for Colette when she is sober and standing on land. This is a challenge.

And thar she goes. She is actually standing and moving. She didn't do too badly and really had a great time. She got this lesson compliment of Sailsports Belize http://www.sailsportsbelize.com/

Thanks for that. Maya is going to give it a go next time.

While all this was going on, ACES, http://www.freewebs.com/ppinpg/the American Crocodile Endangered Sanctuary, from mainland Belize had been busy preparing 'Debbie', a crocodile recently rescued from San Pedro, for release into their sanctuary habitat. When Debbie was captured in a pond, about 200 meters from our house, she was found to have suffered a number of injuries at the hand of humans including a bullet hole, spear wounds and broken ridges. She was also harbouring a nasty bacterial infection. Marisa Tellez, the zoologist working with ACES, makes it clear that the American Crocodile has the most powerful immune system on the planet. If Debbie is suffering from an infection from the water, then the human community needs to start worrying about what is in that water.


Debbie settled into her new home without any serious fights with the others, much to everyone's relief. Debbie was lucky. Two other crocs from San Pedro have died in recent weeks. One was clearly killed by poachers and had its head cut off. The other ACES had attempted to rescue after locals had captured it but a hook that someone might have tried to catch him with had caused internal injuries to the croc and he died.

But it isn't all bad news for the animals. Colette helped out at this SAGA fund raiser in Central Park, San Pedro. The charity raised a wonderful $2500BZD. Congratulations to everyone.

So, lots of thank yous from us to Jerry and Nikki at Bird Rescue Belize for being lovely people and for welcoming Colette into their home and family. Thank yous to ACES for doing work that isn't hugely popular because Crocs aren't very pretty, but very important. Thank yous to everyone that helped raise money for SAGA, http://ambergriscaye.com/sagasociety/