How Does Our Garden Grow?

"Gardens are not made by singing 'Oh How Beautiful', and sitting in the shade"
Rudyard Kipling








Gardening keeps you busy. Especially if you are Maya. If you've been keeping up with our blog, you'll remember the pictures of our garden when we first moved in last year. The garden was barren, with huge crab holes everywhere. We picked up at least a quizillion nails and had to work out how to evict crabs, fill holes and level everything out. We had some really nice big Gumbo Limbo trees, Palmettos and some Tropical Almond trees but otherwise, the garden was a virtual desert. Things have come along since then and it is time to start sharing.



















These elephant ears were tiny little babies when they were planted. They now dwarf the dogs and make the garden look quite jungley.

Buddica, the brindle on the left was the newest addition to our family, when we found her on the beach last summer. As you can see, she has grown into a somewhat lopsided but very characterful part of our family.

Midas, the little black one, known for her love of whine, loves her new playmate - if only Buddica wasn't scared to jump off the docks. We're workin' on it. Watch this space.



















This picture of Colette is going in first, only because it suggests that she has some responsibility for the garden. The truth is, that while she doesn't mind weilding a power tool now and then, it has been Maya's blood, sweat and tears that has made our garden grow.

Oh, and what a beautiful garden it is becoming. Maya has discovered her amazing green fingers and has learned how to propogate Hibiscus.





















We now have 30 Hibiscus plants in a range of 5 different colours. Maya has grown these all from cuttings and they are absolutely beautiful. They are all managing to mature, despite a repeated onslaught by Ocky, who tramples them in his effort to protect us from the rubbish truck.

Ah, there is Ocky, otherwise known as Octavius. He quite likes Buddica too, though he hates to admit it. Before Buddica came along, he didn't really know how to play with other dogs. His idea of meeting another dog involved lots of shouting, swearing and teeth.


















Fortunately, Buddica is persistent, has a high tolerance for abuse and is always in a playful mood. She has slowly taught him that playing is more fun than fighting and he's been a much more relaxed and mellow dog ever since.

We love tomatoes. Maya, grew up in an Eastern European family and Colette grew up with a French mother. Both of us have a love for fresh tomatoes and we decided that they were going to be an essential part of our garden.

The first tomatoes were given to us as a gift by a lovely lady who cycles by our house. We've known her since we've lived here and she always stops for a chat. She gives massages on the beach and does hair braiding for tourists.


















When Colette mentioned to her that we wanted to start a garden, she stopped by one day with threelittle plants in black bags.

We now have lovely and delicious tomatoes. We have about 10 plants going right now and believe it or not, we get what we call rogue tomatoes. They just sort of pop up all over the garden. We've got about 4 of them doing very well too.

We're not quite sure why this happens, but can only think that it is birds who are dropping the seeds. We dont' complain, we just water them and enjoy. We're also grateful for the seed care packages from our lovely friends Bill & Becky.


















Of course it isn't just tomatoes we are growing as you can see from the photo, we've been getting some lovely melons too.

We had a good crop of watermelons last year, but this year the melons are popping up. This came from a tiny little baby plant given to us by Cindy. Cindy is another transplanted Brit, who made her way to Belize.


















This is probably a good time to say that this sense of community is exactly what we were looking for when we came to Belize.

Maya has been very adventurous since she discovered her green thumb. The tree you see her with here is known as a Flamboyant Tree. For some reason, Colette insists on calling it a Fabulous Tree, but it is indeed Flamboyant and not Fabulous.


















What is fabulous is that Maya has grown this tree from seed and it is already taller than she is.

What has been strange is that we had a real winter. We realise that is laugable to many of you, but for us, a huge drop in temperature is as cold as it is for you, even though our starting point is much higher.

Colette spent several days wearing jeans and a jacket, not dissimilar to the way she dressed in London. The weather was gloomy and depressing. We actually had weeks with only a glimmer of sunshine and when the sun came out, so did the mosquitoes. We even considered expanding our garden to become a free-range, organic mosquito farm, but we didn't see it catching on.
























Colette doesn't honestly do too much in the garden except play with the dogs, weed a bit, pick up dog poops and complain about the ants, but she does make her own contribution by making Maya feel useful. Oh - and she deals with the serious creepy crawlies like snakes and scorpions. The most recent tarantula visitor escorted himself off the property before Colette had to intervene.

How does one do that, you may be asking. Cooking. Colette cooks and cooks and has to keep cooking.



















Maya burns off an extraordinary amount of calories working in the garden in the hot sun and she shrinks really rapidly if she isn't fed enough. Maya's previous job entailed her sitting in a studio for 8-12 hours a day and having a chef bring her food on demand. She still never got fat. But now, she is suddenly spending several hours a day in the garden with a machete and a hose and as fast as she grows it, Colette cooks it.

You can just about see one of her home made olive oil and sunflower seed loaves in the background.



















People are often curious as to what sort of plants we can grow on a piece of sand in the middle of the salty Caribbean. Well here is our trough, built by Maya and Bill. In this trough we have potatoes, cucumbers and radishes. We've just transplanted some lettuce into the trough and have some coriander (called cilantro here) growing at the other end that you can't see.

Of course, there are the plants you would expect, such as these bananas. We won't get any fruit off them til next year probably.
























These were grown from tiny little baby chutes and are really big now. The fence is six feet high, so you can get an idea of just how quickly everything grows with sun, water and tender loving care.

Some of our friends have complained that their gardens haven't been so successful. The secret to our garden is attention. Every day, Maya goes out into the garden, checks every single plant. She waters them twice a day and we are planning to start a compost pile soon.

This is a Papaya tree. This will take about 5 years to fruit, but we love Papaya. Did you know that the traditional way to tenderise meat in Belize is to wrap the meat in Papaya skin. It really works and it is super effective.
























This is the nursery at the moment. There are some orchids here, hibiscus an avacodo tree along with a few other plants. This is where they are hardened up enough to be planted in the ground.



















The orchids are a type of air plant and are absolutely beautiful when they bloom and very interesting looking while they grow.

This is a different kind of air plant. Colette bought it last year on the mainland and we put it up on tree. As you can see, we now have two Bromeliads and they seem very happy indeed.























And so it isn't really true that Colette doesn't do anything for the garden. She shops for it. This was one of her early contributions.

More recently she went to Belize City to visit the shop where everyone goes to buy anything to do with growing things - Prosser.



















This is Prosser Feterlizer and Agrochemicals. Somehow it doesn't feel that inviting from the outside, but the guys inside were more than happy to help by providing us with seeds that were tolerant to the local climate and coconut food.

Yes, we have about 10 coconut palms planted now although Buddica has done her best to reduce that number.

We really learn so much here every single day. Palm hearts are considered a delicacy by humans and are very expensive. Well, what do you think happens when a dog discovers a 'delicacy'?





















We have had a couple of disasters, but we are finding an equilibrium with Buddica and so she has limited her damage to days when she knows we will feel guilty enough not to be mad at her if she trashes the garden. Strangely enough, those days coincide with the days we don't get her out for a decent walk. Noticing a pattern here?

We don't just spend time in our garden. We have a spectacular roof. We can see the Caribbean Sea, the Barrier Reef, the Lagoon and, of course our neighbour's houses.





















I think we all spend time looking at our neighbour's homes. This is Miss Cathy's place, she lives sort of diagonal to us.

Well it seems that she watches us too!



















This picture was in an email we got from Miss Cathy. She'd snapped our 'guard' dogs hard at work.

Meanwhile, on the other porch, Midas and Maya take a break from gardening.



















Let's get back to spying on neighbours. This is our direct neighbour's house. His name is Wally. This is a woodpecker that lives in Wally's roof.



















We've named him Wally's Pecker.

And finally, just to prove that we do leave the confines of our home sometimes, this is Maya on her bike (RIP) as we cycle into town.



















This is the road that leads to our house, the lovely Mermaid Manor.

This blog would not be possible without the chocolates, seeds and other amazing gifts that our wonderful friends have been bringing us.

We're not going to name you all in case we embarrass ourselves by missing someone out, so please just know that we think you are wonderful.

How to Cook a Tapir
A Memoir of Belize
by Joan Fry

Interview with the author, by Colette Kase

Five years or so ago, I joined an online forum about Belize. This was in the early days, when Maya and I were doing research on starting a new life and we had set our sights on Belize. It was through this forum that I met Joan Fry.

Joan is an award winning author. She has written several books about horses and it was this shared interest in animals that sparked a fascinating, fun, stimulating and wonderful modern electronic pen pal relationship. Joan and I would discuss her book projects, my writing efforts, our animals, our shared irritations and gradually developed a strong friendship.

It was a surprise though, when Maya and I were standing in Belize International Airport, waiting for our flight back to England after one of our reconnaissance trips to San Pedro, when I heard someone shout my name. I turned to see a familiar, yet strangely unrecognisable face approaching me with a big smile. It turned out to be Joan Fry. Fortunately, I am somewhat more recognisable than she is. We were both very excited to get the chance to meet, totally unexpectedly, and this only proved to strengthen our friendship over the years.

Joan is an amazing writer and I was thrilled when she really dug in and started to work on her most recent book, How to Cook a Tapir, which is a memoir of her time living in Belize in the 1960's. She had tempted me with interesting snippets about her experiences but I couldn't wait for her to put it all into print. I probably encouraged her to the point for being a nag, but I am just absolutely delighted to be able to help introduce this wonderful new book.

How on earth did you end up in Belize in the first place?

I married an anthropologist who was interested in studying the Maya. Actually he was my high school sweetheart--two years older than I was, and did he ever use that fact to his advantage! The early 1960's were "the good old days" when fathers and husbands always knew best. But--I digress. My husband had spent the previous summer living with a Kekchi family in Crique Sarco and had met the local priest, Fr. John Paul Cull. Father Cull promised me a teaching job, even though I was only a sophomore in college and not Catholic.

What did you think when you first discovered that you were going to Belize? Had you even heard of it?

The country was called British Honduras in those days, and no, I'd never heard of it. Nobody in family had either, except my grandfather. He'd been a sailor in his younger days and remembered taking mahogany out of Stann Creek. It was fun for me when I actually saw Stann Creek, although I was violently seasick at the time and couldn't properly appreciate it.

What were some of your preconceptions about Belize?

I didn't have many, although there had been a spate of jungle movies when i was a kid, and they inevitably featured tarantulas the size of toy poodles. I've always been terrified of spiders. The first time I saw a real tarantula was when I was washing my hair in a stone "shower" underneath the cistern in our boarding house in Belize city. I thought some of the stones were covered with black moss until I splashed shampoo on one and it moved.

What was the biggest culture shock?

I was one of the first white women most of the women of Santa Elena had ever seen, and they gawked at me nonstop--I was their entertainment. Being a blue-eyed blond who was taller than most of them made them even more curious about me. I was never alone. At least one person was always in the house with me, and if my husband and I walked to the Rio Blanco pool for a swim, half a dozen kids would follow us. That went on for months. Actually it went on as long as I lived there, although by the time we left, the people who visited genuinely wanted to visit, not stare.

Who was your first real friend in Belize and when did you realise that you had become 'friends'?

Her name was Lucia Bah, and she was a neighbor who spoke fairly good English. Her daughter was one of my students. I realized we'd become friends one day when she confided that she didn't like another neighbor's husband because he beat his wife and kids so violently. Yes, it was gossip, but it was also the first time a woman trusted me enough, and was interested enough in hearing my thoughts about something, to initiate a conversation. Lucia also taught me to cook. I owe her a lot. I wish she'd lived long enough to see this book.

Did your husband (at the time) prepare you sufficiently for your experiences or did he mislead you at all about what life would be like?

He showed me photos but made everything sound very romantic--and there's really no way to convey the humidity, the smells, the feel of the jungle through photos alone. I had done virtually no traveling (except to Ontario, Canada, which was like traveling to upstate NY), and was in no way prepared for any of it--the open sewage canals in Belize City, the caste system (don't forget, BZ was an English colony then), and particularly the poverty of the Maya. They were subsistence farmers--very few of them even used money. They bartered for what they needed. My husband insisted that I wear skirts and blouses because that's what the Maya women wore and wouldn't allow me to smoke because the Maya women didn't. He was wrong on both counts. Most women didn't wear blouses at all, and they smoked home-rolled cigars.

What is your favourite Belizean recipe and why?

Escabeche. It has a unique taste (each cook arrives at a different balance between chile pepper and vinegar), and to me, believe it or not, it's a comfort food.

Do you still eat Belizean food? What foods do you miss from Belize?

I still make escabeche from time to time, and I still like making and eating soup of all kinds. Especially when the weather gets cold. I love chili but hold the beans. I do miss tamalitos--green corn tamales--but the food I miss most is corn tortillas. They don't taste authentic even in the Mexican restaurants that have a token Mexican woman in front making "fresh" ones. As for corn tortillas you buy in the store--have you ever taken a look at what's in them? I'm looking at a package right now, ant it lists nine ingredients! What the hell is amylase? All they should contain is corn treated with lime (the mineral, not the fruit), and water. The best are incredibly fragrant with a soft, moist texture. I'm drooling!

You clearly have had a lifelong love for Belize since coming here in the 60's, what is it about Belize that has kept you enthralled all these years?

"Enthralled" is a good word. I've asked myself that question, and I still can't give you a definitive answer. I'm sure the Maya continue to fascinate me because they had a lot to do with forming my values. I was an only child and a girl and had led a very sheltered life in the States. But in Belize, I was alone a lot--my husband was always off conducting ethnographic studies. So when I had a decision to make, I only had myself and the Maya to fall back on. I made some bad decisions but more often than not I made the right ones, probably because there was no authority around to tell me any different.

Did you really cook a Tapir?

Yes. And it was delicious!

How to Cook a Tapir - A Memoir of Belize, by Joan Fry will be released in April 2009. The book can be pre-ordered from Amazon, which happens to be offering a great pre-publication price. To order click here.

Happy Holidays from Colette, Maya, Buddica, Midas and Octavius.

Politicians, Pimps, Punta and Pussycats

This week we learn about the letter 'P'

Maya loves up her watermelon

The rain finally stopped and Maya was able to go out in the pouring torrent and rescue a watermelon. We grew a number of watermelons successfully and they were quite, curiously sweet and delicious. Why do we say 'curiously'? Well, we were not sure how they would grow in our garden and our limited cultivation skills meant it was a trial and error. Maya pollinated the watermelon flowers by hand until the bees discovered the patch and then it all went crazy. We probably had about 20 healthy watermelons before the rains, but sadly lost much of our crop. Not nearly as sad as the many people who lost their crops, homes and livelihoods on the mainland as the floods took hold. We send a big shout out to all the Belizean people who have suffered terribly during this national disaster.

Maya braves the rain like a superhero to save her watermelons.

Once the rain cleared it was time to be cultured, uncultured and everything in between. We'll start with the seriously uncultured and move forward from there.

Pedro's Halloween Party had a 'Pimp & Ho' theme. We couldn't resist and dressed ourselves up appropriately as Flava Flav and New York. Well, we did our own versions, which were good enough for Maya to win first prize. She has won a trip to the mainland, which means she'll be able to go and play on some of her beloved pyramids very soon. We probably haven't mentioned that Maya has been hit by a stroke of luck recently, winning the best prize at the SAGA Humane Society Halloween fundraiser. Maya won a skydive. No joke. Watch this space. We'll have pictures and hopefully they will be of her landing in one piece. The skydive is part of the Boogie in Belize event, which have faithfully avoided, due to sincere cowardice, since we have lived here. Now there are no excuses. Time for Maya to write her will.

Maya and Colette in their Pimp & Ho costumes.

Don't try this at home kids.

Since our title alliterated quite furiously upon the letter 'P', pussycats got a mention. That is because we had a little spot of pussycat trapping. Some kitties had started to breed out of control locally and along with our lovely neighbour Brad, Colette dutifully captured up those little cats and got them vaccinated and neutered at SAGA Humane Society.

Empty Cat Trap

Cat Trap Fully Loaded

Colette then decided that instead of rescuing cats, for a while at least, she'd rescue humans instead and went on a First Responders course held by Bandage International and the Belize Red Cross. Incredibly this two day course was absolutely free and it was really appreciated. Colette might also have enjoyed getting to pin people down and wrap them in bandage, but the less said about that the better.

Poor Anna at Colette's mercy.

Anna gets to return the favour.

Belize is full of surprises and there is nothing more surprising than a magical Belizean Fairy Princess turning up during a life saving course. But she did and it is lucky as some of the victims....umm we mean patients certainly needed some magic.

Some of the victims really needed some magic.

Belizean Fairy Princess.

We've done the pimps, we've done the pussycats, we've even thrown in a princess as a bonus. Now, to what you have all been waiting for - The politician!

We've had a bit of culture recently. Culture is something we miss out here in San Pedro. We love the handful of bands who play here every night of the week to earn their crust, but we really do like something a bit different now and again. Well, this week we got it. Firstly we were invited to a private viewing of a drama group who were visiting Belize from the USA. They were very good and they had performed at numerous schools around the country, warning them about AIDS and sending a strong message about safe sex. Their message was very powerful and there were a few tearful members of the audience. Unfortunately, people telling sad stories in front of a small private crowd, just doesn't make for great pictures, so we'll spare you.

But in the same week were able to see some of our favourite music played by the Garifuna Collective, made world famous by Andy Palacio (RIP). We've told you in previous blogs about our trips to Hopkins and also about Norman Cook, AKA Fat Boy Slim coming to San Pedro to record with Andy and the Garifuna Collective. Well, they really are fantastic, so it was a surprise and pleasure to see our own Senator Eiden Salazar, who also happens to be a TV presenter and owns the local radio station, turn up to show off his skills on a drum.

Senator Salazar on the right demonstrating his excellent

drumming skills.

Our lovely friend Walter was at the gig and as he comes from Punta Gorda and grew up with Garifuna music, he sang along to every song.

Colette can't Punta but she still loves to dance with Walter.

This is what the Punta really looks like.

Coconuts Hotel will be featuring The Garifuna Collective weekly. Hurrah!!

The wires pulled across this traditional Garifuna Drum give

it a unique snare like sound.

We'd like to thank Kerry, who works at the Waffle House, for answering Colette's international appeal for grits and bringing her a fine bag of authentic Waffle House Grits. Thanks Kerry. It was a truly heroic effort, made even more so by an explosion of grits in your suitcase. You're a star.

Ta ta for now from sunny San Pedro.

You are what you love.

(picture courtesy of the Secret Museum of Mankind http://ian.macky.net/secretmuseum/)

"When we feel love and kindness toward
others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also
to develop inner happiness and peace."

The Dalai Lama

Aren't we lucky we can love? We eat, sleep, get jiggy with it and poop. Those things don't give us much to feel superior about as a species. But above and beyond all that, we love. Who and what we love probably are one of the biggest factors in who we are as individuals.

Colette has just come back from the USA and there is a lot of love going around there. People in the USA right now really love their political party, they love their candidate, they love their country and they love the fact that the cost of gas is finally going down. A lot of people love Tina Fey too.

But this blog isn't about that sort of love because love is a word that can be bandied around far too easily. 'I love my car' and 'I love my HD TV' are really strange but truly human expressions of love. 'I love my Mother' and 'I love you' are the sorts of love that make us feel much more fuzzy inside. Maybe some sports fans will disagree as I suspect that some people love their football team (and 'football' here is universally used to encompass both American and proper (ie British) football) almost more than life itself.

So, let us start with 'I love my Mum'. Colette and Maya both call Colette's Mum, 'Mum'. Well, 'Mum' right now is heroic with many people in her family and community depending on her; one in particular is Mum's CASA kid. 'What is a CASA kid?', you may ask. Well, CASA stands for 'Court Appointed Special Advocates'. This is a national non profit organisation in the USA, which does a remarkable thing. It gets volunteers from all over the country to become the champion of the most vulnerable children. Kids who find themselves thrust into the court system in the USA find themselves often the middle of battles between adults who all have their own agendas. Children have no legal right to proper representation in these circumstances and some of these children have been terribly neglected, abused and violated by those who are supposed to 'love' them. The CASA looks after the interests of the child and makes sure that they have someone fighting their corner. Mum is one of these. We love her and we just wanted to let her know.

So here are a couple of pictures we've scanned in tribute to our Mum.

Colette & Mum in France in 1972

Mum in Louisville in 1973 - Eat your heart out Victoria Beckham

So while Colette was in Georgia sharing in all the love, Maya was in Belize sharing in all the rain. Oh boy has it been raining. Parts of Belize have been declared national disaster areas. Here is a picture from our front porch of our neighbour's garden.

Is the laundry dry yet?

But of course, we had puddles of our own. This is Midas enjoying a waterfront home at last.

Now where did I bury that bone?

The rain didn't stop Maya from spreading her love to our wonderful garden though and in the short breaks, she tended to the plants that she has nurtured so tenderly. Of course the dogs all helped.

Oh for a sweet, sweet watermelon

That isn't my bone. Why do humans think that rubber toys are anything like bones?

Meanwhile in the nursery, Buddica hides the bone in a hibiscus

This is Avril the Avocado grown from seed

This is our baby jungle

This is a Flamboyant Tree grown from seed

Maya also managed to get a couple of great pictures of birds expressing themselves when the rain stopped.

This is weather for ducks, not a Kiskadee like me

If I had lips, I'd be pouting

While we all think of love as a great thing we need to remember that love, or the pursuit of love, can lead to serious consequences, particularly for the young. That is why Maya and Colette are involved with the San Pedro Aids Commission. Maybe some of you didn't even know that there is an AIDS commission for San Pedro. Well, it is part of the Belize National Aids Commission. The San Pedro Aids Commission has many accomplishments under its belt already including:

• Teacher training
• Educational materials for young people
• Production of AIDS informercial
• Production of AIDS awareness posters and billboards
• Financial assistance for people living with AIDS and their families

They even managed to win 1st place at the San Pedro Lighted Boat Parade last year with their fantastic floating red ribbon.

To put it all in context here are some of the most up to date figures on HIV/AIDS in Belize

HIV/AIDS in Belize
3,400: Estimated number of people living with HIV/AIDS by the end of 2007
2.1%: Estimated percentage of adults (ages 15-49) living with HIV/AIDS by the end of 2007
59%: Estimated percentage of HIV cases that occured among women (ages 15-49) by the end of 2007
over 200: Estimated number of children (ages 0-15) living with HIV/AIDS by the end of 2007
over 200: Estimated number of deaths due to AIDS during 2007
Source
UNAIDS 2008 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic. July 2008.

The San Pedro Aids Commission is sustained wholly by volunteers and community contribution and does a wonderful job. They are about to introuduce condom machines to San Pedro to be placed in 'useful' locations.

So a reminder - World AIDS Day is on the 1st of December. The weekend before World AIDS Day, the 29th of November, the San Pedro AIDS Commission will be excited, thrilled and quite beyond themselves to announce a Rock Fest for AIDS. Watch this space for more information.

We think the French AIDs poster below reminds us all to be careful where we seek love.

With much love and a sting in the tail from us both to you all - Signing off from San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize.