Mother's Day

Looking at pictures of Mother's days past while enjoying the company of the family matriarch.
Dessert always brings smiles and especially after a great meal. Even though it was supposed to be the mom's day off, it was Granny, aunt Tinnie and Aunt Shir Shir that fixed all the food.
Solving all the World's problems.
Taking the advice "go fly a kite". It was a little too choppy for swimming but nice and windy for kites.
Watermelon is refreshing on a warm day at the beach. We hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day. We did.

Grand Turk

We took a Saturday morning flight to Grand Turk; twenty minutes away by Twin Otter. It was a very windy day which made for an exciting flight and landing. I think we landed three times.
Downtown Cockburn Town in Grand Turk is not the most exciting place. But the solitude was a welcome break from the "bustle" of Provo. And it was a very pretty town full of historic buildings and a few friendly people.
More of Front Street. The road is one way in this section and is lined with large Broadleaf trees. There are small resorts and B&B's along the way so we had breakfast at Turks Head Inn just to the right of the picture. Then we visited the National Museum which had nice shipwreck and salt production displays. Basically just roamed around and took in the scenery.
This is the waterfront downtown. It reminded me a lot of Cayman except that I couldn't see any fish in the water. Behind the wall on the left is the main road "Front Street". We got to see the wild donkeys on the road back to the airport and then headed home back to Provo at 3pm. Back home tomorrow.

More Turks

The internet does not work inside the apartment so I am forced to sit on the porch to check my emails etc which as you can see is a very miserable inconvenience! In the background is Grace Bay and as yet I have not set foot in the water!

Karie Bounds from Dept of Tourism is obviously delighted to see the "trained" conchs at the conch farm. This is one of the study trips we did as part of the conference. We also visited the Iguana Reserve but missed one trip due to weather.
Part of the experience of visiting new places is trying new cuisine... this was lunch at Sailing Paradise; a little shack on the water in Blue Hills. Note the teeth on that fish! The rice is Okra Rice which is quite tasty. Interesting to note that like many similar eateries in Cayman, the server could speak no english.

And yes, a very long game of pool as we both demonstrated our total lack of skill at the game! I eventually won the first and she the second. It was raining and we walked back and forth to the hotel (rather than take a taxi or bus) so played a game of pool until the rain passed.
There are hills on Provo and this must be about the highest. A very narrow and treacherous dirt tract but it did lead to a beautiful panoramic view and most importantly a place to turn around. With a day and a half free I am positive there will be more adventures to come.

Turks and Caicos

Earth Day 5K

The whole gang was up for 6:30am Sunday morning for the 5K run. Our six staff in the back (Janice, Denise, Me, Paul, Marnie and Caroline) and two volunteers at the table. We had our biggest turn-out ever with over 200 people entered.
The male winner completed the 5K in just under 17 minutes, our trophies are always unique; in this case model "Catboats".

Hunter's Field Trip

Looking into the "Step well" in George Town,
East End Lighthouse Park,
and Wreck of the Ten Sails Park.

Gary's Birthday

Other than the fact that this was the second of three 50th birthday parties for Gary, no further explanation is needed.

Karate

First day of Karate classes!

Sushi and Sunday

Saturday night we had a sushi party. None of us had ever made sushi before but it turned out to be really good. Then we got into playing dominoes and finished a little later than we had expected, about 4:30am!

When we all finally got up it was a beautiful Sunday for a swim. After becoming prunes playing Marco Polo...
twas time to start jumping rope!
Everybody got into the act,
except the happy couple who had played a little too much the night before! A fun weekend and everyone will be off to bed early tonight.

Tea Party

This is the George Town District Committee Tea Party held Saturday at historic Merrendale. Note the drama queen in the foreground and the hard-working men in the background.
Mr. Paul and I with my deputy GM in the background.

And the Aunties came too!

Visitors

After working all day Saturday we had a quiet Sunday at home and were happy to have people stop by including Granny and Grandaddy! It was off and on overcast so nice and cool for sitting outside.
Dolly and her mom also stopped by much to the delight of Rex (and the rest of us).
There was lots of swimming even when the heavens opened up late in the afternoon with the heaviest and longest rain in months. It cleared off in time for cooking some steaks on the grill, shrimp ceasar salad, new potatoes and Cabernet Sauvignon; perfect ending to a beautiful day.

Almost all back together

Saturday afternoon and the family is almost all back together, just waiting on Miss Kris who is back tomorrow. Nice sunny day for a swim in the pool and the water is warmer now too.
Rex is happy to have everyone back.
Thank godness I don't feel as bad as I look! Held the camera underwater and this is what I got, kinda looks like the morning after an evening out!

Easter weekend in Little Cayman

I spent the long weekend in Little Cayman without the kids. They were to go camping with their aunt on the big island but ended up getting sick and having a quiet weekend indoors. Owen and I searched for whelks while the girls enjoyed a swim at Point-of-sand.The weather was beautiful for just about any watersport, so we did a lot of fishing and conching but also took some time to relax.
Having collected a pot full of whelks, Gary and I enjoyed some rocky mountain refreshment and marinated conch while the pot came to a boil!

Chef Owen and I then did some quality control prior to serving the "Little Cayman Escargot"! More pictures to follow.

Auction and Sports Day

Hayley at Sports Day today, Hunter was home sick with fever.
His Excellency and me at the Governor's Art Auction.
Our own "Vanna White" (but much younger and prettier) working hard at the auction.

Odds and Ends

This is one of my orchids (a cattleya) in bloom. Right now I have a few beautiful ones so it is like having my own mini orchid show.
Going to Little Cayman for the day is not without its consequences: I returned to find this lovely display behind my desk (I think it is their way of getting free lunch out of me for a month) and I have now enhanced it with additional pictures of my staff, until I could figure out which one had found the spare time to create it! I love my staff and I appreciate their sense of humour, but do not necessarily agree with some of the choices of persons being honoured!

Weekend Projects

Did my orchid presentation at the Orchid Show on Saturday and Sunday mornings, had a full house for both! This is part of the display. Event was well attended and a good success. I did not buy a single plant but some kind soul did give me one!
In the afternoons I have been working on my deck extension. Ran out of lumber today so a good excuse for an afternoon break! Stayed in and watched a depressing movie with Jenn last night. Should have gone out. That might have been at least slightly less depressing!

My deck work has been closely supervised by this chap. I don't think he knows I am slagging off just yet! We are heading off to Granny's for the afternoon with a few visit stops along the way. Have a happy Sunday!