Quick Update, with Pics

Tom and I spent Sunday planting new gardens around our cabin, which also involved putting handrails on our front steps. It was a beautiful day, and as we were digging, turning the soil, planting, and working on defining the gardens, Tom pointed out that this was never something we never thought we’d be doing two weeks before Christmas. It doesn’t feel very Christmas-y to us here this year, between the fact that the weather is more like June in NY, and that we’ve developed nothing like our network of friends and family that we have in the States, so we haven’t been on our usual hectic Christmas party and travel circuit. In a way, it’s nice, because we’re able to take some time and we’re not missing the mad rush, but we’re missing friends and family even more than usual.

When Karin was here, we talked to some Americans who have lived near here for three years now, and I asked how their first Christmas in Belize was. The response: “We cried. But then it got better, and now it’s good.” I suspect that’s about what Tom and I will be feeling this Christmas, although we know our mood will be lifted because Tom’s parents are scheduled to arrive here on New Year’s Day, so we will have family here for at least part of the holidays.

This beautiful poinsettia tree (pic to follow) is blooming near our front gate. It makes us think of Christmas every time we drive in or out. We planted another small poinsettia in one the new gardens, and we’re looking forward to seeing how long it takes it to get this big.

In other news, Tinkerbell is off getting her transmission rebuilt. It’s been slipping more and more lately, so Tom took Tinkerbell to a transmission place in Spanish Lookout, where they confirmed that the higher gears weren’t working any more. Yesterday Tom drove to Spanish Lookout, and then came home the local way – hitching rides and walking between rides. He left at around 7am, did a few errands, dropped off the truck and left Spanish Lookout around 10am, and was home shortly after lunch. He decided that hitching isn’t a bad way to travel around here, since it’s fairly easy to get a ride, you don’t have to pay for gas, and you get to talk to a lot of different people in the backs of the pickups.

And, by the way, Selwyn’s finger is better. He says the tendon running up his arm is a little sore, but that’s to be expected since he wasn’t using the finger and just kept it curled for two weeks. The wound is healed and new skin has sealed where the incision was, so while he’s still trying to keep that hand clean, the biggest risk of infection is gone. Now he can get back to dirty work!