Well, I was home for all of five days - just long enough for my dog to think that maybe I was home for good - but no, I was off to the sunny isle of Grenada. This island nation is not far from the equator so, yes, it is hot. But more than that, it is humid. What is it about me and humid areas, anyway? Kansas, Grenada, even North Carolina, where I live, and I don't particularly care for humidity. "Particularly care" is putting it mildly. The thing that gets me through it is air-conditioning and swimming pools. What wonderful inventions! But really, as long as I have access to those things, I can get by. And ceiling fans; gotta have ceiling fans to keep the air circulating. I can pretty much handle a non-air-conditioned room if there are well-functioning ceiling fans all over the place. So that way you can save the air-conditioning for the bedrooms, but you have to leave it on all the time because every once in a while you need to run in there for a few minutes of respite. And swimming pools; well, that's self-explanatory, I think. Anyway, as long as there are a few ways that I can cool down, I'm okay. Oh yes! And lots of water - cold water.
So I have been here a bit over a week now and I am sporting a new shoulder burn because the SPF50 didn't work on me and the last few nights have not been too comfortable but my son-in-law assures me that the pain should go away soon. It has been years since I last got this red, but it does seem to be letting up a bit. I am restricting my pool time to late afternoon/early evening.
I guess I should tell you why I came to Grenada anyway. My daughter and son-in-law and granddaughter are here as Matt is in medical school. They were here once before and I visited them twice then but this is my first time this year. It will by no means be the last as I can't be away from my family for too long. My granddaughter needs her Gramsy just as much as her gramsy needs her. They are renting a lovely little house down here that just happens to have a pool and it is right on the beach. They have a nice network of friends which I am getting to meet this time. They invite friends over for dinner or swimming and there are lots of tots for Gracie to play with.
Gracie, if you haven't guessed by now, is my beautiful 4 year old granddaughter. She is always full of energy and fun and we have wonderful times together. She comes in to greet me in the morning when she wakes up so that we can visit and talk about what we are going to do that day. At home I have a TV in my bedroom and she comes down the stairs every morning before her parents get up so we can watch childrens programs together. I really miss that when she is not there.
The beach is right outside their back gate and is a nice sandy beach with clear warm water. It is in a bay that opens up into the Atlantic but seems quite protected. The waves are not big crashers because this is the far end of a bay off the Atlantic, after all. You can, however, hear them when you are out in the backyard. There are cliffs to one side of the bay where you can climb around on the rocks and look for shells and little creatures. Because they are on the beach, there are a lot of crabs in their yard. Actually, there are a lot of crabs all over this island. Sometimes these crabs are red and hard-shelled and sometimes they are the soft-shelled blue crab. The blue crab is what inhabits their backyard. There are crab holes all over the place. Sometimes we wake up in the morning and find them in the pool . They are good sized animals and Matt catches them and either lets them go outside the gate on the beach side, or gives them to the neighbors. Evidently they are good eating; I wouldn't know.
The yard at this place is amazing. The owners hired a wonderful landscaper who really knew his stuff. It is a nice-sized area and flat with a slight curve to the drive and a nice turn-around in front of the garage. There is a high wall all around the property with arched gates at the entrance. The areas of lawn are not overly huge as they are cut up by the walkways. But the vegetation. Oh my. All kinds of palms, including coconut, dot the grounds and interspersed with them are papaya and mango trees, banana plants, key lime trees, almond trees, and local fruits that I have never seen or heard of outside of Grenada like wax apples, and a different type of cherry, something they call a golden apple that looks like no apple I have ever seen, along with passion fruit and I don't know what else. There are orchids and plumeria and bouganvilla and a large yellow bloom that grows all over the place here. There are red and pink and yellow blooms that look something like a cross between a bottlebrush and a mimosa bloom that grow on a bush that can be ten or more feet high, and thready, grassy plants that have tiny red flowers on them. Oh, yeah, remember the potted plants at the store that are tropical houseplants that we get in 4-inch pots and if we're lucky, we might get them to grow big enough to put in a 12-inch pot? I mean the plants with varigated oval-shaped leaves. Right, you know which ones I mean. Well, here they are about 10 to 15 feet tall and provide a lot of shade and privacy to the yard. I can only imagine how big the elephant ears would be if there were any in the yard. But it didn't always look like this, I am told. The landscaper brought in lots of special soil from up in the mountains and put it all over this place. About all that was here before he started were the bigger palms and I have no idea how big the plants were that he put in, but they are huge now and it has only been 7 years since everything was planted.
My kids tell me that the scuba diving in Grenada is great. They go when they can. Gracie stays with friends when they go. She does have her own set of snorkeling gear but I don't know if she has used it yet. She was practicing with it in the pool last night. I have never gone snorkeling (you won't see me scuba diving if I can help it) nor even tried on the gear so I tried on some while swimming last night. Interesting. Guess what. Pool bottoms are very boring. Marca offered to get some crabs to put in the pool. No, thank you, dear, I'm fine.
So maybe snorkeling wouldn't be so bad. I'm not fond at all of deep water but I am assured that you can snorkel in shallow water; but then, why would you need to snorkel? In shallow water you can already see everything. Which brings me to my next question: How shallow is shallow?
So now I am a few days from leaving and because of my sunburn, I still haven't gone anywhere except the grocery store and that was before I got it. But who needs to go anywhere when you've got such a beautiful place to stay and you are with the ones you love? I've got it pretty good for right now in spite of the raw feel to my skin and I can't complain.
One thing for sure, don't expect me to go swimming at noon any time soon.
So I have been here a bit over a week now and I am sporting a new shoulder burn because the SPF50 didn't work on me and the last few nights have not been too comfortable but my son-in-law assures me that the pain should go away soon. It has been years since I last got this red, but it does seem to be letting up a bit. I am restricting my pool time to late afternoon/early evening.
I guess I should tell you why I came to Grenada anyway. My daughter and son-in-law and granddaughter are here as Matt is in medical school. They were here once before and I visited them twice then but this is my first time this year. It will by no means be the last as I can't be away from my family for too long. My granddaughter needs her Gramsy just as much as her gramsy needs her. They are renting a lovely little house down here that just happens to have a pool and it is right on the beach. They have a nice network of friends which I am getting to meet this time. They invite friends over for dinner or swimming and there are lots of tots for Gracie to play with.
Gracie, if you haven't guessed by now, is my beautiful 4 year old granddaughter. She is always full of energy and fun and we have wonderful times together. She comes in to greet me in the morning when she wakes up so that we can visit and talk about what we are going to do that day. At home I have a TV in my bedroom and she comes down the stairs every morning before her parents get up so we can watch childrens programs together. I really miss that when she is not there.
The beach is right outside their back gate and is a nice sandy beach with clear warm water. It is in a bay that opens up into the Atlantic but seems quite protected. The waves are not big crashers because this is the far end of a bay off the Atlantic, after all. You can, however, hear them when you are out in the backyard. There are cliffs to one side of the bay where you can climb around on the rocks and look for shells and little creatures. Because they are on the beach, there are a lot of crabs in their yard. Actually, there are a lot of crabs all over this island. Sometimes these crabs are red and hard-shelled and sometimes they are the soft-shelled blue crab. The blue crab is what inhabits their backyard. There are crab holes all over the place. Sometimes we wake up in the morning and find them in the pool . They are good sized animals and Matt catches them and either lets them go outside the gate on the beach side, or gives them to the neighbors. Evidently they are good eating; I wouldn't know.
The yard at this place is amazing. The owners hired a wonderful landscaper who really knew his stuff. It is a nice-sized area and flat with a slight curve to the drive and a nice turn-around in front of the garage. There is a high wall all around the property with arched gates at the entrance. The areas of lawn are not overly huge as they are cut up by the walkways. But the vegetation. Oh my. All kinds of palms, including coconut, dot the grounds and interspersed with them are papaya and mango trees, banana plants, key lime trees, almond trees, and local fruits that I have never seen or heard of outside of Grenada like wax apples, and a different type of cherry, something they call a golden apple that looks like no apple I have ever seen, along with passion fruit and I don't know what else. There are orchids and plumeria and bouganvilla and a large yellow bloom that grows all over the place here. There are red and pink and yellow blooms that look something like a cross between a bottlebrush and a mimosa bloom that grow on a bush that can be ten or more feet high, and thready, grassy plants that have tiny red flowers on them. Oh, yeah, remember the potted plants at the store that are tropical houseplants that we get in 4-inch pots and if we're lucky, we might get them to grow big enough to put in a 12-inch pot? I mean the plants with varigated oval-shaped leaves. Right, you know which ones I mean. Well, here they are about 10 to 15 feet tall and provide a lot of shade and privacy to the yard. I can only imagine how big the elephant ears would be if there were any in the yard. But it didn't always look like this, I am told. The landscaper brought in lots of special soil from up in the mountains and put it all over this place. About all that was here before he started were the bigger palms and I have no idea how big the plants were that he put in, but they are huge now and it has only been 7 years since everything was planted.
My kids tell me that the scuba diving in Grenada is great. They go when they can. Gracie stays with friends when they go. She does have her own set of snorkeling gear but I don't know if she has used it yet. She was practicing with it in the pool last night. I have never gone snorkeling (you won't see me scuba diving if I can help it) nor even tried on the gear so I tried on some while swimming last night. Interesting. Guess what. Pool bottoms are very boring. Marca offered to get some crabs to put in the pool. No, thank you, dear, I'm fine.
So maybe snorkeling wouldn't be so bad. I'm not fond at all of deep water but I am assured that you can snorkel in shallow water; but then, why would you need to snorkel? In shallow water you can already see everything. Which brings me to my next question: How shallow is shallow?
So now I am a few days from leaving and because of my sunburn, I still haven't gone anywhere except the grocery store and that was before I got it. But who needs to go anywhere when you've got such a beautiful place to stay and you are with the ones you love? I've got it pretty good for right now in spite of the raw feel to my skin and I can't complain.
One thing for sure, don't expect me to go swimming at noon any time soon.
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