LET IT RISE, LET IT SHINE....................

This beautiful home-made loaf of banana bread has just come out of the oven. This is no small feat. The oven rarely rises over 250 degrees but after reeming out the gas line we got it up to 380 degrees. Baking bread has been high on our list of priorities. Who knew you could bake a loaf of bread in a silicon-type molded flexi called a "loafpan". The wonders of science and silicon valley. There is more to follow. Now back in the really old days, bread must also have been on the minds of many, for the British Colonial Government authorised Capt. William Bligh RN, of "BOUNTY" fame, to sail to Tahiti to collect breadfruit plants for transplanting in the West Indies as a food source for the population. The photos below show the happy transplants now growing in the Abacos. The seed is just beginning to thicken out and will grow to football size. These trees are from that original source, albeit a little delayed by Fletcher Christian and the mutiny boys, but that's another story.......



The sun's back out and so is all the Bouganvillea...... And speaking of history.....



One of the really intersting things found in the ABACOS, are some wild horses that date back to Christopher Columbus's second voyage when some horses were brought over from Spain. These horses have roamed wild in the Abacos since then, but their genetic pedigree are original Barbary bloodlines that are now extremely unique. The herd, once over two hundred strong, is down to a very small number and a dedicated group of people is attempting this worthwhile preservation. www.arkwild.org

In Marsh Harbor there is a converted cargo container made into a library/bookstore where for "A-buck-a-book" you too, can assist the "horse cause". Cruising yachts over the years have donated the books, and "Mimi" the librarian, yachtswoman, horse preservationist, lobbyist and PR person, does a great job in maintaining the hotbox, because in August, the hottest time of the year, you are in and out of there faster than Anne Hesch. I don't want to be name dropping but even one of the horse's curly mane bears a resemblance to Howard Stern............ but that can't be................Anyway, all librarians have their place reserved in heaven.




Moving much more slowly is this conch critter. The two little eyes are found on the end of the lugubrious stalks. The rest of the foot seals the conch opening when he( or she) is pulled out of the water. The residual sand visible, gets filtered by the conch for its food source .......... try that sometime.... filtering your food through sand....



The vast quantities of rain have thrown the 'Flower Switch'. Whole trees are now bursting into flower like these 'Poinsianas' that are also found in the Florida cays and in Key West. Beautiful orchid-like blooms everywhere, though it is hard to beat this chocolate like swirl in a cup that also comes in strawberry, vanilla and black cherry for sheer artistic splendour, and we don't need to describe the taste, let alone the cooling temperature on a day when it is 85 plus in the shade.



What makes the flowers take the "Winner's Trophy" is that the panorama doesn't cost a penny unlike the ice-cream which costs significantly more than several dollars. Bahamian dollars are on a par with the US dollars and are of various colors, almost as colorful as the scenery. The " George Costanza " wallet is an absolute necessity in the Bahamas, causing you to walk with a limp. Poor people walk up straight.