new

I’ve been experiencing an enormous surge of creative energy recently, resulting in a really good shift towards a different direction in my life. It all began with fruit. There is so much fruit here that I have been drying the surplus and in August began to sell blends of dried fruits at the Saturday Farmer’s Market in town. My little business is called Homegrown Organics and is expanding. The fruit is all organic, all local and all fresh – meaning it’s freshly dried the week before the market. I share the stall with Heather who’s selling plants and is expanding into herbal medicinal preparations. We also made seaweed emulsion and are carrying that too.
The blends are what I harvest so the fruits change, but in general I always have banana, pineapple, papaya, carambola and a fruit leather – often cas or guanabana. Then I have different blends, a tropical which is plain, a cacao which has cacao nibs, a hot, which has ginger, a coconut mix and a sour mix with sour carambola. It’s great fun. I love the harvesting, the prep and the social buzz of the market.
Over the last year the garden and working with plants has given me more joy and satisfaction than working in education. I’m ready for a transition. I’m growing sprouts for the market too, it’s difficult to get a good selection of seeds, but I’m growing mung and will add lentil and mustard soon. I’m also beginning growing edible leaves to make up salad bags. This is more a long term project, but slowly, slowly it’s coming together. By the end of the year I’ll be working with edible landscapes. It feels wonderful.

breathe

I feel bathed in air, the beautiful fragrant cool moist air of a tropical morning. It feels like all I have to do today is breathe, what a great feeling. My mum is here and she seems to love this place just as I do. I’m so happy, I’m hoping she’ll come to live here part time. There’s a frog to my left, a large sleeping female Red-eyed Leaf Frog, (Agalychnis callidryas), before me sitting on the orchid is another, the Lemur Leaf Frog (Phyllomedusa lemur). A leaf falls from the fig tree, slowly parting the air until it touches the grass. Everything is beautifully still.
It’s been a really busy month. The garden has been full of growth and I’m doing all I can to keep up with the weeding and harvesting. My dear friends arrived and a lot of work was needed to make the house shine and the garden just right, and then my house needed a thorough clean for my mum and then there was the trip to the hot springs and the city and then and then and then. It’s been busy. But today is all about just breathing.

back on

It’s Friday afternoon, the monkeys haven’t started their afternoon chorus, so it’s not 4:30 yet, but it must be close. The temperature dropped out of the muggy and into the cooler, stiller part of the day where the air feels heavy. I think it will rain tonight. I’m sitting on my deck eating sweet tahini from a jar and all is well. All is well. Young Jack is at my feet, Hoss and LJ are off with friends, there’s a toucan scritching his beak somewhere to my right, a house gecko above me. Surrounding the computer are vegetable starts: chili, pepper, tomato, katuk, cranberry hibiscus, pumpkin. There’s pomelo seeds drying and a mabola slowly moldering. At the other end of the deck a load of cacao is fermenting beside some sea grape seeds. Yes, all is well.
I’ve been sick, with parasites and the concoction of herbs I’ve been taking has created a massive die-off which has lowered my energy and resistance, so I have a sore throat and a cold too. But I think I’m on the turn. I’ve been running ragged for the last two weeks preparing the house and gardens for visitors, but they are now here and happy which is a load off my mind and work schedule. I’m tired, but it’s good.
My mum flies in next week for two weeks and I’m very excited. It’s been almost three years since I’ve seen her and this is the first time she’s ever travelled on her own. It’s also the first time she’s ever been to the tropics, but I think she’ll like it.