Where does the time go?

It seems like just a few days ago that I last posted, but I guess it really has been almost three months! Sorry about that! My last post was just as we were coming into the Christmas/New Years/Pyro season. Hurricane Beryl had left Alfred's barge as a bunch of pieces, and the pyro crew jumped in to help get it rebuilt and into the water.

 

The barge got reassembled and launched late on December 30, just in time! All of the shows went off well. I retired from shooting last year, so JC and I watched the Negril shows from the roof of Bob's house. All of the pyros gathered at Alfred's on January 1 for lunch and celebration of a job well done.

Bob and I had located a developing sewer problem where a root had managed to get into the line, so we took advantage of the crew to deal with it.

Al and Josh (the new owners of Tina's house) started work on the downstairs of that house.

And Bob got Ian to help him install a new ceiling fan. Tall ceilings make it a challenge!

Ira stayed a few day at the Dimock's and decided to try his hand at mosaic.

Our nephew Bryan and his family came down to Jamaica and we went down to Negril for a day to visit with them. We had lunch at Sonia's and the girls got some braids from our old friend Connie. Connie used to do Tom's braids back when he had enough hair!

Then they came up to Valley View for a day. A fine time was had by all and I think they may be coming back!

We celebrated JC's birthday at Blue Horizon West. 

JC has continued her tradition of having some of the local kids over, now with a new generation. BJ and his aunt [!] Aidra seem to be having a good time!

Of course we eat well down here as you can see from the ackee from our tree, the huge yam Binghi dug for us, and the BBQ full of wings!

We decided that our porch needed a fan, and got our electrian Junior and his son to come and install it.

Binghi has been doing some tile, but Tom has been goofing off. He promises that he'll get back at it soon as his legs are feeling much better after four months of exercises.

One of our neighbors here is a masseuse and does house calls! Ahh...

And of course no post from Valley View is complete without a few flower pictures.

And sunsets! 

 Since many - probably most - of you have never been to Valley View, I thought it would be fun to post a quick tour!

The roads leading to our property are (charitably speaking) a bit on the rustic side. But then we get to our property line and things get better.

We soon come to the gate and stepping through we get a view down the property.

Looking to our right we see the tower. This was the first building we built back in 1999-2000 so that we would have a locked tool storage room on the bottom floor and four cisterns to collect rainwater on the second floor.

Next we come to the Laughlin's Hilltop House. They come down from their home in Colorado in the fall and spring, returning up north for the winter as they are avid skiers.

Below that is Bob and Nicelee's house Kestrels Keep. It is the most recent building at Valley View.

Continuing down we come to the first house built, currently called Patoo Place, but with a name change pending as it now has a new owners.

And last but not least we come to the Dimock's Whimsey Hall South.

The views from our porches are all spectacular, with the sun setting in to the Caribbean.

That's a quick look at Valley View. If you decide to escape the cold, come on down and see it in person! Photographs really don't do it justice!

 Oh dear - it has been a year since I last posted! Where does the time go?

We are back in Jamaica and have had a lot of hot wet weather. Valley View got hit by two hurricanes over the summer - Beryl in July followed by Rafael in early November. Fortunately the houses suffered no damage, but some of our trees did not fare so well and our power was out from July until October 22nd! 

By the time we arrived on November 11 most of the storm damage had been cleaned up and the place looked great! Our three semi-feral cats were waiting for us to feed them.

Our flowers are happy!

The rains have given us a couple of quite spectacular rainbows. We have had no success in finding the pots of gold.

Thanksgiving dinner with Jeff and Diane was great as usual.

Binghi and Tom got off to a slow start tiling, but have finished a couple of pieces. I forgot to photograph Binghi's piece before we put the Cool-a-Roo back up...

Tom finally stopped procrastinating on the border of the Alice in Wonderland panel and did Alice playing croquet. Not sure the flamingo is happy with being used as a mallet!

Barbara has been making a whole lot of small squares for a quilt. Her goal is to make one a day with a target of 138 squares!

Visitors have included Garnett's charming daughter Emily and a big croaker lizard.

On a bittersweet note Tina came to the difficult decision that owning a house in Jamaica did not fit into her future plans and sold her house here to Allan Smith, a friend of Bob's. We're looking forward to having Al as a Valley View partner.

Of course we have paid a few visits to the beach and admired our colorful sunsets.

Life here at Valley View will get a bit more hectic soon as all of the pyros who are coming down to shoot New Years Eve shows arrive. Then our niece and nephew and their two kids are visiting in January.

In closing we wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!