Sunny & Warm

Despite the weatherman's predictions, we had a lovely, warm, 70 degree day with abundant sunshine until mid-afternoon.  Ahh.  This morning I went out into the garden and used a plank to shore up the slumping bales so that I can use them one more season.  I drove in some wood stakes but think that the long metal ones might work better so maybe I'll change them.  The garden center's not open so I can't go get plants yet.  They're still talking about frost this week so I wouldn't put them out anyway.  I guess May 10 is the average last frost around here.  Seems wrong, doesn't it?





The rhubarb's growing great guns.  I love the crinkly leaves.  Maybe I'll make some rhubarb bread over the weekend when it's supposed to be crummy and cold.






In the afternoon I took my iPad out and sat in the sun on the patio to read Tropical Obsession.  I'm still trying to find places to fluff it up and not having much luck.  But I'll keep trying.

06 May--Barbara Malcolm, Tropical Obsession. 

Manning had arrived on the island eight years earlier with fifty bucks in his pocket and a sinking boat under him. The old Tina Marie, he thought with a smile. He had won her in a poker game in Tortuga a month before from a guy whose ownership of the boat was, let us be generous and say, doubtful. The papers the old pirate handed over after the game looked suspiciously well-aged and soiled, almost as if someone had scuffed them across the deck after cleaning fish and then drove over them a few times in a gravel lot. But Manning was nothing if not an opportunist, so he tipped the old pirate a salute, slung his duffel aboard, siphoned a bit of gas out of the dingy of the dark yacht tied up alongside, and sailed away before the harbor woke. 

He spent the next month working his way south along the string of pearls that was the Caribbean. He would stop in at small islands for food because everyone knows that poor people will always feed you and at big islands for fuel because it is easy to get lost in the confusion of a busy marina and score a tank of gas even if you have to work a day for it.  Manning tried never to have to work for his gas.

He spent a week in Antigua, the week before Race Week, watching the competitors arrive and fine tune their sailboats. He used the time to do a little maintenance and try to plug a few of the leaks that kept Tina Marie always sloshing heavy in the bilge. Since most of the people in port were boat people or boat groupies he could blend in and did not have to spend a dime to feed himself or buy drinks. Most nights he was even lucky enough to take a woman back to the boat for a little slap and tickle, not one of the trophy women, you understand, but not skanks either.

By the end of the week he had plugged a few holes in Tina Marie's hull, had worn out his welcome in not a few bars and restaurants, and had punched a few too many meal tickets so it was time to head south again. Besides the harbor police were starting to go around to check that each boat was tied to the correct mooring and that docking fees had been paid. Manning had never paid a docking fee in his life. Since arriving in Antigua, he had been moving the Tina Marie every night to an unoccupied mooring to avoid just such an unnecessary expense. Once again, he sailed away before moonrise into the anonymous dark, a trail of blue green phosphorescence his only mark.

Today was a much better day than yesterday and all because the sun shone.  It was luxurious to sit on the patio in the sun with a light breeze and read.  It's supposed to be 10 degrees colder tomorrow and 25 degrees colder on Friday.  I can hardly wait.  Maybe there'll be a little sunshine to soften the blow.  Tonight's sunset was pretty good.  Fingers crossed for tomorrow to be sunny.
--Barbara