Spiders, Antigua. Arachnopobes - don't look now!

I accidentally found this spider inside the house yesterday.

Large spider, Antigua

I got a real fright and practically broke the the glass to get outside. "Children, save yourselves!" was the cry.

I called my husband and told him he needed to come home quickly as there was a spider emergency.

He was not impressed by the call, but then suitably impressed by the spider. I left the building! Photos are courtesy of our Very Brave Son.

My husband did this:

Spider, Antigua

I don't know what kind of spider it is, but I do find it hard to do the research as I am not particularly partial to scouring images and comparing fang sizes and number of leg hairs of such spiders.

Hence, if anyone can help with identification I would be delighted.

I would prefer never to see one again.

I do hear that they are harmless and that they just get washed out of their homes when it rains heavily. This fellow appeared in our house the day after some really heavy rain that kept me awake for hours.

I hope this share does not put you off. I am not particularly interested in creepy crawlies but I would rather that we kept our own space. Suffice to say that I am now sleeping with one eye open!

Thanks for joining me on this journey.

Poolside Breakfast - Crèpes aux Poires, Sucre et Cannelle

Early morning goat herding while walking the dog.

Good morning.
I am laughing still from our morning. As we are still new to the island, it takes a lot of getting used to. We have rented a lovely cottage with a view over the ocean and a cooling sea breeze over the deck.
This morning was a busy morning of maintenance, with the men scheduled to arrive from 8am. At 9am, just after the kids had jumped into the pool for their first swim of the day, I heard "Hello, Hello". There in the garden was a man who announced himself to be the Pool Man.
The kids duly hopped out of the pool so that he could do his checks. By this point, my son's energy levels are starting to peak from the breakfast carbohydrates. So he's running around watching everything Mr Pool Man is doing.
Then there is a knock on the door and it is the maintenenance guy with some men to fix the air-con. So there is a general invasion by now, with men in the bedrooms, on the deck and under the house.
I decide that I am going to need some coffee and the kettle goes on....
As the pool guy packs up to leave, the maintenance guy decides to pull out a strimmer that looks like it has a chainsaw attachment and balances on the edge of the pool where the kids are now swimming again. I am keeping an eye out and he waves at me "S'all ok mon" he says. Yeah sure I think, as chunks of bougainvillea are flying through the air and into the pool.
My son at this point, who is now really peaking, hops out of the pool and takes the lid off the pool filter and starts cleaning out all of the flowers and twigs that have filled it up. He starts yelling, "But this is all wrong! Why has the gardening guy started cutting AFTER the pool guy has just finished! This is muddled up, they should have done it the other way around. Mummy! Why is this happening, now the pool is full of plants and it was just cleaned. This is stupid!".
I start to get a fit of hysterical giggles at the ridiculousness of the invasion.
"Hello, hello" comes a voice from somewhere.
"Mummy, I need to peepee!" says the little one, and "Mummy, someone is calling you".
I put her on the loo and go to chat to the air-con guy.
"Was it the gas?" I ask.
"No" he replies, "It was sumthin else".
Aha, ok, I think - that clears it up.
He goes and stands outside.
The maintenance guy puts away his chainsaw/strimmer device and wanders in, leaving my son outside muttering to himself about disorganisation, amongst a sea of plant pieces.
"Jennie, you call me anytime. Even if it is the middle of the night and you have no current, you call me up and say 'Hey, I have no current'".
Ok great, is that because it has been decided NOT to service the generator?
Never mind. They all leave, and we wait at the house for the bug spray guy - he doesn't turn up. Blast, he was the one that I really wanted to see this morning. We had a semi-tarantula in the house the other day .....

Ah well, turn up the music, make the coffee and make some crèpes. S'all ok mon!

Crèpe with Pear, Cinnamon and Brown Sugar

Do you like the added bougainvillea from the chainsaw massacre?
You know, you can eat the flowers of the bougainvillea - so pretty and edible too. They don't particularly taste of anything, but they are really pretty as a garnish.

I used really crispy pears as the texture with the silky soft crèpes and the nuttiness of the brown sugar go so well together.

We have crèpes for breakfast quite often, and I never use a recipe to make the batter. I basically just throw some flour in a big mixing bowl. Then I get a jug and crack some eggs and whisk them together with some milk. I pour the whole lot into the flour and mix it up with whatever implement there is to hand. Generally I will add more milk to get the right consistency.

I use butter to grease the pan in between each crèpe. The first one is normally slightly defective until the heat of the pan is just right.

Sometimes I use plant milks like oat or almond or soy. And we have experimented with various flour too. I love rice flour as the crèpes are so light. Usually it is the expense of the other 'healthier' options that deters me.

Here is a great recipe for the mornings when there is a weighing scales at hand. There are more eggs in this recipe, but that means that the batter does not need to 'rest' before cooking. Also the butter is in the batter (try saying tht in a hurry!), so there is no need to grease the pan in between each crèpe.

Crèpes for 4 people:

250g flour
4 eggs
1/2 litre milk
50g melted butter

4 crispy pears, diced finely
Ground cinnamon
Soft brown sugar or maple syrup

Place the flour in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the eggs and the milk. Add to the flour and mix with a wooden spoon. Add the melted butter and mix well. If it appears too thick, add a little more milk.
Heat a pan and cook the crèpes individually, swirling to fill the base of the pan each time. Stack them on a plate until they are all cooked and serve with the pear, cinnamon and a little sugar or maple syrup.



A bientot xx

Fresh Bread in Antigua

We had dinner with our new French friends here in Antigua. We have travelled halfway around the world from France, to a little island in the tropics where everyone speaks our native tongue, English. However somehow we are still more at home with the French.

They baked fresh bread for us.

Oh, how I miss the bread in France. I had forgotten about it with all of the other changes around us. But suddenly it seemed like part of the jigsaw puzzle of our life had been put back in place. It was wonderful. Fresh bread! Even the children gathered around the table and ate slice after slice, as if they had been deprived of their rights to good bread.

The bread in the supermarkets here is not good, I'm sorry. I know I have been spoilt by years spent in a country where they make the best bread, le pain, in the world. Don't even try to argue with me. This is coming from someone who, when she realised she was moving away from France, decided to eat as much baguette as possible to make up for the lack of it abroad.

I don't want to put anyone down here, by saying the bread is not good. But it is just not 'French', you know?

So I decided to make my own bread for breakfast this morning. This is what happened.

Du pain

So we had Nesquik hot chocolate for the children, coffee for us and freshly baked bread and tartines (or spreads) for breakfast this morning. And it was good. Really good. Not French-bakery-good, but homemade and good for the soul.

Oh, and I used beer brewed in Antigua, 'Wadadli' beer.

And the coffee was roasted here too, from the Carib Bean coffee company.

So you know, it's just the recipe that's foreign! But it has the heart of the Caribbean in it.

Here is how I did it:

For 1 loaf of French bread.

1 packet of dried yeast
1/2 cup warm water
4 1/2 cups flour
1 bottle (12 fl oz) Wadadli beer
1 1/2 tsp salt.

Mix the yeast together with the warm water and half a cup of flour. Leave to stand in a warm place for about half an hour.
Then add the beer, the salt and the rest of the flour. Mix together well and leave to stand in a warm place for about an hour.
Remove from the bowl onto a floured surface and knead by poking holes with your fingers and folding it over again and again.
Shape into a loaf on your floured baking tray.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Place a bowl of water on the lower shelf of the oven.
Just before putting the bread in the oven, sprinkle some more water into the oven to create steam. This helps to get a really crispy crust.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Allow to cool before slicing.

Homemade bread

Bon Appétit!

Our Road, Antigua

I wanted to share as much as possible about our adventures here in Antigua.

There are a lot of differences between here and where we have been living. Even simple things, like getting home.

We have rented a 4WD jeep. It has already got bald tyres, and we have to check the air in the tyres fairly regularly. Why? This:

Roads in Antigua

Our adventure to get home is like a 4WD safari. Although, I know nothing about real safaris, however it has taken me 2 weeks to have the courage to drive down this road. Chicken, I know!

I was so happy to leave the ski resort that we used to live in - the road down the mountain with hairpin bends and steep drops was fine in the Summer. But in the Winter it was really testing me. To say I detested driving 8kms along a winding steep road in the snow, is putting it mildly.

I even told the children that there would be no more long, boring, twisty drives once we got to Antigua.

But lo and behold, here we are, bouncing along. Let's see what happens when it rains?

Roads in Antigua

 

 

In the nature of all things Antiguan, you just can't rush your comings and goings - just enjoy the ride!

 

Bisous x

 

 



 

How to manage your hair in the tropics

It was a battle between the curler and the straightener.

My husband laughed.

I told him it was Important.

I have discovered that it is Important for all of about 5 mintues here. And then the kirby grips and hair bobbles take over.

What am I talking about?

My hair, dummy! I am a blow dry and style kind of girl. Or at least I was until, oh, about 2 weeks ago.

Here I am at 07.16am, getting ready for the first outing of the day - dog walking (before it gets too hot):

 

 

And then at 08.13am:

 



Any tips for sleek and shiny locks in the tropics?

Looking at the local ladies is no help at all. Their braids are phenomenal, but would just not suit me. Believe me, I tried it as a kid on holidays. First of all, it hurts so much getting it done. (Although when I ask the kids around if it hurts, they look at my like I am mad). Secondly, I will just have a sunburnt scalp I am sure.

I vow not to give up and pony tail every day.....

Mais c'est la vie maintenant!

Bisous x

Rendez Vous Beach, Antigua

Rendez Vous bay, Antigua

The tourist office of Antigua uses the tagline, '365 Beaches - 1 for each day of the year'. I haven't counted but I talk it with a pinch of salt, or a perhaps more appropriately with a pinch of sand.

There are a wonderful variety of beaches however, from the windy Atlantic coast to the sheltered and idyllic Caribbean side. I wake up in a different mood every day, and I could say that there is a beach for each of my moods - surf chick, beach babe, playground Maman, snorkeler, sandcastle builder, wildlife spotter.

Rendez Vous beach fits very neatly into the Wave category and also the Unspoilt.

Rendez Vous beach, Antigua

As the beach access is only by 4 x4 or foot from the land side, it tends to be a very quiet spot. There was just one other couple there when I was there, until Antigua Adventure boat tours arrived. For about half an hour it was like the Normandy landings (although accompanied by the ubiquitous Rum Punch), and then it was back to peace again.

Rendez Vous beach is situated at the south of the island, not too far from English Harbour. To find it you should follow the signs for Springfield Riding Club, and then keep going. There is a big development ear-marked for the area but as yet it is just a fenced area called Papaya Drive. There are also signposts warning that the road is not maintained, which it clearly isn't, but all the better for the purenenss of RendezVous.

Clearly it is a very bumpy drive, but the more adventure-oriented will enjoy the drive as much as the beach.

If you don't have your own car, there are 4x4 adventure companies that head out this way in little buggies.

We were rewarded after the little 4x4 excursion with the most wonderful waves crashing onto unspoilt sand. It was truly magnificent and I do believe that I actually whooped with joy.

RendezVous beach, Antigua with children

Unlike some other beaches in Antigua, where there can be rubbish around, the isolated nature of this beach leaves you with a fresh taste in your mouth.

The other couple on the beach had walked there. It takes about an hour and a half to walk. As a perfect day outing, hike in with a small picnic of sushi rolls from Epicurian supermarket and enjoy a swim to cool off before the hike back out again. Remember suncream though as there is very little shade here, the only trees being at the entrance to the beach.

Our kids aged 6 and 4 loved this beach and the surf, so as a family I would recommend it.

Rendez Vous is one of the most unspoilt beaches in Antigua and it's pristine nature combined with the great waves make it a wonderful place to seek out (with or without the rum punch).

Oh and if you have any good rum punch recipes, do let me know! The rum is plentiful here.

Surf Dog, a pet in Antigua

There are no Alpine forests to walk in here.

Can you believe this pooch has flown with us from Switzerland? Now here he is on a boat with his ears blowing in the breeze.

Pup in a boat, wind in the ears!

I've never travelled with a pet on a plane before and I found the whole experience very surreal.

For a start, the paperwork was phenomenally complicated. Perhaps our case is a little extreme, considering that the dog is a French passport holder living in Switzerland and planning to transit London to get to Antigua.

Did you know that there exists such a thing as a pet travel agency? I do now. In fact they were great. There was a lot of really efficient emailing, even to the extent of organising an out-of-hours vet during an overnight London transit and transfer from Heathrow to Gatwick, to issue the UK health certificate to ensure our precious dog's acceptance into Antigua.

We did not see our dog for the duration of the flights or the transit. I dropped him off at the Cargo Terminal in Geneva airport, where it appeared that some of the staff had never seen a dog before. When they discovered that he was not actually simply going to London (an achievement in itself), but was in fact heading to a beach by a tropical sea, there was a brief discussion from the secretary trying to replace said dog in the cage so that she could have his new life.

Then as it got close to handover time, the kindly staff did what all Swiss people do in an emotional emergency, and they repeatedly offered me chocolate. Obviously I accepted and filled up my purse. "On a toujours besoin de chocolat, non?"

I was slightly put off by all of the 'This Way Up' stickers - surely they could peek inside and see which way is up? Worse still was the 'My name is Richy' stickers - when that is not actually his name. Never mind, I packed him off and went and sat in my car and ate chocolate at 9am.

On arrival in the wonderfully tropical Antigua, our poor little dachshund decided to cock his leg against a cactus. Ooops, not in Switzerland now pup!

Our dear dachshund has always loved to swim. Switzerland, however, is completely landlocked  so his swimming has been confined to the freshwater kind. He loves to chase ducks for example, while smart children on scooters eat ice cream and observe.

Swimming here is entirely different. Ten points for our dogs bravery - we throw a stick (or a flamboyant tree pod) and he leaps willingly in the surf, fetches and then swims ashore to roll in the sand and sargassum weed (more on this later). What a stinky, sandy, feral little pup he has become.



In the surf

 

 

But how cool?!

 

 

Digging as Usual





On a pontoon

Swimming with stingrays

It is a far cry from the financial hub of Switzerland where our dog used to spend his days looking for marmottes in the mountains and then sit on our laps in the evenings and cuddle up.

Poor pooch, he has travelled so far and is now not allowed to sit on our beautiful white rented furniture. But what fun adventures he is having!



Sorry 'Richy', it's a dog's life.

Bisous from Antigua à la plage  x

I'd love to hear about your travels with pets! If you have any questions too, I have up to date information for travel to Antigua.

Time to look at the Flowers

When I think of the exhaustion of the month before we arrived here: the packing up of a house and a life into cardboard boxes to be stored, selling cars and furniture and explaining to the children that still don't understand what is going on. It was a tough time. I vow to never put my family through that again.

Our first week in Antigua is a blur of jet-lag and emotions. Now though, I can feel the sand between my toes and the sea salt in my hair. As a family, we are finding each other again and embracing our new life.

A friend told me today that life is slow in Antigua and there is time to stop and look at the flowers with the children. What a wonderful thought!

So I took some pictures of the trees around our house for you today.

Flamboyant tree, Antigua

 

This is the Flamboyant tree - isn't that a great name! I have just read an accurate description of this tree as 'one of the most dazzling red trees in the world'. They are everywhere on the island and the locals use the big long seed pods to paint and sell to tourists as souvenir rattles. We were unrespectfully using one of these seed pods today as a perfect 'stick' to play fetch with our fearless dachshund. Can you believe this dog has flown with us from Switzerland?

Bougainvillea flowers, Antigua

 

Another common, but no less stunning flowering plant, is the Bougainvillea, named after the French navigator Louis de Bougainville, who took a sample back to France in the 1700s. As I am such a francophile, of course this is a perfect name. All of the locals are talking about the drought in the islands at the moment, yet this plant is a blaze of glory and seems to flower in the arid conditions. We picked the dried petals that fall on the ground and decorated the table for our 'dinner party' last night - the children and I sitting by candlelight eating homemade garlic pizza bread and steamed vegetables. So much fun!

Hibiscus flower, Antigua

 

The Hibiscus is a personal favourite of mine. I used to have some iguanas when I was in Fiji and each morning I would go out and pick some Hibiscus flowers for their breakfast. The iguanas would devour the stamens only, and leave the petals to wilt.

My husband and I lived in Menton in the South of France when we met, and we had the most wonderful terrace under a big oak tree with a glimpse of the sea. I was so excited to grow a Hibiscus plant there, especially as I had freshly returned from the tropics and it made me feel at home.

 

I am trying to cultivate more mindfulness in my life. Taking time out to look at the flowers and show them to the children is a tiny step in an forward direction and I enjoy it immensely.

 

I'd love to know about your favourite plants that bloom near you!

 

Bisous from Antigua x