Happy New Year ramblings

11am Sunday...before the sun came out

OB is great at keeping 'color' in the parkas

This box turtle almost looks like a large sea shell

ORMOND BEACH, FL - - It's Dec. 31; sunny; nearly 80-degrees.  Does anyone know where winter is??  Ah, yes. We should not try to rub our good fortune in the snow banks / icy roads / cold temperatures of those we have visited during our travels.
     Here's a short scorecard for new years day:  Tucson, AZ.  We've house sit in June when it was 115-degrees (and 7percent humidity).  NYD will see a high of 48 with the potential for scattered rain and snow. (Elevation 2540')
     Santa Fe, NM has one of our favorite campgrounds (Black Rock SP).  An 80 percent chance of snow; 20 degrees for the high.  (Elev. 6200')
     Anacortes, WA has a campground right at the yacht basin...park the van and walk for a week or two.  Partly sunny and 48 degrees.  (Elev. 230')
     West Glacier, MT where West Glacier Campground is our home away  from home since 2011.  It'll be a balmy 22 degrees with 'only' a 20 percent chance of snow.  (Elev. 3165')
     No complaints here about 80-degrees and sunny as the OB forecast.
     And finally, as I was heading out this morning to meet a group of grumpy old men for bagels and coffee, I noticed a box turtle trying to make its way across a narrow stretch of our driveway.   But not making much progress at all.  So my good deed for the day was to move mr. or mrs. box onto a shaded grassy area ... saying "live long and prosper."
     HAPPY NEW YEAR
    

Memories of a Christmas season past

Anguilla, 16 miles long and 3 miles wide, resembles an eel.  Hence, Anguilla

ORMOND BEACH, FL - - The year was 1982.  I was on the island of Anguilla, a British Overseas Territory in the Leeward Islands. It was a three hour flight to St. Marten and then a 1 hour ferry trip to Anguilla.
     It was a beautiful island with very friendly people who were getting ready to celebrate the holidays.  I stayed in Sandy Ground, a little spit of land with a large somewhat sheltered harbor.
     Island tradition in the Caribbean is that everyone tries to get home for Christmas.  So, each morning starting about 4 days prior there would be more and more "tramp steamers'" which shuttle cargo between islands, in the harbor.
      This was not a rich island.  But everyone had some type of decoration... usually homemade... outside their home.  Santa made his rounds.  He was barefoot, dressed in baggy shorts (no shirt) and had a stuck-on beard of stretched out cotton balls to go with his dark skin and home made red beanie.  He carried a sack of small gifts to give out.
     The local children came around on Christmas eve singing (sort of) carols with the hope of getting some extra $$$ for their endeavors.
     Johnno's beach bar, a maybe 12 x 12 thatched hut, was a short walk away.  There was Johnno, the owner (who liked jazz, but played island reggae; Kasha, a rasta, who the locals said delt in whatever you needed.  (Smuggling liquor was a profitable sideline); Ivor The Diver, who sold black coral jewelry, which, naturally, was illegal.
    The owner of the room where I stayed created a place to make and sell island handicrafts.  The small bag in the photo above was one such item.  It was filled with sea salt from the salt works on Sandy Ground.
     And finally, to keep with the spirit, I gifted the elderly maid and her grounds keeper husband, a bottle of rum...for special occasions.  They didn't come back to work for three days.  And I got into a bit of trouble for that.