Jungle Living

 Maintenance is the name of the game here in the jungle. Plant a tree and come back in two months and see if you can find it. We bought a couple of weeping willows once...imagining a future pond with weeping willows along the shore, but weeds and vines strangled them until they were no longer to be found.

Live at the beach in the tropics and everything rusts from the salt. Live in the mountains and it's the dampness. Buckles corrode...photos disappear... and  old videotapes develop cotton balls long before they were outdated with DVDs.I finally got a dryer when our guesthouse needed dry towels and I couldn't depend on the sun (or me removing dry items on time).

Just look at our "camping area". No longer camping, but our beautiful bowl down the hill...perfect for meditation, bird watching, or simply hanging out....it's a jungle adventure when we haven't cut the grass and a landscaped coconut grove when we have. You can almost watch the grass grow after the rain. Rain, sun, rain, sun....and there it grows..inch by inch.

Our ceiba tree is reaching for the sky. Planted as a sapling with a thorny trunk, it now has lost its thorns and has its massive roots beginning to cross the jungle floor. Sure to outlive us, the ceiba tree has found its home at the base of the hill. This jungle suits it well.


Sometimes it's just a coat of paint that makes things right.

 But usually it's water power that's needed. The pressure machine is our best friend. When the green stuff appears on the sidewalk, it's time to pull out the machine. I wish I could get my hands on one of those New York street cleaners that used to annoy me with alternate side of the street parking. Sitting atop one of those massive machines with the brushes rolling....I could be Queen of the Jungle. Who ever thought you'd have to clean your roofs with so much rain... but what a difference the cleaning can make.

So come and visit us here in the jungle. Watch the grass grow...listen to the sounds of the forest....grab a machete....or if you prefer....stay out of the jungle and just RELAX!