We took a day trip up to Patillas to visit our friends Richard and Mary Jane.
Pineapple fields on the drive
It was quite a drive from Rincón to Patillas, but so beautiful to watch the landscapes change. Once we go around the southwestern corner to the Caribbean side, the waters turn majestically turquoise blue, the plant life is much different and drier and it seems to be quite a bit windier than what we experience at our place.
Lake Patillas
We drove past large Lake Patillas and into his finca. It is very private and secluded up a long steep road.
Long private road
When we arrived the party was in full swing. People were eating fish soup and drinking beer in anticipation of the main event: lechón, but of course!
Roasting up the pig on a spit
Enjoying one of Puerto Rico’s pasttimes: dominoes!
We enjoyed our time and even saw our east coast friends Fran and Steve!
Group photo: Steve, Parrot, Fran, BK, me, and our gracious hosts Mary Jane and Rick
But the biggest hit of all was when someone showed up to the party with parrots. Even Richard didn’t know who this person was, but it was pretty cool to see and hold his birds. One of them caused a kerfuffle when he would crawl onto our shoulders, get tangled in our hair and then scream into our ears. So funny.
A hit with kids and adults alike! Green Amazon parrot
As I took this photo a little girl told me in Spanish: “¡Es como un paraíso!” I couldn’t agree more
Such cool creatures! Blue and gold macaw (like in Rio said another girl)
¡Hola!
It was a beautiful day. Richard said it had been raining hard every day prior so we really lucked out with a sunny warm afternoon party. We are so grateful for these magical moments in paradise.
Bees are a way of life here and like many things we were initially freaked out about when moving here (have you seen the rats?! haha) we have taken them on as a learning opportunity. We love bees and all the work they do. They pollinate so many of our beautiful flowers and fruit trees that there is no doubt that we want to help them as much as possible.
Some of the beautiful flora we grow here
Flor de Pomarrosa
Our first bilimbe flowers!
A wild currently unknown tree with beautiful red berries (anyone venture a guess?)
However, we really don’t want them to be living inside our walls. I wasn’t too surprised when I walked past the shed and saw a few bees entering the drain area of the wall. I knew exactly what was happening. We have had so many bees building homes in the cavities of the wood house that this was kind of expected. We have in the past hired people to come and take the bees away. And some people will use poison, but there is one other way to get the bees out of your house without actually touching them or harming them! And it is by far the easiest and cheapest!
Kitty and I are on a bee safari!
Britton (and Kitty) getting down to bzzzzness
Cover yourself so that the bees can’t sting you and then just simply open up the cavity and walk away! In one day they will be gone. Bees need to have protection on both sides, so if one side is open, they will have no choice but to leave. And that is exactly what happened with this hive.
I Lots of bees! And then one day later they are gone! Easy peasy!
The next level in this game would be to actually handle the bees and put them into a beehive where we could then harvest some of their honey. But for now we are pretty proud to be able to do this ourselves! We’ve come a long way since our first house bee hives!
Here’s a funky fun video of this easiest of bee removals. (Check out 2:45 for a close up of all the bees)
For our gig at the Beach House, since it was the Saturday before Easter and it was at such a tropical locale with thatched roofing and tiki torches, I decided to make floral wreaths, crowns and leis as part of the costuming for the band. There are a variety of ways to do this and I made a few types.
Three of the floral head wreaths for the show
Materials needed:
Floral tape
Floral wire (or other wire)
Wire cutter
Various Flowers and Leaves/Vines
Needle/Thread
Bobby Pins
Wire that I wrapped in floral tape found at a florist shop
All of the flowers and plant material I just collected from around the property.
Basket full of the goods
Some of the head wreaths like the one I wore were very light because they were mainly made out of bougainvillea and taberna flowers. Because of this I was able to actually just use a woody vine and attach the flowers, ferns and leaves to it with the floral tape.
Strong enough for some heavy-duty dancing! (Notice Britton AKA Mr. Von Funk has his lei in his afro)
For the heavier head wreaths like the one little Isabella wore that featured shell ginger and Caitlin’s that featured a canna flower I used the thick floral tape covered wire as the base and then used a thinner wire and floral tape to attach and hold the large flowers and leaves.
The final, easiest method of floral crown is to simply make a smaller version of a lei and have it rest on top of the head. For a lei/soft wreath just find some flowers and/or greenery that you would like and string it with the needle and thread like you would popcorn garland.
So simple that this one was strung by this little darling four year old!
You can add ribbons and other touches as desired.
Another type of crown that I made was just to take some heavy stemmed fern leaves and wrap them around the heads of the guys. Some of them I made into a circle that was attached in the back with the floral tape, others I just attached to their hair with the bobby pins. It gave a great Roman Emperor look.
Kevin and Dave with fern crowns!
These were such hits at our show that I had random people asking if they were for sale! I wouldn’t mind making and selling these occasionally for weddings and such. Ideas, ideas!
It was a fun, floral night and the Rincón Continentals rocked it
