We continue working on our flower business. We have more demand than supply so that’s always a great recipe for expanding and planting more and more. Something we love to do anyway!
Our flowers at a wedding!
Our flowers on display!
More and more flowers on their way!
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Animals are doing well
We’ve taken some time for beach days
Freshest coconut water from the crew down the road!
We continue to host our cabana for rent and have had some really fun guests such as ethnobotanist and author Maria Benedetti and competitive surfer Dominque Miller stay with us!
Dominique and her mother at the Rincon Farmer’s Market
We’ve been out hunting more waterfalls and found a nice close one in Anasco that is also an abandoned park!
At Salto La Encantada
Aeden keeps getting bigger and bigger and has even started walking a little! We also have put him in daycare a few days a week which has opened up our time quite a bit in order to manage our businesses (and just get a breather). He seems to enjoy the socialization time that he doesn’t get being with us 24/7.
Approximately one year apart! My how he has changed!
Aeden enjoying some play time at school
Dress code at home: No shirt, no shoes, no problem!
Sugarcane in bloom
Well, that about covers everything new in our world. Hope all’s well in yours!
No, I am not talking about the stock market or the GDP, but rather the original meaning of those words. Literally growing things (including a baby) and going to markets. We have a bit of a schedule and routine now, moreso than ever with a baby. We used to go out a lot more at night with the band and just to hang out at chinchorros or downtown at the ArtWalk, but we now appreciate our quiet evenings with the kiddo sound asleep. So that means our days must be a little fuller. Fridays and Sundays mean market. Fridays we go to the San Sebastian Pulguero (Flea Market) where we do some bartering and buying. Mostly we are in the market for strange exotic plants. Actually we are ALWAYS in the market for those it seems. No matter how much plant life we throw at the property, it just eats it up.
With a new flower find at the San Sebastian Market
It’s pretty fun at the San Sebastian market because we are nearly always the only “gringos” there and so we sort of stick out like sore thumbs. But people are starting to get to know us, greet us and show us what all they have available before we even have to ask. It REALLY helps to know Spanish in these sorts of environments!
Aeden is a favorite with many people at the market including this sweet woman who even sang “Que Linda Manita” to him
Aeden and the birds back at the farm
Saturdays are usually spent back at the farm unless we have something fun planned. On Saturday afternoon we harvest the fruit and flowers for the Sunday Rincon Farmer’s Market.
Look who needs to start wearing shoes soon!
Aeden is now 11 months old! Check out his latest update video
New bromeliads in bloom at the farm
Our avocado that we accidentally cut down YEARS ago, has come back and is fruiting! I am so happy! Yay for guacamole! What’s strange about it, is only one trunk has fruit. So I think it must have been grafted long ago and we’ll probably have two types on one tree. We’ll see!
At the Farmer’s Market in Rincon. Dragonfruit! We have had our dragonfruit plant flower, but it never holds onto the fruit
The Farmer’s Market on Sunday mornings is fun. We don’t make much money, but it is worth it and it’s fairly stable for being summertime. We have made a lot of great friends there. And we use the money to go out and have brunch and drive around a bit afterward. If we make any more than that we put it into buying more plants from the nurseries or flea markets around.
Taking Aeden to Yogufruti after the Farmer’s Market one Sunday
I never knew what fashion tasted like before, but it’s pretty good! haha
During the week we mostly work on the farm: mowing, planting, improving trails. We also clean and do “turnovers” if we have guests staying in the cabana. We also like to pick a day or two to go shopping or an excursion of some sort. Sometimes we go hunting for plants on the side of the road or check out a beach. Lately it has been so hot, that we have been doing everything we can to stay cool. Since we don’t have A/C that means sitting in the baby pool, finding anywhere that has air conditioning and just milling around, eating watermelon and lots of fluids and trying to avoid the heat of the middle of the day (siesta anyone?). The beach is actually too hot for me on those sizzling days since the water and sand multiply the sun’s effect.
Staying cool in our baby pool in the shade like the hillbillies we are haha!
Fun shopping day out with friend Pauline
Stop in at an authentic chinchorro for una bien friiiia
Checking out a beach in Aguada (Tablerock) -great beach for bamboo driftwood hunters!
Fun on the farm! Dad and boy
Man and his horse swimming in Anasco
Not sure, but I believe this is a cupey flower blooming at our house
Britton had a red RX7 when he was a teenager so this made him gasp when we were driving along in Aguada one day! His 17 year-old self has multiplied! haha
He probably wasn’t listening to this type of song back then though (this is a top hit currently on the radio that we turn up when it comes on, and it’s great for Spanish vocabulary!)
Buying plants at Jardines Eneida! One of our favorite nurseries!
At Jardines Eneida. Check out the video:
I call Puerto Rico “Toon Town” and it’s not without reason…Check out this vibrant little house
And this one…who is very concerned with the modesty of its columns haha
Or this awesomely strange creation seemingly out of a sci-fi movie
Driving up the hills of Mayaguez we had a majestically different view of Rincon and Desecheo in the distance
That’s it for the update. Time flies. I can’t believe that a year ago I was hugely pregnant and just waiting for our little guy to arrive and now he’s almost walking. It’s crazy. Nothing like a kid to make time really feel warped.
Here’s a quick little video of some vignettes of our daily life in Puerto Rico. Hope you enjoy. Oh, and I am trying to do a little more with Instagram if you’d like to follow along.
A quick update. We have been tackling house repairs and building of the deck railings, keeping up with the cabana (recently painted the entire interior again) staying on track with all the mowing (we maintain about 2 acres of green areas) as well as planting and watering the tropical gardens when it’s dry. When we are not at the farm, we go out for drives or on searches for more plants as well as just normal chores like grocery shopping and things like that. We have also had the opportunity to spend some time with friends which is always nice.
The farm always feels so refreshed after we mow it, it’s like our own personal park
It would be a rare occasion at a plant store that I don’t find something to buy
Quick stop at Borinquen Beach in Aguadilla
Aeden loved it!
We also went to TARS in Mayaguez. It has been a long time since we’ve visited. Now that we’ve been doing this tropical gardening for a good long while I can appreciate the collection that they have there even more. It looked to have suffered some damage from the hurricane, but overall it is still quite impressive. So inspiring to see what’s possible here. So many home gardens are plain and this is extraordinary!
Britton and Aeden under a huge palm
Me and a HUGE Panama Canoe Tree
Britton and Aeden with a large agave
Me and a jackfruit tree/fruit
We just started a pandanus. It would be amazing to see it grow into this
Back at our farm
We are growing a new variety of microphone/beehive ginger
Another turkey came out of the woods with babies
Early morning sunrise at the finca
Peaceful serenity in the gardens
A mango tree releafing over head
Newest additions to the farm -2 tortoises (I think sulcata but not sure)!
Amazing number of torch gingers to take to the farmer’s market lately
At the farmer’s market with the babe
Celebrated my very first mother’s day as a mother. Here’s the mother who made me, and who made me a mother (around the same age 8-9 months)
My precious boy
Crossing the suspension bridge in San Sebastian
Everyone loves Aeden, everywhere we go. His hair is so “llamativo” and many people want to hold our smiley coloraito/ cano
Doing a photoshoot with friend Laura. Going to miss her so much! We always have fun together. And I have loved being her muse!
Tree-mendous!
Going away party for Laura and Kara
Receiving party (Hawaiian themed) for someone who got out of hospital with our neighbors
A normal day in Rincon -cows crossing the road and mangos falling from the sky
Having fun at Villa Montana in Isabela on Valentine’s Day
Raising a baby takes a lot of the extra time I might be writing a post and puts it onto him. So please forgive all the photos and lack of text, but I just wanted to get a flavor of the times as we have been out and about in western Puerto Rico these last few weeks.
Visiting La Playuela, Wilderness and Pena Blanca in Aguadilla
La Playuela was considered for a mega hotel and a lot of protesting has (thankfully) stalled/ended it. It is such a cool area
Pena Blanca is just down from it
Cliffside beaches and coves
Save La Playuela
Like a throwback to a different time
Out to lunch at Tamboo in Rincon. Tuesday is Mexican food day! My fave!
Britton and Aeden at Tamboo
Fun at the lighthouse in Rincon
Lighthouse Park, Rincon
Fun at Sandy Beach
Another turkey girl hatched out some chicks!
Steps Beach babes! 🙂
Working on building another staircase into the jungle with friend Chris
Turkey and chicken inspectors
Lots and lots of wagneriana heliconias!
We’ve had great sales at the market on Sundays! It’s been fun to share the fruits (and flowers) of our labors
We like to go out to lunch/brunch after the market – Gastropark in Rincon
Britton and Aeden at the gastropark
Another fave restaurant is Picoteo in Anasco- check out that overlook!
February is about as cold as it will get to put baby A in clothes! 🙂
February has also been especially smoky! Lots of burning going on. (Check out the hillside behind me in this pic)
More hillside fires in the distance combating pica pica generally
Since things aren’t growing as fast we can work on some projects like clearing the paths of old fallen trees from Maria
Cutting a path through the jungle of the property to the backside of the cabin
Beach break at the Marina -a social and fun playa
Having fun shopping with the bebo -haha
Happy Baby yoga pose
Taking Aeden out for strolls has been a new development since he can hold his head up now
He is such a doll and loves being outside with us
Well that’s a lot of life in a few pictures. Life has been rolling forward. With a baby we notice it a lot more! Every day is precious. Here’s Aeden’s 5 month update.
We were also featured in another news program about people from Colorado who have moved all over the globe -Puerto Rico, South Korea, Tunisia and Vietnam. It’s called “Living Abroad” and I think it does a pretty good job of capturing the essence of our life here. I am not sure I would call it “abroad” exactly, but it is hard to describe the move from the states here any other way. And like this sign says of all these choices: Rincon is the best place to live!
Life has been swinging right along.
Sugarcane in bloom
