No butterflies😊

I haven’t been riding much in Florida as I find the terrain so flat and boring. 

So my bicycle has been gathering dust in the storeroom.

I however jumped to it when my Guatemalan friend Rosa called to find out if I wanted to go to Butterfly World in nearby Coconut Creek, to ride. 

Having never been there before too, was a major incentive as I love to learn about new places.

Rosa is fully equipped for riding as she has a sturdy bike carrier, a good pump, (my tyres are always soft😫) and a large electric bike, so she picked me up.

 (The electric bike weighs a whopping 65 lbs! However she has a ramp to load it on to the carrier.)

We didn’t go into Butterfly World though as the entrance fee is $35!

To look at butterflies ?😡

Anyway there is much more to the park than butterflies and you don’t have to pay to be in the great outdoors if you are not riding horses, playing baseball or riding the railroad .

It’s a really nice family oriented outfit with horses, (including horseback riding) kids’ railroad, sports’ fields, cows, goats and chickens.

 

On seeing the small stock, and having just returned from the most wonderful safari in Botswana, (https://joan-myviews.blogspot.com/2023/03/heaven-on-earth.html ) I jokingly enquired from Rosa if we were at a Florida safari. 

That made her day😂. 

It was a great outdoor adventure while getting fresh air and good healthy exercise, and of course, the horsing around, camaraderie etc.

To cap it off, she had some delicious barbecue ribs and ice cold beer at her place so tired but happy, we knocked it off before I was dropped off.

A healthy happy way to spend a Saturday wouldn’t you say?

GREAT MEMORIES 

 

A Big Surprise

Simone , Stephanie, Lauren, Alma, Sharlene, Damit. Back l-r Robert, Peter 

Yesterday, Labour Day and thus a public holiday in Jamaica, I got a great, big, pleasant surprise as members of "World Explorers Riding Club" surprised me with a lovely, delicious (belated )  birthday cake. This was at Donnie Bunting's home at Longville Park in Clarendon.

While I am a member of Fun and Thrills riding club, they were not going anywhere new yesterday and Donnie had long been insisting that I visit his farm and taste some of his delicious lamb recipes, (he is Jamaica's foremost sheep farmer and lamb supplier).

So when Damit,  his close friend and organiser of World Explorers and a former Fun and Thrills rider, told me that that on  Labour Day they were riding to Donnie's  place, you know I had to be in dat...... And I am so happy I did for it was wonderful day all round, not just the food but the new friends I made, the ride itself and the great camaraderie.

The plan was for me to meet the World Explorers at West Kings House road at 5am and would you believe that as I got on to Upper Waterloo Road, my stupid chain came off ! Anyway the area was well lit and I never saw anyone lurking around and with the bicycle just having come from the repairers, it was easy to get it on back on. (Unlike on previous occasions before it actually broke off, when getting the chain back on was living hell!)

As I was early, I did not bother to go to the meeting spot but rode along Waterloo Road hoping to see them coming. At first I saw three young men and enquired it they were with Damit's  group and when they replied in the affirmative I rode on until I saw Damit himself riding alone.

We regrouped at Dunrobin Avenue and it was discovered that one of the riders, Alma, was missing, so  Damit rode back to meet her. They eventually caught up with us at the rest stop by Jose Marti High School.

It was for me an easy enough ride to Clarendon as it is a flat route that I have done many times before and although some of the World Explorers were doing a long ride for the first time, they all did well and most importantly, without there being  any spills. 

We reached Donnie's home much earlier than anticipated but he was not fazed and some of us were immediately recruited to become farmers by assisting to herd sheep!


We were then treated to the most delicious lamburgers and fishburgers, carefully prepared by the chef extraordinaire himself, then to my surprise, a beautifully decorated chocolate cake was placed in front of me followed the by the robust singing of "Happy Birthday". You could have bowled me over with a feather but it was a pleasant surprise indeed and the cake was really delicious.


Later the city slickers were given a tour of the aquaculture section of the farm where they saw how the fish they so love to consume, were raised and fed.

L-R Audrey, Joan, Donnie, Alma

Donnie and Audrey were the  consummate hosts, not only opening  up their home for us to enjoy and satisfying our palates, but also Donnie went to another section of his farm  and filled up one of his holding tanks with clean, fresh, water, so the city slickers could have a nice, enjoyable, swim before the ten of us squeezed into the pickup driven by Robert, for a the return trip and very heavy rains in Kingston.

It was a truly wonderful day all round.

Photos; compliments of Peter Knibb.

Emancipation Weekend

This Emancipation weekend was a real Fun and thrills affair.As usual we had our Saturday morning ride and breakfast and developed the action plan for the long weekend. 

F&T ites lyming at surfing

On Saturday night we had a party at Howies house for the July members and boy did my foot get stuck in my mouth! You see they have this Book Club which I am not a member of but I arrived at the party before their session was over. Charles introduced  me to a man named Horace  Fisher  and I thought he said he was an author, not the author of the book of the month, Fish kill. So when someone asked me if I had read it, I declared that I heard it was boring so would not waste my time reading it.

(I did hear that) Embarrassing moment. Anyway, why would I want to read a book called fish kill? After that moment, I declared then that I  would never again speak for the rest of the night, but you know that impossible right?i After they broke up, I had quite a pleasant conversation with him and all is well. Hope he does not take me seriously and stop writing.!

Sunday it was to Coy as usual in Maryland, then in the afternoon it was to Yallahs, St. Thomas, to watch surfing, in fact an international surfing meet to boot. Yes, in St. Thomas Jamaica!

Maurice and a friend of his rode off into the sunset, sorry, sunlight to Yallahs at 11.30 and and we left about 12.15 pm but by the time we arrived, they were already  there. Man that Maurice must have been a bicycle in his past life!

The surfing was a new experience for me but nothing like what we see on tv, for Jamaica just does not have the huge waves necessary to make a spectacular splash in this type of sport. But all the participants were enthusiastic and did well.

Charles, Maurice and I decided to take am sea bath and while Maurice was able to wade out far enough to float in peace, both Charles and I had a problem getting past the rough waves which tossed us around as if we were made of straw.

It was a lovely day however as we walked around and socialised and sampled all kinds of food and Juju gave us the dessert in the form oft. a huge jack fruit.

This 1671 lb bull came first at Denbeigh

Monday morning I went for my usual walk and listened with one ear to hear if the planned trip to Denbeigh in Clarendon was still on.  That is where the Jamaica Agricultural society stages its annual farmers show. We had originally wanted to go on the newly restored train which had a special excursion, but that fizzed out as the return trip was not till 6pm, there were logistical problems with parking etc and besides when I heard Digicell would be sponsoring the train ride, that did it for me since anything they sponsor draws crowds of free loaders in search of free phone cards. Also since the train was out, I wasn't particularly enthused about going. Besides I had bad memories of Denbeigh since the last time I went there,  about 20 years ago, they towed away my car and I had to take a minibus to Four Parts police station to retrieve it and had sworn off Denbeigh for life. Anyway, its a good thing we decided not to go by train as the reports are that it was oversold.  We saw the train there however and were able to take a number of photographs as it is really attractive, decked out in Jamaica's colours.

Anyway Howie called about 10.30 am to say they were still going so naturally I decided tot accompany them. Maurice picked me up and we joined the convoy of three other vehicles outside Michele's gate.I am so happy I went for it was a really nice day. Yes we spent a lot of time just standing around and waiting while others went off on private jaunts, but as no one was in a real hurry it was no big thing. I was really impressed with the winning bull which weighted a whopping 1671 lbs and the goat display was also impressive. The parish stalls were not particular innovative or outstanding but the samples of rum punch and flavoured coffee we got at various points allowed us to overlook those imperfections.

As Janelle  had to get back to Kingston for a function, we eventually dragged ourselves out at minutes to three, but despite the need to hurry, we could not pass the coconut vendor just down the road.

When I got back to Kingston it was off to a jerk pork session by at Harry's place. Harry is such a pork fanatic that he actually built a smoke house at the back of his home and relishes overpowering his friends with smoked jerk pork....hmm delicious. What better way to spend  absolutely wonderful weekend?