I’ve been away

After all of the dramatic events of the last nine months – making the decision to move, preparing the house to sell, not to mention the extremely stressful sale process.  That is the only thing you can’t control and stands firmly between you and your dreams.  Then making the move to the new place, with the festive season smack bang in the middle of the packing up the worldly possessions stage, added to the intensity of the times we were in.    Add to this – not just moving house but moving a house, which was then ravaged by a great storm before being settled firmly on its foundations.   Exciting times.  During this experience our family was drawn closer together with 100 days living in a caravan – 40 of which had no internet.  The upside was it was summer, so it was like a strange camping trip.

Now we are in the house, the garden is being built and on track to be ready for the new growing season it seemed like the ideal time to take a well-earned mid-winter break.  For 12 magnificent days we basked in the warmth of the incredible Tahitian sun.  I was completely off the clock and focused on relaxing and restoration, so I could approach the new growing season with gusto upon our return.  But I can share with you a few images I captured from this beautiful place.

You can’t get more tropical than a coconut palm in the sunset

I even got some snorkeling in. The coral and the fish were pretty cool.

These starfish don’t look real – such a beautiful blue.

Experience showed us this wasn’t just a quaint sign for the amusement of tourists as a coconut came crashing down, narrowly missing a friend.

Coconuts can become lethal missiles! Watch your head…

You can’t go to Bora Bora without having a Bloody Mary at Bloody Mary’s.

This delightful dish is actually french snails in garlic butter. I tried it, of course, however couldn’t manage the disconnect in my head from the ones in the garden to the ones on my plate. Try everything once and the fun things twice. This will remain a once in a life time experience for me!

Then there is the obligatory cocktail in a coconut. I took along some metal straws as the number of straws used can soon add up when on holiday.

I have to say this is one of my favourite beaches in all the world! I hope to return again soon.

The tropical waters are clear and warm and have an incredible range of blue colours to delight the eye.

This is such a refreshing blue water

I have never seen water before with such an intense blue. It took my breath away!

Spring starts in 41 days and it is far from the normal start to my usual growing seasons.  I still have beds build and to fill, sort out my under glass growing solution, get a shed, sort out a reliable water source and so much more.  So, I have come back from my break rearing to go.

Come again soon – I think there will need to be some lists.

Sarah the Gardener  : o)

NB: clicking on the image should bring up a slideshow and captions.