A Wildflower Morning

Monday was President's Day, and Rob had the day off from work.  I'm so glad because I wasn't feeling sick at all.  We decided to drive around the southern half of the island.  Last time we tried to do this, it was a very raining day, but today the weather was perfect, sunny and warm with fluffy white clouds. Our first stop was Umatac, an interesting village full of history.  In the local language, it is spelled Humatak.  Ferdinand Magellan and his sailors brought first European contact to the island in 1521.  It is thought they landed in Umatac Bay, but I just learned in further reading that the site is disputed, and might have been further north.  I wish I could say that this is a good story, but it leaves me very disturbed.  There was thievery, fighting, killing and burning of the settlement, not so different from stories of first visits in other places around the world.  It wasn't mentioned in the article, but I'm guessing that the woman weren't safe

On Sunday Rob and I focused on recovering from our colds.  We had hoped to spend the whole day out doing things, but that was not to be.  By mid-afternoon we were feeling a good amount better, so we went out to get a walk and some fresh air and sunshine. On the east side of Cross Island Road, just south of where it meets with the road that circles the island, is a large cemetery.  In past years we visited the lovely beach here and the path where you can walk in the shade before it gets dark. We arrived to discover a very high tide day.  Water was washing up into the grass with with each incoming wave.  The waves out on the reef were possibly the largest I've seen them here.  We started to walk on the little road that reaches out into the sea, where William found many WWII bullets in 2013.  The tide was washing water onto the road.  We tried to walk out on the edges and in the center, but the water quickly got deeper.  Being we wanted to keep our walking shoes dry, we head

On Sabbath morning I wasn't feeling too good.  Congestion had arrived and was making the back of my throat tender.  Rob had lost his voice on Friday, he said from "talking too much."  But by Sabbath morning it seems he had a bit of a cold too.  So we stayed home from church and rested. I made myself a mixture lime juice, orange juice, onion, garlic, ginger and dates for sweetness, and drank that periodically through the day.  And took Vitamin D and Vitamin C in large doses. By mid afternoon I was feeling much better, and Rob was doing pretty good too.  So we set out for a walk out from the station toward the sea.  It was windy, but had not been raining, so the red dirt was not slick.  We had about 2 hours to enjoy the comfortable afternoon.  These plants are Pandanas, also called Screw Pines.  The fruit is edible, but not quite ripe. There were Bamboo Orchids blooming over toward a creek gully, and I set out through the ferns to go seem them.  At first the