Veranda Vibes
January 31, 2026
Grand rising, everyone!
We hope that when you open Veranda Vibes you can feel the energy of a new day rising.
Momento Vivre! Remember to live life.
Life is the greatest!
South Coast weather
Jamaicans often say when something surprising happens, “Rain gonna fall!”
This weekend indeed, the rain did fall, and so did the temperatures.
73° F high/ 57°F low Partly cloudy skies with on/off heavy rain
Right now, I don’t know where you are in your weather forecast. For me, knowing my family in the Midwest is in a deep freeze with temperatures below zero at night, Jamaican weather is delicious.
Great gardening!
The weather has lent itself to happy, lush gardens.
After the destruction of the Hurricane in this slow, sleepy month of January, I have had to rethink my gardens.
I’m leaning toward placing seeds in containers on our Veranda. I wasn’t so successful with my seed trays. I found it hard to keep the seeds labeled. When they are so tiny, they often look alike. Planting fewer (3) seeds in a plastic cup seems easier to manage for me. I’m going to take my seed act just a little slower to see if I’m not more successful.
Twelve Zucchini and twelve Ochra seeds have not germinated yet. I’m patiently waiting.
I don’t understand my limited yield with my heirloom tomatoes, but I’m keepin’ on keepin’ on. Two tomatoes are slowly growing. Back in the day, when I had a huge garden, I used to can over 200 quarts of whole tomatoes each season. Not to mention all the tomato juice I canned. Marshall contends that my problem is that I refuse to use chemical fertilizers. So be it. I’ll get better at this.
A surprise in the yard is always fun. This pumpkin vine came from?
Miracle of miracles, there are hundreds of mangoes returning after the Hurricane destroyed our huge crop. Remember those lacy blooms I showed you recently? They are baby mangoes now!
House repair
Repair on the structure has fallen by the wayside as we struggle with the weak Jamaican infrastructure after Melissa.
The cell towers have been irreparably damaged. We do not have consistent wifi. It goes up and then down, and sometimes it’s not there to go anywhere.
This causes me huge problems as I struggle to make phone contact to pay bills, organize tax documents, work on my e-commerce project, write, or create audio files for Words in Your Ear.
Everything takes forever to accomplish. So we have been researching alternative wifi sources. Star Link is at capacity and not accepting new customers. We have found some independent contractors who have constructed private wifi towers. Soon we will have a new antenna to link up with a private tower.
Another problem is the electricity. We have worked for a year to get a pay-as-you-go meter from the Jamaican Public Service. Solar power is on our radar now; we’re researching a system to take us off-grid.
Our other project is finding funding to finish the purchase of the property.
When I say January was a slow month, it was a slow month moving forward on very important details.
Good Food
We eat a lot of chicken. Sometimes, I think I might grow feathers!
Here’s a quick dish we had this week:
Broccoli Chicken
Ingredients:
4 good-sized deboned chicken breasts, cut in half, or 8 deboned thighs
1 head of broccoli broken into florets
1 small onion sliced
1 package of dry coconut milk or 1 can of coconut milk
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400°
In a glass baking dish, layer broccoli and sliced onions
Place chicken pieces on top of the broccoli and onions
Pour coconut milk over all
Bake 30 minutes or until fork-tender
Serve over rice and enjoy!
Buff the magic bulldog
He turned 10 months old this week!
Marshall is trying to move him into an adult eating model of twice a day and then once a day. I’ve always fed my dogs twice a day. I’m not optimistic that once a day will work. It seems like he’s always hungry. He eats a lot!
Buff is an attention whore. He demands you know he’s available for play. We had company come visit this week who played and played with Buff for hours while we waited for Marshall to bring us Dragon Stout.
At 6:00 he was passed out from his day of super fun.
A good life
Marshall is convinced he’s losing weight. He’s been walking Buff and generally been more active lately.
I think he looks great. I asked him if he doesn’t feel better being a bit lighter? That question earned me a lengthy Patois rant about no way. He couldn’t go to his niece’s upcoming funeral looking thin without his belly!
I was reminded of an important African cultural norm I learned a long time ago.
When I was teaching art in my past life, I taught a unit on African Art. I had the children recreate a powerful amulet that Ashanti women wore in their belts to ensure they would have many healthy babies. As I designed the project and researched the piece, I discovered a cultural belief that carries over in Jamaican society today.
In the picture below, you will find that the Ashanti Doll has three rolls around her throat. In African society, if you had fat on your body, you were wealthy enough to eat so much as to grow that fat.
I know Marshall prefers his belly. I think he’s beautiful with or without it. I’m programmed to believe he’s healthier when he leaner. I’ll continue to encourage his healthier habits!
Life is a precious gift. Don’t forget to live it. I’m drawn to latin these days…
Memento vivre!
Thanks for reading until the end.
I have so many more stories to tell!
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Hi, Diana. Everything sounds like it is coming along, albeit, maybe not the pace you prefer but that is life. After that storm hit Puerto Rico and devastated the island, it was terribly slow getting things up and running. Sadly, we have not been back there as we saw the corruption that was rampant and it's hard to support a country when you see it's leaders not supporting it's community. I hope you can get reliable cell and internet service soon!