Veranda Vibes
April 19, 2026/ April 23
Up top days when you open Veranda Vibes.
I can feel your smile or the relaxed breath you breathe as you take a few moments to check in on our Veranda.
Welcome and thank you for being here whenever you arrive.
No matter how far away I am, the energy is alive and thriving. Lifting us all up to be our best each day.
Grand rising everyone. Enjoy each moment that you have been gifted.
Weather
Leawood, Kansas
It’s a typical Spring in the midwest. Up down temperatures. Highs in the low 70s° lows in the high 40s°- low 50s° and RAIN!!! Heavy thunderstorms, lightening, and high winds. There have already been tornadoes. Gray, gray, gray skies!
Things are green here in the midwest now. Looking about I am reminded about the plants I love that thrive in the Spring in Kansas City. Tulips, daffodils, grape hyacinth, bloody red Japanese Maples, tall, straight, trunk, Ginkos, Red Buds, tulip trees, on and on the place is abloomin’. Hostas are popping up all over. One can’t be anything but happy in this landscape!
Junction, St Elizabeth, Jamaica
Typical tropical weather.
Highs in low 80s°, lows in low 70s°. Partly cloudy to sunny mornings turning stormy in the afternoons/evenings.
In Jamaica the heavy rains, while they don’t often last very long, are causing all sorts of flooding. Since I started writing this last week it seems the rains have been coming on the regular. Days and days of all day rain.
They say it is a wise man that builds his house on a hill.
The landscape is verdant and lush in Jamaica now too. Hence, my impatience. Why isn’t the grass seed sown yet? Wasting the rain. I think. Waiting for an unreliable gardener is a trial and now too much rain.
House Repair
One thing the rain does not lend itself to is house repair. A holding pattern takes much patience.
One thing that is rolling is an on-going email stream with financial institutions. All good progress.
Gardening
Here I see plants and trees I love in the midwest. I dream of smuggling them into Jamaica. Sadly, the things I love the most need the cold season to burst with life in the Spring.
There is hope though, with my new friend. I’ll tell you about her later. I have a list of plants and trees that are similar. I need to decide what I like most about Japanese Maples.
All of these are true tropical plants. Ones that can take the extreme heat but mimic aspects of the Japanese Maple:
Red-leaf hibiscus (If lacy leaf shape is your jam) or the color red purple leaf.
Castor bean plant (exotic dramatic foliage):
Copperleaf plant (red-purple color) If you are aiming for the Japanese Maple color.
Japanese aralia (lush, sculptural look), loves shade and humidity.
Frangipani (similiar graceful branching structure. Form is similiar to Japanese Maple. It’s the flowers on these that are spectacular!!
The Frangipani flowers are super fragrant. Some are used to scent perfumes. Actually, Jo Malone my personal favorite perfume uses Frangipani in one of her famous recipes. I know these photos don’t show the foliage which has a similiar branching structure to the Japanese Maple which is where I began my search.
It was easy for me to get off track with these showy blooms. I don’t think there is anything like these around me here in Kansas.
Back around me, I think I can smuggle (shhhhh) some small pieces of this ground cover. I love it’s texture.
Midwest life
All of my plant meandering happened on the night the storms raged through, knocking out the Wifi and threatening my electricity here. That’s why I couldn’t get Veranda Vibes finished.
I have to say I had a moment of concern when the power surge happened. I realized then that this house is totally dependent upon electricity.
The cook top is an induction cooktop using electromagnetic energy to heat the pan directly. Of course, the ovens and microwave all need electricity too.
My biggest aha moment came when I had not gotten a return to my question about where is a flashlight? Then I see a small candle on the sink but I cannot find a single match here.
Well, hello, I don’t know my way in the dark well enough in this big sprawling house to feel my way downstairs. Then the house is fitted with hugely oversized picture windows. Yikes! Gound floor and basement!!
Whew. Good thing the storm only blew down a few branches.
I planned to finish Veranda Vibes on Saturday, the next day, after I made lunch for my friend.
Saturday comes. The small barking dog, Max returns. Then someone comes to take him to another landing spot. Interruption after interruption occurs. Every time someone shows up they visit with me. I’m not used to so many distractions.
Nice to visit though. Good to see old friends helping my daughter’s family juggle three dogs and two cats.
Then my lunch friend has a flat tire, misses her hair appointment, her phone charger stops working. She has to find a new phone charger. She ends up here for dinner instead of lunch. Of course, all the while the Wifi is still down.
All of the crazy distractions did not keep me from making, hummus with veggies and crackers to nosh, while a meatball sauce bubbled away. I made a Brussel Sprouts salad with cranberries, Parmeasan cheese with a lemon/olive oil dressing. Here’s the salad recipe, it was yummy.
Good eats
I really love this lady’s recipes…
Love and Lemons, Jeanine Donofrio, at www.loveandlemons.com
She consistently has good clean recipes for us clean eaters in the world!
Shaved Brussels sprout salad
4 cups shaved Brussels sprouts
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil plus more for drizzliing
1/4 cup freesh lemon juice
1/2 cup pine nuts toasted
1’3 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup grated pecorino cheese (optional)
1/3 cup chives
Sea salt and ground black pepper
Directions
Thinly slice the Brussels sprouts…use a mandoline if you have one. Place them in a medium bowl and toss with the olive oil, lemon juice, pine nuts, cranberries, cheese, chives and pinchetashen t salt and pepper
Let salad set at room temperature for 15 minutes, adjust the seasonings. Finish with an additional drizzel of olive oil if you like.
I followed this recipe almost to the letter. I used pecans instead of pine nuts. I love pine nuts but their price is really prohibitive.
We enjoyed this salad. If you try it we hope you enjoy it too.
A good life
There is nothing like travel to help you appreciate the life you normally live.
It has been a whirlwind here in Kansas City.
Wiggy Wifi, up down weather, catching up after travel and trying to stay on schedule to meditate, chant, and daily stretch. It’s hard to stay on track.
Doctor’s appointments, making new appointments, confirming. Begging friends to accompany and drive me to appointments.
Delightful lunches afterwards. It’s so fun to to experience different flavors than your customary diet.
The American trend of “Bowls” is so fun. I hope to find some big bowls to ship back.
Then now, I am procrastinating unpacking and sorting through my boxes. I know this task is going to take me a while. Hoping all falls in place to gather canned goods, dry goods, and stuff that has to be replaced.
Whew! I need to return to Jamaica to rest!
This trip is a heap of work, all good, necessary and fun with friends, and my family in and out on their eternal treadmills of suburban American life.
I am so blessed to have such an amazing network of support.
Thanks for reading until the end.
I have so many more stories to tell!
Subscribe each time I publish a new piece on Medium. Medium is a deep reading resource with topics to fit any subject. Join for less than your latte bill each week! I thought I would have time here to publish some of the stories that are collecting dust in the notebook I brought.
Join us for our Newsletter, Veranda Vibes or Writing in Your Ear. I’m hoping to add new stories to Writing in Your Ear here. There are no motorcycles without mufflers here. I fight with their noise all the time in Jamaica.
Come sit a spell on the deck here!
Thank you for the updates! That salad sounds so yummy and I would probably use peanuts as they are even cheaper. Frangipani grow here in FL well and I do believe I have that ground cover succulent in my pots growing. Here is a website of more recipes and lots on fermenting, if you'd care to look over. We have been fermenting carrots, onions, cabbage (kraut) and kimchi, all of which are great for good gut health. https://nourishedkitchen.com/