Mallorcan Serenade

 After a great meal and a few Fernet Brancas, DP Tristan serenades us on the piano as DIT Othmar breaks out the Cuban cigars. Below is the marvelous rig the Madrid crew put in for us over our court. 5k and 2K lanterns surrounding 2- 8k balloons.

Snowmegeddon

It was so beautiful walking home in the snow tonight. Lightly snowing.  Forecast is for a snowy doom tonight. Might be waking up to 24" of the stuff tomorrow.

First Iris

A single lone iris is blooming in the backyard.  Hopefully more will follow.

Finishing the Kitchen

It's always good to have relatives visit.  After five years, we are finally finishing the kitchen for my brother's visit.  WL replaced the window and we have been painting the last two walls. We never bothered to paint/fix the wall after the new door went it 4 years ago. 

The Set

Crew went swimming at lunch and although there were frequent rain bursts, the following rainbows were amazing.

The Sugar Ridge

While in Antigua, we stayed at the Sugar Ridge Hotel.  Great rooms and the fourplexes were situated on the hillside so that each balcony had a private view. Nice landscaping.  The pool was a little small but the perfect temperature. Sunsets from anywhere on the property were spectacular.

Antigua Arrival

We arrived last week in Antigua for a quick fashion job.  After leaving the airport, the other LA members of the crew and I were whisked away to our set..... a pristine strip of beach on the south side of the island.

Before and After

 

Before

After the doors were installed a few years ago, I was never able to match the paint to the rest of the facade. With my renovation brother coming next month, we decided to repaint. Including the east "utility wall", which was never painted.  The color is slightly lighter with less yellow than the before pic.  A bit of an optical illusion, when the colors are next to eachother, the new one looks blue.

Lemons and Rain

The lemons and limes on the lower branches of their trees seem to be plumping up a bit after the recent rains.  Thoughts of small, hard citrus are hopefully fading.

New Stand

Finally got rid of the cinder block plinth the birdbath had been sitting on for years. We found a concrete stand that had a nice rusty patina to it.

Beer Can Chicken

My brother gave us a beer can chicken stand and recipe book for Christmas.  We tried it out yesterday.  We added rosemary and wild sage to a can of Pepsi.  Half an apple to plug up the top hole and some of WL's dry rub completed the process. Our crappy BBQ took 3 hours to cook the thing but it did turn out quite yummy.

Stuntman Squirrel

WL thought he had solved the squirrel problem by using a piece of mono filiment to suspend the bird feeder further away from the tree. It worked for 3 days.  This morning, a plucky squirrel got within paw distance to the line. He jumped on and shimmied down the line to the awaiting seed. The 4th pic shows his back feet clutching the line. A great ab/core workout ensued as he ate.  His buddy was happy to pick up the leftovers. Back to the drawing for WL.

Greedy Squirrels

They found the bird feeder.  A blue jay objected but it's attack was successfully repelled. I was in the front yard when I heard the back yard squirrel chatting with the front..... a moment later, the front yard squirrel leapt out of the tree and hopped along the driveway to the backyard.  Who says animals don't communicate?

They Found It

A Christmas bird feeder was being left unused until this morning when several figured out what was hanging there. For the moment, our plump squirrel is happy with the dropped seeds and staying on firm ground.

A New View

Today we found a very interesting old mirror on Craigslist to hang out back.  Now when people eat, they can see sky and mountains instead of blank wall.

Perfect Winter's Day

Finally warming back up a little bit. We've never seen so many blooms on the honeysuckle before.  The recent downpours did everything great and now a few days of sun should get things growing.