The Rivers

The River
Originally uploaded by Steve_Mc

It's the rivers that set Dominica apart. When I fly over somewhere like Antigua I feel rather sorry for them: all those beaches but no cool mountain rivers to plunge into when things get too hot.

There are parts of Dominica I define by a relative lack of rivers - like that 'barren' drive between Loubiere and Soufriere. Even the drish West Coast around Salisbury - so often left black by bush fires in the dry season - is punctuated by some delicious rivers like the Macoucherie.

So when the weather is hot like now I can just look at a photo like this one and feel cooler.

Dealing with traffic police, Dominica-style

I walked past a group of police officers stopping every other vehicle near the Mahaut bus stop this morning. Many of course were bus drivers, who didn't take kindly to being stopped. The prize however went to HA107. When asked to pull over, he gesticulated. When the policewoman stood in front of his bus he slowed, but gesticulated more and waved his driving license. When she stood back, he drove off. She seemed nonplussed.

I must try that.

RIP Cluedo

RIP Cluedo: Hasbro have given it a makeover.

"Clue(do) now takes place in a mansion with a spa and a home theater where the rich and famous have gathered for some sort of in-crowd shindig. Military man Colonel Mustard is now Jack Mustard, a former footballer. The studious Professor Victor Plum is now a video game designer and dot.com millionaire. And the cook, Mrs. White, has departed in favor of child star Diana White.

Plus, the lead pipe has disappeared, replaced by a trophy. And the revolver is now a pistol."

Read more...

Favourite Fruit #1: Pawpaw

Papaya gets my vote as the King of Fruits. Not only is it delicious when ripe, but it's got to be one of the easiest seeds to grow.  The only drawback is that your pawpaw tree might be male, in which case it flowers but doesn't bear fruit. (Editor's note: wouldn't that make it the Queen of Fruits?)

And did you know 100g gives you 103% of your recommended Vitamin C requirement?

More on papaya on Wikipedia.

Pesky wabbits

This weekend saw the annual Rabbit Festival in Cochrane. One of the highlights are the Rabbit Races. I was hoping to get some good odds on a rank outsider but alas, there was only one race and I missed it.

It wasn't, apparently, a race in the normal sense. It seems rabbits are not racing animals (no? ah, that's the hare), so the 'race' involved the rabbit jockey holding his animal and moving according to squares drawn out of a hat (no reports of a rabbit appearing out of the hat).

Anyway, it was still a fine afternoon (if you weren't stuck in the traffic jam). And rabbits make better dishes than dashers...

Photo: top - winner. Bottom - loser.

Four Seasons

The four seasons of Dominica are:

Hurricane Season
Wet Season
Dry Season
Mango Season

Little disturbance, big storm

I had been thinking of blogging about the singular lack of any electric storms this year so far. Until yesterday. A night of distant thunder turned into a morning of violent thunder and lightning, and some really heavy rain. One strike hit close and left the village without power for 15 hours. And it wasn't even a tropical disturbance!