I have decided this morning will be cleaning as both my parents are out. Maybe even gardening. To my surprise when I landed I did not find things as green as usual. It has really been dry here lately. In le Tampon there are regular water cuts now. The West Coast is similar to the African savannah. As mum's approach to gardening is just chuck it all together and hope it grows, the garden is pretty much a bit of scrub trying to remember how to be a jungle in some parts. To top it all, it is also being infested by the latest local pest that is wiping out all the papaya trees from the island, the cochenille. I had to pretty much cut down all the palm tree leaves at the front the other day, although I could see it was just painful to her to do so and that she was just counting on spraying them. It starts with the papaya trees and spreads EVERYWHERE.
Anyway, I'm also trying to get the salads in the vegie patch going, because I intend to eat them all and in the middle of the day, with the sort of soil they have and the sun, the poor lettuces look kind of poorly, so I'm trying to get mum into mulching (people around here don't know much about that). I told her to start with the lawn clippings and when we went to a local nursery, I asked about mulching. Apparently here it is done with coconut straw, which looks a lovely warm brown, and when we were shown the bag, I was telling mum, "oooo let's get that, it looks nice and it's all natural". Of course I quickly changed my mind when the man said : " yes, just make sure you spray it once in a while, for the little worms" (and by that I knew he did not mean the lovely brown healthy ones but probably maggots) so "forget it mum, you don't need that, grass clippings will be just fine".
Sadly, in many parts of the isalnd at the moment, you have to spray to maintain crops even in your vegie patch. People here are awaiting a hurricane like it would be salvation for the soils, which, all of them would say, needs a good clean from the heavens.
So far I have eaten fairly well and off my list of things to eat I have made a good indent into: mangoes, licthis, green mango rougail, pyreneens chocolate, creol samossas, sarcives, piments farcis, bananas, carry poulet, baguettes, frozen savoury crepes (don't ask) and tropical fruit sorbets that REALLY taste like fruit.
But there are still many things on my list.
I have been bike riding with dad on wednesday morning, before the heat settled in too much and that was good fun although we did not go very far. He did insist on testing me on a sneaky little hill on the way back and I was pretty happy that he was in front and I could stop every five pedal strokes to catch my breath. Unfortunately at some stage he turned around to check that I was still alive so I had to fake managing the hill. It is a fine line between riding well enough to make dad proud (she's all right on a bike he'll tell his friends) while making sure I give him some opportunity to show he is better than me (I'll just go for a little sprint ahead and wait for you at the next roundabout Sonia).
Anyway, I was reminded of a couple of rules when riding in Reunion island and here they are:
- Keep your mouth shut or you'll end up with more proteins than you bargained for.
- No matter how hot you think you'll be don't wear a sports singlet, unless you intend to wear the mark of it for days in your back.
- YOU owe birds and lizards priority, not the other way around, at least that's what THEY are convinced of (I was nearly thrown off my saddle with fright when a lizard managed to sneak in between my wheels whilst I was riding full on- I guess lizards have their version of playstation then)- I'm not talking about cute little geckos either. these won't bite off your finger but I'm sure they'll be pretty happy to have chunk of it.
- Do NOT leave the cemented road unless you intend to have a deep tissue massage on your bum.
We did ride along the sea coast, one piece of the shore had been set up by the council to be more family friendly with enough space for week end markets. On the other side, it is a bit more green and shaded but the track is for mountain bike riding and there is a bit of a drop to the sea. Dad was telling me somebody had built a very nice villa by the sea and fenced off part of the track until some time later somebody went "hang on a minute, that's not private land!" So he was made to take down the house and return the land. Which is a good thing because he also had dogs that would just stand in the middle of the track and prevent people from passing. Lovely.
Well I better get going. what with the promised cleaning and all (which, I think, is a more a psychological rite of passage for me each time I return- my own way of "owning" the place again: scrubbing it).
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire