May report

It's been an outstanding month, weatherwise. Mostly sunny with late afternoon and/or evening showers to settle in the newly planted flora and germinate the seeds. The only downside has been that weed seeds, too, have been germinating at a pace that Edwin, Juvenal, and I can't keep up with. Many orchids are blooming in the orchid casita and on various trees throughout the property. We have three nests of baby birds in various stages of growth; a couple apparently fledged overnight. The pond has cleared up, and the goldfish are growing and have multiplied. They're a joy to watch. Larry is absolutely enamored of them, particularly when they rush to the surface and toward him at feeding time.

The tranquility was disturbed big time yesterday afternoon when Doc, Charly, and Ramon dropped by with the four-legged fiends in tow. After visiting for a while, Charly and I ascended into the upper garden to admire all the new growth, at some point during which Larry turned on the pump to start the waterfall. This served as a reminder to the fiends that there was a swimming hole nearby, so, trampling through all the plants that surround the pond, they made straight for it. They didn't confine themselves to the upper pond this time, however; Finnegan assumed the lead, ran down the waterfall, and did a belly flop into the main pond, overturning my precious waterlilies in his thrashing around. Charly and I were screaming from the deck overlooking the pond, being too far away to do anything else. Larry collapsed in laughter, while Doc ambled over and finally managed to yank Finny out by his collar. While Doc was wrestling with Finny and Charly and I were rushing down from above, Raffy jumped in the pond and Matty began playing in the waterfall. Doc released Finny to grab Raffy, whereupon Finny, followed by Matty, bolted into the house dripping wet. Raffy followed them as soon as Doc released him. It was sheer pandemonium. All the guys were amused, while Charly and I were furious. My waterlilies were wrecked, my fish doubtless traumatized. Later, after everyone had gone home and we had mopped the house, Larry stripped and went into the pond to retrieve the waterlilies from the bottom and set them back on their pedestals. They don't seem to have suffered irreparable harm, I'm happy to report. We didn't see the fish for several hours, their apparently having taking refuge in the grasses, but they eventually reappeared begging for food. Today everything is back to normal except that I'm not speaking to Doc. And the pups are canini non grata.

I traveled to David last week to have the car serviced and, on the return trip, dropped by The Book Mark, a used book store in Dolega owned and managed by the curmudgeonly Hal de Mun. He is strategically located because I nearly always have something to gripe about after spending time in David, and Hal's just the man to enjoy a good bitch fest. A native of New Orleans, Hal holds a Ph.D. in English Lit from the University of Illinois. "I was a DeFoe man," he confides. He's approximately 99 years old and sports an old-fashioned hearing aid, the kind with wires draped all over his body. Nonetheless, he can barely hear a thing, so we shout out our discontents while ambling through all the dusty shelves and mildewed books. He has an extensive inventory, and books can be brought to him for credit toward the purchase of other books--a real boon in a place where books in the English language are a rarity. He loves to see me because I, in his words, "bring in good books." He's very disdainful of most reading material and can hardly wait to demonstrate to me the latest evidence of the abhorrent taste of most of the reading public. Given the fact that one can hardly move about for all the books, as well as the fact that he constantly complains about how slow business is, it's interesting that he nearly always admonishes me to be sure to return the volumes that I buy.

Derek arrives day after tomorrow for a too-short visit of just one week. (He sits on a French student's doctoral committee and has to go to France in mid-June for the student's dissertation defense. Dirty work, but somebody's gotta do it, I guess.) I've planned for us to make a trip to Steve and Michelle's place in Chorcha on Friday, and Larry's lined up golfing at Cielo Paraiso on Saturday or Sunday. We'll try to work in a hike or two and, perhaps, a trip to Volcan and Cerro Punta as well. I'm really looking forward to his visit--particularly for the chance to get out of the house and roam around a bit.