No need for barbwire on the outside wall…

 

I love looking at gardens when I travel. Different plants, different colors. And lots of cactuses. I like those too (reminds me of the big cactus bed my parents had in the house I grew up in).

Our view from the porch. And yes, we do have a tiny bit of seaview, though it’s hard to sea see (ha funny typo!) in the picture (If you look closely you can see there’s a bit of darker blue next to the tree on the right. That’s it!)

Love that porch. It has a lot of wind, which makes it rather cool. Apart from a few hours in the morning when the light is to hard to see our screens, we work from here.

The bedroom. If I had to live here longer than a month I’d put a curtain in front of that closet. I doubt if I can keep those piles so neat. But I am trying…

My way to feel at home wherever I am. Pictures of my girls, a stack of books (I wanted to bring more, but my suitcase became to heavy), and some knitting (E., a little bit of you is right here with me, see?).

October 1st ~ At first I thought it was cute, getting our tea in cups like this on the airplane. But we were traveling to the Caribean, so why is there a need to look for silver linings? Traveling to the Caribean is the silver lining.
I liked the quote on the napkins better (but forgot to take a picture of it before I used it): “time flies, but you’re the pilot”.

October 2nd ~ Our first “trip” on the island. Grocery shopping. Oh yes. Real life kicked in immediately. I need to remember to make a good list of basics next time. It’s hard to think straight when you haven’t slept much and are sporting a nice (six hour time difference) jet lag…

It’s the first Tuesday of the month, so it’s time for my Three Things on Tuesday list.
Wow, that sounds as if I’ve been on it for years or something like that, instead of having done it just one time. And the thing is… I’m not sure how to do it this month. This month that will be quite different from normal months. Very different.

As in living on the other side of the world for a month different.

Yep. We’re spending our October on Curaçao.

ç
(picture taken on our visit in March)

I know… it sounds like a dream. And it is. But although it’s officially a vacation, it won’t be a 30-days-on-the-beach-period. It will be a let’s-see-if-we-could-live-here-period.
There are lots and lots of reasons for that. And not only good ones, though most of them are. And the thruth is that we are both adventurers by nature and we are very excited about this new chapter in our lives. We have jobs that we can do from everywhere, so why not from a tropical island?

But… I am running into a bit of a problem with my Three Things here. On my Dutch blog I have listed three blogging goals. Restoring old posts, adding tags and categories, tweaking the design, things like that. But I know I can’t possibly do the same things here. It will take too much time. And the writing goals I also shared on my Dutch blog… not very interesting to blog about here five Tuesday in a row. I mean, I can’t even quote some of the things I’m writing, since my writing is in Dutch. Of course I can translate, but it won’t be much fun for you to read, since I can’t translate whole books for you. And I doubt I will be able too. Lately I am very frustrated by my limited ability to express myself in English. I know my English isn’t bad, but it always seems just a little bit off. Oh well, never mind. That’s not what I wanted to talk about.
I also stated a few personal goals (three times three is what I’m going for this month on the Dutch blog), but how can I fill a blog with exploring, resting, getting better and enjoying my stay?

So… I’m thinking I’d rather skip the Three Things project on this blog for October and instead just document our stay here. With some words, but mostly with pictures, I think. It might be fun to try and share both the “tropical paradise” and the “daily life” aspects of this month.

I prepared this post before we left and it probably will be up before I get the chance to get online. I would like to post a full 30 days in a row (oh, me and my love of organized goals – isn’t that what some bloggers call OCD?), but I’m not sure if I can pop in today. We’ll see. And if I can’t this may be the right time for me to let go and relax…
I mean, that’s what you should do when this is where you live for a month, isn’t it? (not literally on that beach, but close to it)

(Playa Kenapa Grandi in March)

Just one more time. How is it possible that I didn’t take one single overview photo in September? Time flies… Here’s how the garden looks now.

 

And this is how it looked through the past few months:

The herbs are still going strong (though I don’t have a clue which are perennial and which not)

The leek can grow just a little bigger

And the strawberries still think it’s summer

We’re going to eat the lettuce and rucola tonight and that wraps it up. The garden is empty and clean. Well, it doesn’t look clean, I know. But when we were cleaning out the beds, we realized that all those rests contained really good stuff. I considered a compost heap, but Theo thought we could just spread it out and let it rot till spring. It does sound a bit like permaculture, but we don’t know if it will work. We’ll see in spring.
I would have loved to have a weedless garden to show you for this last (for now) update, but it didn’t work out. Let’s just keep it realistic. We’re having some nice fall weather and the weeds would have grown back instantly anyway.

A few notes to wrap things up:
:: radish: loved them, but I now know not to move them and I should sow in lesser quantities to enjoy them all summer

:: leek: slow grower, but it just grows. Like that.

:: cauliflower: hard to grow, great attraction for caterpillars. Maybe I’ll skip it next year.

:: broccoli: see cauliflower

:: kale: I give up. We eat it after first frost, but I never get that far. Always gets eaten by caterpillars and snails

:: carrots: sow thinner, but definately growing them again next year

:: beans: my favorite this year, a big yes for next year

:: sweetcorn: a must-have for my husband and I love it too. I do have to find a spot for them. Maybe I’ll try the three sister method next year. Corn, beans and zucchini are supposed to be great together.

:: none of my seeds came up, but the seedlings I bought did great. Sow in containers myself or keep buying seedlings.

:: endives: always doing great, but I need to stop sowing so much (still don’t like eating it)

:: tomatoes: going back to just a few plants in containers next year. This year I was ambitious and it was a disaster, but before I always had a nice little harvest.

Plans for next year: depending a bit on circumstances. I do know I want more flowers, shrubs (berries) and (edible) perennials, aside from the vegetables. I like the concept of permaculture and edible gardens, but I need to find a way to make it work in our garden and lives.

Wishing you all a great weekend!

I knit a hat like this before, but that time I didn’t take notes. Since someone on ravelry asked me how I made it, I did this time. It looks a lot harder than it is though. You basically just keep shifting one stitch, because you cast on one less then you would need for a rib. But here it is, all worked out one round at a time…

 

Spiraling hat

CO 83 stitches, join in the round, being careful not to twist the stitches.
Use a stitchmarker to mark the beginning of the needle (round)
1: K7, P7 , repeat, eind with P6
2: P1, *K7, P7, repeat from *, end with P5
3: P2, *K7, P7, repeat from *, end with P4
4: P3, *K7, P7, repeat from *, end with P3
5: P4, *K7, P7, repeat from *, end with P2
6: P5, *K7, P7, repeat from *, end with P1
7: P6, *K7, P7, repeat from *, end with K7
8: P7, K7, herhaal, end with K6
9: K1, *P7, K7, repeat from *, end with K5
10: K2, *P7, K7, repeat from *, end with K4
11: K3, *P7, K7, repeat from *, end with K3
12: K4, *P7, K7, repeat from *, end with K2
13: K5, *P7, K7, repeat from *, end with K1
14: K6, *P7, K7, repeat from *, end with P7
15 – 56: Repeat these 14 rounds 3 times (4 times total)

Start decreasing, change to double pointed needles when needed, but keep in mind that you need to shift stitches along the way.

57: K5, K2tog, P7, repeat, end with P6 (77 st left)
58: P1, *K6, P5, P2tog, repeat from *, end with P5 (72 st left)
59: P2tog, *K4, K2tog, P6, repeat from *, end with P4 (65 st left)
60: P2, *K5, P4, P2tog, repeat from *, end with P3 (60 st left)
61: P1, P2tog, *K3, K2tog, P5, repeat from *, end with P2 (53 st left)
62: P3, *K4, P3, P2tog, repeat from *, end with P1 (48 st left)
63: P2, P2tog, *K2, K2tog, P4, repeat from *, end with K2, K2tog (41 st left)
64: P4, *K3, P2, P2tog, repeat from *, end with K2 (36 st left)
65: K1, P2, P2tog, *K1, K2tog, P3, repeat from *, end with K1 (30 st left)
66: K2tog, P3, *K2, P1, P2tog, repeat from * (24 st left)
67: K2, P1, *P2tog, K2tog, repeat from *

At the end of this round there’s only 1 stitch left, use this one and the next (so technically the first of round 680 to P2tog, followed with K2tog.
Thread yarn through remaining 12 stitches and weave in ends.

A printable pdf can be downloaded here

I did it. Three things that I have been planning to do for months, are done. It really helped to know that I had to write a blog about it each week. Accountability. I am going to do this again, but next month things will be a little different (I’ll tell you all about it next week).

My before and afters aren’t as dramatic as I hoped (how do those other bloggers do that), but I am so pleased with the result.

What I wanted to do this month:

1. paint office walls

Before:

After (it is egal and white, really. Those color effects were caused by the sun):

2. clean out hallway clutter

Before:

 

After (not a great change, but things don’t fall on my head anymore when I try to get something of the shelves, so that’s good. And we know where everything is, including all the tools, which is great too.):

3. clean out carport

Before:

After (I’m so happy with this one! Such a big change!):