Paradise Found & Treasured

Taking a break from the normal blogging, I am sharing family time in our part of the world we consider our paradise......

This is the view from our location on Seven Mile Beach, Grand Cayman, BWI

My husband & I love this island, its people and its way of life.   It is our place to decompress.  May is a very quiet month on the island, just after high season ends (April 15), but before the weather gets too hot. Very near the equator, the weather varies only by about 10 degrees from its 'winter' season to its summer.  In May, the air temp is usually 84F by day, 78F by night, and the water is typically 82F, even at 100 feet below sea level (we are scuba divers).

Before going on vacation, I stressed about not being home to get mail (mostly packages from some great fellow bloggers!), restyle our booth spaces, etc., but I've quickly settled into this laid back scenery.  And I was still on the hunt. Pictured below are the kinds of things I collect while here:  any color of tumbled glass (I'll sort the keepers from the toss backs on all of these later), the very white shells and any parts of shells with yellow hues (at top, which I love), a few pieces of dead coral (the brain-like piece on the right in the middle of the photo as well as the piece to the left of it), and the bleached white spiral shells at bottom.  I even picked up a found penny which had coral bits attached to it.  I love to arrange these small bits in old spice jars I have, which have cork stops and raffia ties around them, and place them in places where I'll see them frequently:  my desk, the bathroom, etc.

While here, we've enjoyed lots of scuba diving, snorkeling, walks on the beach, and quiet inactivity just sitting in chairs watching the water glistening like diamonds in the afternoon sun, and seeing the sun set like a giant ball of fire through clouds of pinks, blues and yellows.  It's truly magnificent without ever looking the same twice.  This year, we experienced an atmospheric phenomenon called a "sun dog" - google it to learn more about this fascinating occurrence.  The photo below is what we saw- it was essentially a complete rainbow around the sun, midday - with no rain before or after!  

The locals say that this has occurred before, and it typically portends of a change of weather, usually unfavorable, but ours continued to be nothing less than more beautiful each day.



It's always nice to be back home, even after such a wonderful trip, mostly because I'm fairly certain we'll enjoy yet another stay here in paradise in the future.  There may even be a couple of chairs waiting for us in the shade, if we're lucky.  But just getting to go is fortune and blessing enough.   Where's your paradise?