Day Seven

The sunlight really shows off the beautiful green coloring on our Canivet's Emerald hummingbird. She may regret her building her nest on our deck exposed to the afternoon sun. She's sitting on the nest with her beak open. Do birds keep their mouths open when hot like a dog does?

When she leaves the nest to grab a bite to eat and we're out on the deck, she flies right up to us and hovers, as though to say "I'm stepping out for a minute - keep your distance from my nest" and then she flies off.

Ok, so day seven without a car. Definitely getting old. Don tried to call Henry, the mechanic, this morning, only to discover that my pre-paid card had run out on the cell phone. We were helping Colin move this morning, so we borrowed a phone and made the call. Henry, in his limited English kept saying something about an "inductor" which Don could not understand, and he finally gave up. It appears that our car is still not ready, although we don't know why.

One of our new missionary friends, Rick, was also helping with the move and heard us talking about the car and how we were in serious need of a trip to the grocery store and the immigration office. He offered to take us to both places this afternoon. We offered to buy him lunch. Good trade. The first thing we did was buy more pre-paid phone cards, then on to immigration. The immigration office was closed when we arrived, so we went to get a late lunch; when we returned to the immigration office, it was still closed with a line of 5 or more men waiting for the agent. One of the men told us that the office would not be open tomorrow (as we had already heard) as it is a holiday (they have more holidays down here!!), but that it would be open Saturday, but "come early, between 9 a.m. - 10:30 a.m." Heavy traffic at the airport on Saturday requires his presence. Our visas expire on Sunday.

We decided to go by the Kia dealer and speak with the woman in the office who is bi-lingual, hoping for a better explanation of "inductor" or whatever the current problem may be. Henry was at the bank, and no one else knew the status of our car repair. Trips to the bank can take a long time, so we left. On the to grocery store. We were out of all perishables. We did pretty good at finding what we needed EXCEPT - no bread, no buns. That's not good.

Rick brought us and our groceries home and we tried to call Henry one more time, just in case the car was magically ready and Rick could drop us off. Nope, no Henry. So....manana. Oh, wait, tomorrow is a holiday. Now I'm really bummed out!

Two Eggs!!

Yes, we now have two hummingbird eggs!!

This is not the most well focused photo, but I had to act quickly to even get this shot. I was pretty certain that mama hummer had laid another egg this morning from all the shaking and wiggling she had done, so as soon as she flew off, I ran over with the camera. She wasn't gone long at all - incubation has begun.

My daughter-in-law was able to identify the hummer as a Canivet's Emerald. I have spent a lot of time online, looking at hummingbird sites, trying to identify her. Most of the sites seem to focus on North American hummers or South American birds, very little on Central America in general. I had seen a picture of a male Canivet's Emerald taken in Belize and thought that was a possibility for our female, but wasn't sure. Once Tracy made the i.d. and I googled that name, up popped several sites with Honduran hummingbirds and one on Roatan birds. Finally!! The Roatan site had photos of both male and female Canivet's and said that there are four variations of Canivet's in Honduras, two of those commonly seen on Roatan. So thank you, Tracy! It's good to have a scientist in the family :-)

We also have this hawk as a frequent guest in the taller trees across the ravine from our deck. We got the telescope out for a better look. He had an orangy-gold beak and feet and was holding one foot up in front of him, like it was injured. In fact, it looked damaged, possibly missing some talons.

Two hawks are better than one.

Again, not the best photo, but the light was fading and before I could try for a better shot, the hawk on the left flew off.

Last night's sunset.

We are into day 6 of no car. This is beginning to get old. Today we did some painting, and I washed a couple of windows before it started raining again. Don had just remarked that we had not lost power in 3 days when, poof, off went the power! Only down 1-1/2 hours this time.

Saw a hilarious article in the Honduras News (in English) this morning about how Honduras has an embargo on importing pork from Mexico and the U.S. due to swine flu. Whew! I had a good laugh over that one. Later on, I saw a posting from Ted at one of the island resorts, known for their Thursday night pig roasts. He quoted the assistant director of the CDC in Atlanta who said "you don't get swine flu from eating pork." I also saw in the paper that the airports in Honduras are screening people for swine flu as they enter the country. So don't come if you are sick.

We Have One Egg!

I've been trying to peek inside the nest for at least a day, waiting for mama hummer to leave the nest, dragging my step stool closer, in hopes of spotting an egg, all rather nervously done. She's still leaves the nest, but less frequently today and appears to be sitting still most of the time. I wondered about this, having read that hummers generally lay two eggs, sometimes a day or two apart, and usually will not begin incubating them until the second egg has been laid. During the laying process, she will shake and wiggle, which I had noticed her doing yesterday. Liking Maria's suggestion to simply hold the camera above the nest and snap it, I waited for an opportunity. Shortly after lunch, she left the nest, and I summoned my courage, quickly moved in close and held the camera just above the nest. And behold, there was one little egg! Thanks, Maria, for that suggestion. She was back quickly to resume sitting. I don't know if she will squeeze out another egg since she appears to be incubating already.

It is a cloudy, cooler day, perfect for laying in the hammock, right? I attempted to stretch the hammock out to attach it to the second hook and mama hummer left the nest, hovering and fussing at me. Clearly unhappy with my efforts. I then remembered reading how the female hummer will chase the male hummer away from the completed nest for fear that his bright plummage will attract predators. My hammock is brightly colored; she views it as a risk. Darn.

We had a bit of rain early this morning, followed by this bit of a rainbow, looking like it's wrapped around the cloud.

If you're wondering if I have nothing more exciting to write about than our hummingbird and rain, you're right. Our car is still in the shop, where it has been since last Friday morning, awaiting the repair of the air conditioner. Henry, the Toyota mechanic, called this morning to say that the wrong part had been shipped over, he had ordered the correct one and it would be on the last plane to Roatan this afternoon, and hopefully ready to go tomorrow. So, we have been grounded since Colin returned on Sunday and we lost the use of his vehicle. We've just been chillin', reading, doing a few chores. Don's writing a computer program in Java, a computer language he has been teaching himself since Christmas. I've been online doing genealogy. So we're good.

Sunday Brunch

As you can see, Moe chose the lizard "special of the day" for his Sunday brunch. Man, he's fast! He just darted out the door and had this little lizard in mouth in a flash. He wouldn't drop him either until he got over into the front flower bed, and then the lizard got away. He stalked and hunted for the longest time but failed to turn up another treat. I think all the geckos have gone into hiding.

We picked Colin up from the airport after church and sent Moe home with him. Victim of bad behavior - Moe's never been this naughty before. Putting him in the house for time out did no good; he just hopped up on the counter, up on the cabinets, up on the beams. Bad cat!! The hunting is just too good here. I fully expected him to come back down the hill to visit and hunt. Maybe Colin wouldn't let him out.

The hummer has been quite nervous ever since Moe chased her from her nest. When Moe was still here, she would approach cautiously, hovering, until she determined the path was clear. She's still doing that, even though Moe is gone. She's getting more bold in flying right up to me and hovering near my face. I get the feeling that she's not too happy to have me sitting so near her nest, so I have moved back over onto the porch swing, a good 10 feet away. She even flew up to us during lunch as though challenging our right to sit at the deck table. I think she is nearly ready to lay her eggs; she's not only more aggressive, she's spending more and more time just sitting in the nest, wiggling, all through the day. I'm a bit too short to peer into the nest to check for eggs, so I asked Don to look. He declined, saying he had no desire to be pecked. Guess I'll have to resort to my step stool while she's off the nest. Wish me luck.

The Stalker

Yes, that is Moe on top of my kitchen cabinet. Moe has gone insane. Last night he chased a lizard up onto our roof. When we put him inside for the night, he promptly jumped up onto the kitchen counter, up on top of the cabinets and then...

he walked along the exposed beams of our ceiling, stalking his prey - geckos. He was just wild. I finally pulled him down, turned off the lights and closed the door of the guest quarters. He was probably right back up there once I left.

Kellie's theory that he has lost interest in hummingbirds proved false when I let the wild man outside this morning; he immediately ran after the incoming hummer. Back into the house he went until the hummer had finished her morning construction.

Next time we let him out, he ran off into the yard and down under the house, chasing anything that moved. Awhile later he returned, limping, stopping to lick his back paw. We picked him up and discovered a sharp rock wedged between his pads and removed it. He continued to stop and lick his paw and finally came to me, meowing. I picked him up and looked again and he had sticky, sappy or tarry stuff stuck all between his pads. It didn't want to release, so I got out the GooGone and tried that; some came off but some remained. When I saw him continue to lick, I grabbed him to wash off the GooGone - licking that stuff can't be good for him. He needed a big long siesta after all that!

Meanwhile, the hummer returned to work on the nest. I'm still trying to learn what type of hummer she is - so if anyone knows, please leave a comment.

This will give you an idea of the size of the nest. She added a another nice downy layer today.

Moe's Back

Life is about to get more interesting. Kellie has gone to Florida for a week, and we are cat-sitting. I've been wondering how Moe would react to the hummingbird as she builds her nest on our clothesline. She put in her construction time early this morning and has not been around since Moe arrived at 9 a.m. Kellie said that Moe has lost interest in hummingbirds anyway; he's much more interested in lizards - of all sizes. He wasn't here long before he caught this Monkey-la-la. He will have a good time this week because we have lots of lizards of various sizes in our trees, flowerbeds, gutters, not to mention the geckos inside the house. He has pretty much decimated the lizard population up the hill. I did scold him and chase him around the deck, trying to get him to drop the lizard, and eventually, he did. The lizard shot off into the heliconias with Moe in hot pursuit.

The fruitless effort left him exhausted, calling for a catnap on the porch swing (my favorite spot, too). He even had it swinging!

I've been doing more reading on hummers. They typically spend about 4 hours per day building their nests which can take up to a week to complete. Today she added a nice soft, downy layer. The guy wire that I mentioned yesterday is just what it looks like, spider webs. That's what she was doing in the purple plants, collecting spider webs. She also uses these as a type of glue to hold the nest together. She collects it by wrapping it around her body and then uses her long beak and her body to press it into the nest. The guy wires are proving pretty strong so far, keeping the nest from swaying too much in the wind. We'll soon see how she reacts to Moe.

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The Nesting

Our little hummingbird has been hard at work all day since dawn building a nest on the end of our clothesline rope.

The rope is hanging down next to the brown support post. We thought that looked like such a precarious spot, subject to wind gusts, kind of hung out there in the open.

As she worked on the nest, I noticed some threads on the back end, and thought that it was just a spider's web at first glance. I realized that she was adding guy wires for additional support and protection from the wind.

There appears to be a bit of nectar hanging on the tip of her beak. She poked her beak into the nesting materials. Perhaps the nectar serves as a glue?

Hanging there.

Here's another view of her guy wire.

She's apparently not too afraid of us, even when I hung some clothes on the line, she kept on working. I will try to keep some distance though.

She periodically tests the strength of her nest by bouncing in it.

This purple plant grows all over our yard. She made multiple trips to the plants, collecting something which was not obvious to my naked eye. Perhaps some type of sap?

We moved our table and chairs over to give her a bit more space, but she really doesn't seem too bothered by us. Sometimes she'll back off a little and hover, until she's certain of our movements, then she continues her work.

Wahoo on the Beach

Debi and I enjoyed a cool, cloudy walk on the beach this morning and even got rained on, which we didn't mind, other than trying to keep the cameras dry. We saw some interesting sights, as we always do, which is why we bring the cameras.

We encountered the girls in the above photo earlier in our walk, each carrying one puppy. So cute, but we didn't take a picture. But when we saw them again, with the boys and more puppies, we had to stop and take pictures. Cute little fur balls - about 4 weeks old, and all spoken for, Rachel, who keeps thinking I need a dog.

We walked a bit further and saw a man attempting to remove something large and heavy from a black trash bag. That got the better of Debi's curiosity and she had to go ask what he was doing.
As we drew near, we could see that he had 2 large fish heads unwrapped and resting in a plastic wash basin. He said they were Wahoo heads that had been discarded by someone who only wanted the body. He said there was plenty of good eating in those heads, which also had part of the body to just past the gills. I told him my friend Merlin says fish heads are her favorite part. He said many island people like them cooked in a big pot with other seafood. The fish heads were frozen, so he was going to wash them (in the ocean) and thaw them out. I didn't take a picture of that - thought it was really a bit gross.

A little later, as Don and I were driving into French Harbor, in the rain, we spotted a man walking beside the road carrying a four foot long Wahoo slung over his shoulder! Wahoo day on the island. I haven't tried Wahoo yet, but understand that it is very delicious if cooked properly. I'm not so sure about Wahoo heads, though.

Our objective in French Harbor was to check out the new, huge Eldon's supermarket that everyone has been raving about. It is big, well-stocked, complete with a bakery, deli, and large frozen food section. Just like a U.S. market. With U.S. prices on many goods. Much better selection of meats. If Don is ever willing to shell out $12-15 per pound for U.S. beef, he could have a nice pot roast or filet. Very impressive.

The bank was closed today. Another holiday, Cultural Awareness Day, I think. I had hoped to make it back to Sandy Bay to the school Kellie attends to watch her in the pole dance (not THAT kind of pole dance - like a Maypole), but we were too late.

Our power was still off when we got home - four hours this time, so to avoid opening the refrigerator, Don ate herring in Louisana hot sauce on crackers with vinegar (ugh!) and I had peanut butter on crackers and a banana.

While eating lunch on the deck, we noticed that the hummingbird was beginning to build a nest on that bit of clothesline that he(she?) has grown fond of. I was able to get a better picture this time. I'll be taking pictures of the nest building and egg laying/hatching. Hope I don't get my head pecked. This nest will be about 2 feet away from our table where we eat all our meals.

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Sunsets

We were thrilled when some clouds rolled in late yesterday afternoon. Not only could we use some rain to settle the dust and water the flowers but the clouds produce spectacular sunsets.

The dark clouds all too soon hid the sun but not before I got these great shots.

Then we were off to a potluck dinner up the hill at Colin and Kellie's house. I tried out a new chicken enchilada batter bake recipe - very good! Just as the oven was heating up, the propane gas tank ran out. Fortunately, we have a spare on the gas grill so the baking process wasn't delayed by much. We had a good time, welcoming a young couple back to the island and meeting their new baby. And Kellie finally forked over the Godiva chocolates she'd been promising me.

No rain yet. And no power again this morning for a couple of hours. Well, at least the coffee had finished brewing before it went off. The sunrise was nice, a little sliver of moon still visible, the sea was calm, time for a snorkel! And it was awesome. Lots of colorful fish. Nice.

Technical Woes

Sometimes life in paradise is problematic. Sigh. Like this past week.
Our internet service has been quite slow and cranky lately, making some tasks very frustrating and some nearly impossible - like Skype calls. With my birthday falling on Wednesday, I was expecting a lot of family calls via Skype. They all failed. I finally sent an e-mail telling everyone to just wait a day before trying again. But that wasn't the end of it.
Thursday we had no service at all...nada...zip...zero. The modem wasn't fully lit up, bad sign. I had been experiencing a strange sensation all day whenever I came out onto the deck - all the hairs on my arms would raise up, kind of like when lightening is about to strike. Mighty weird. I called the HughesNet office to request help and was promised a tech after noon. Sure enough, the tech called shortly after noon, and in heavily accented English asked for directions. He said he was at the pizzaria - well, that was easy - just cross the road and drive up the hill to our house, 4th on the right. Nope. Not so easy. I repeated this numerous times and we both became more confused. I finally asked, "are you at Bella Napoli Pizza?", thinking surely he was at the wrong pizza place, but no, he said he was at Bella Napoli. Just then Don returned from picking Kellie up at school and said he would drive down the hill so the tech could follow him back up. So he does, the tech sees him, waves and begins following him. Don gets to the house...no tech. He turns around and goes back to find the tech pulling out of the first driveway...a puzzler, until he explains that his motorcycle motor stopped and he pulled over to try to get it going again. Finally, they both make it to the house.
Of course I'm wondering at this point if this is going to be a good experience. Answer: yes and no. A lot of no. He no sooner began troubleshooting than our power went out. And stayed off. So no more can be done to restore service. Bummer. Now for the good part - we offered a glass of water and he sat down on the deck with us and began telling us about learning to speak English and how absolutely thrilled he was to have found some wonderful people from the United States to practice his English with (meaning us). He loves Americans and wants to learn to speak better but generally has no one to practice with. His wife is not interested in learning and his children are too small yet. So we talked for awhile, and we enjoyed it as much as he did, well, almost; it's hard to match his enthusiasm. Soon he asked if we could be friends. We agreed that we could. Then he asked if he could bring his family to visit sometime, and we said yes. He stayed and talked for about an hour - still no power, so he said he would return in the morning.
Friday morning starts well enough. We have power, the tech returns and gets to work early. By noon he still has not discovered the source of the problem. He phones in for assistance and then says he must take our modem in to the office to be tested. (He doesn't carry much on his motorcycle.) He will return with it in the afternoon and if it's defective, he'll bring a new one.
He doesn't return and doesn't call all afternoon. Finally, around 5:30 p.m., he calls. He was sent out to see another customer but would come to our house then if we wanted. The modem was good; he would have to replace the transmit/receive head. We told him to wait until morning.
Saturday morning the power goes off again. The tech calls and says he'll wait until we have power, then says "we're on our way"...?? He arrived soon after with another tech, apparently a more highly trained tech from the mainland. They get to work replacing the head, but of course, can go no further until the power is restored 3 hours later. They were busy the whole time, in a very slow way. Don had just a little reserve power in the APC which they used sparingly to test the signal. Just as they were preparing to reconnect the modem, the power came on. Wonderful!
Only, it still didn't work. I think at this point they just began replacing everything, cable, connectors, etc. Don was sure it was a lost cause, but no, suddenly it all worked and we had a strong signal. So, after about 11 man hours, all systems were go. Whew.

Ah, but that's not the end of the story...
Our reconnection joy was short lived. Somehow, during the first hour of restored service, we managed to exceed our daily download limit of 200MB. Don't really understand how that could be as neither of us thought we had downloaded anything, although I had done some genealogy work. We had a great long Skype call with Rachel and Lance which went downhill after about 30 mins. and then the problems started. First everything slowed down, big delay in transmission, then disconnects and then by Sunday a.m. nothing would load. Sunday afternoon Don realized that was what had happened. So we had to wait it out. When we exceed our limit, we are "punished" for 24 hours. So, at 6 p.m. last night everything was once again working properly and we were able to call and talk with Dave.

If it sounds like there are often frustrations with living here, there are, but we still find that the benefits far exceed the inconveniences. Everyday is a lesson in patience. Life moves at a slower pace here, giving you more time to appreciate the blessings. And we have now acquired a new friend, who will no doubt be back to visit and practice his English.

The Birthday Bash

Moe prepares to sing "Happy Birthday" to Kellie and Jeanette.

The birthday girls and the cake. Milestone birthday for Kellie, too, who turned 13. Yup, a full-fledged teenager.

The torch, er - cake. Where's the fire extinguisher??

and yes, the candles did melt all over the cake! It was still good.

In this shot: Tyra, Kellie, Jeanette, Courtney and little Danica.

We had a great time at the party thrown by Kellie's dad, Colin. Their housekeeper made vast quantities of chicken and fish pastelitos with a sweet sauce and a spicy sauce (yummy!). Other guests brought side dishes and cakes and Kellie made cupcakes. Our cake plate runneth over! A picture similar to the above shot may very well be in the next edition of the Bay Islands Voice, a monthly magazine published by Colin's friend Thomas. He was taking names....

Nudists?

Well folks, in a shocking bit of news, apparently turning 60 has warped Jeanette's mind, and she and Don have become nudists! Yes, you heard that right. They celebrated Jeanette's birthday last night by joining a new nudist colony. As you can see in the above photo, they are still a bit shy about the whole transition and were happy to make use of these large leaves. Rachel may be right about her mother - that crazy woman will try anything!! And Don - well, if you know him very well, you know he is a bit of an exhibitionist anyway.

Ok, seriously, 60 may be beautiful but only fully clothed!

I wrote this tongue-in-cheek for Don's friend Darryll who suggested that I makeup some outlandish tales to spice up my blog. He actually suggested pirates, but I felt drawn by the back-to-nature feature.

We actually celebrated my birthday last night by visiting a new restaurant in West Bay called Bocca's. Beautiful, elegant setting.

Our good friends Bob, Debi and Kristin joyfully helped us celebrate. Debi is an avid photographer so, of course, we had a spontaneous photo shoot in the beautifully landscaped area outside the restaurant (and inside). Our waiter saw us and came out to take a few photos of all of us. Thanks, Sibeno! We had hoped to catch the sunset before dinner, but the view was actually blocked by another building, and a low cloud bank or band of haze along the horizon quickly obliterated the sun anyway. We were initially the only customers in the restaurant, so, of course, we got excellent service. We had a lovely meal and were very blessed to share this occasion with new friends.

Today, I was treated to a girls' only lunch with pals Debi and Tia. Great fun! So thankful to have friends here help mark the occasion, otherwise, I would have really been missing family and friends back home. It's also wonderful to have e-mail and Facebook greetings. Now if only Skype would work today so all my family can call....

I share my birthday with our young friend, Kellie. She is 13 today and is much more excited about that than I am about mine. Her dad is throwing a casual party tonight for Kellie (and me). The housekeeper is making pastelitos (kind of like an empanada - a fried meat and rice pie) among other things. Kellie has promised to finally break out the Godiva chocolate she's been hoarding.

Recent Visitors

We've recently had a rash of visitors, some normal, some unusual and some rather nosey. I flipped on the bathroom light a couple of nights ago and discovered this little tree frog sitting on the counter behind the sink. How on earth did he get there? And where did he go - he was nowhere to be seen the next morning.

This is not the best photo of this beautiful cat, but she was moving just as I snapped it. This is one of Moe's "girlfriends" looking for Moe. He had been here earlier but had gone back up the hill.

The Purse Snatcher: Ok, this is just funny. Dennis takes his four dogs out for a long walk twice a day to run off some energy, and they love to run down our stairs and greet us when passing by. The girl black lab had just acquired this lovely purse from another neighbor who was throwing it out just as the dogs came past; Lightening saw the purse and had to have it. She proudly came strutting down the stairs with it in her mouth to show me. Pretty cute! And it goes well with her coat.

The Peeper: We came home from church yesterday to find this guy peeking in our door. I think he saw his reflection and thought he was looking at another very handsome lizard. This is the same nosey guy who was looking the in the guest bedroom window while we were painting.

What is it? This is a hummingbird sitting on a loose end of my clothesline. Admittedly, it is not the best picture, but it is the best I could do before he flew away. He's been back to perch here a number of times, but I have never had my camera or been able to grab it in time.

I saw a rather large bright green iguana crossing our yard a couple of days ago. At first I heard a lot of rustling in the trees and then in the plants, and finally he came into view. Of course, by the time I got my camera, he had crossed the yard to the banana trees; I could hear him rustling but I couldn't see him. Speaking of iguanas reminded me that today, driving back from French Harbor, Don ran over an iguana. He saw him, slowed down, but the iguana also slowed down and reversed directions which brought him right under our wheel. Ick. He wasn't terribly big, maybe 18 inches from nose to tip of tail. We felt bad.

Moe was down here visiting one day when Don was painting in our room. Don had just noticed a taxi pull up on the road beside our house. Now, a little background info is in order: on cruise ship days, we have noticed an increasing number of taxis bringing cruisers up our hill to show off our view (it is that fabulous!) and they get out of the car and take photos. The drivers have been getting bolder though, even driving up the hill past Dennis and Merlin's gates or around the side of the hill just below their house, and this makes Merlin see red! This is a private road on private property, not a scenic lookout, she reminds us and we've been asked to run off any taxis we see. So, Don has just noticed this taxi pulling up when out of the corner of his eye he sees Moe jump up onto our window screen - he yells at Moe "GET OUT OF THERE!!!", Moe jumps down and takes off and the taxi squeals away. Mission accomplished. Merlin laughed and laughed when he told her this story.

A Different Beach Walk

Debi and I met our friend, Kristen, in West End for a walk. We headed west toward West Bay and soon ran out of nice sand beach, encountering instead lots of rocks to scamper over. Debi and I were wearing flip flops (or were barefooted part of the time) - not exactly prepared for walking over rocks, and even though most of the rocks were smooth, they were also slick when wet. We walked as far as we dared before turning around. Next time we'll wear more appropriate shoes - Tevas! and maybe make it all the way to West Bay. It is a very beautiful walk, even on a cloudy day. Here are some photos from that walk on Wednesday. We've decided to hold off on the longer walk to West Bay until all the mainlanders go home after Semana Santa..

Great! The power just went off - first time in 2 days. It is hot again today and many, many extra people are on the island. The water is looking really good. Right after my siesta in the hammock!

Happy Birthday Don! (or Feliz Cumpleanos)

This one's for you...

"will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm 64?" - the Beatles

Yep, you guessed it, Don is 64 today. I can scarcely believe it. Back when that song was released, and we were quite young, 64 sounded ancient. Now that it is here, it may sound old, but it doesn't look, act or feel old on Don. He's still going strong, as amazing as always. But even if he wasn't, my answer would still be the same: yes, I'll still need you and I'll still feed you, now that you're 64.

Here are a few of my favorite photos:

Don examining a piece of driftwood - always curious.

One of our favorite beach spots.

At Lawson's Rock - his elegant island look. He wears it well, doesn't he?

On board the Gypsea Sol.

Don - my rock on the rocks.

This is perhaps my favorite picture of Don. He still looks fabulous!

Happy birthday, my love!