Fennland is a peninsula, and Bakea (our village) is about a mile inland from the estuary. Since the water at the front is silted we get lots of mosquitos; they are further encouraged by the fact that we have a pond in our Dominican-style garden. I am a sun worshiper and love being outdoors – ‘sunshine on my shoulder makes me happy’ etc.
Today I am working from home and so I have come out to the glacis, with my new ultrabook, to work on my ethics application. It is far more comfortable here than in the office…the lack of scalding hot pipe directly behind where I am sitting is a huge improvement, whilst the gentle breeze and light which can still reach me underneath the umbrella are the icing on the cake. However the niggling concern about being mosquito-feed must be addressed if I am to concentrate.
I have sprayed my feet with Mosi Guard but am reluctant to spray it anywhere else since it does actually smell quite strongly and you get to feeling as though you are covered all over with quite a toxic substance – and I’ve only just had a shower! So I carefully filled the two Citronella oil lamps my husband has installed on the glacis – they are on long iron spikes which are wedged between the sandstone blocks of the floor. Having screwed the tops on I carefully lit them with a long match…and then became alarmed at how big the flames were. One of them was very close to the table and I was scared of setting my hair on fire, so I blew this one out.
Having established that I could in fact diffuse the flame on the other one, using the iron top, and having removed a couple of bamboo branches which looked disturbingly too close for comfort, I cautiously relit it…and have resolved to keep this one going…even though I am petrified I might inadvertently set fire to the palm tree directly behind it, the fern to the right of it, and even the umbrella which is a good three foot above it.
So all in all I’m pretty comfortable out here and am enjoying the sunshine…but the threat of a Miranda-moment is always just over my shoulder! Meanwhile, I am surrounded by a fabulous sounds-track of bamboo creaking, leaves rustling…and all kinds of birds stopping off in the pond to bathe; Lovely, lovely!
Glossary
- Glacis – A Creole Patois word Jean Rhys uses to describe the “paved roofed-in terrace” that runs the length of the house at Coulibri. Okay so mine is a sandstone patio at the bottom of my Dominica-style garden…but it is the closest thing I have to a porch and I do have a wooden picnic table and a large sun-parasol which emulates the best aspects of a porch!
Gadael Ymateb