Everyone makes rookie mistakes when they move to an island like this. My neighbours must have laughed and laughed when we barged over a load of pebbles to the island for a path in the garden. Rocks to an island made of large sandstone rock with a gazillion little sandstone rocks everywhere. EVERYWHERE, and, especially, everywhere in the garden. I have spent a very good portion of my time living here over the last ten years moving island rocks into buckets, out of the garden, off the driveway, and out of my shoes.

Fortunately, there are plenty of people willing to give advice and share their experiences with the new islanders. All they have to do is ask. If not asked, everyone will keep to their own business and let you figure it out on your own. If you ask for advice and don’t follow it, you have only yourself to blame when, for example, you have to be rescued from your sinking aluminum boat with the motor which was too heavy. But, as I said, all of us have made mistakes.

Fortunately, and I say this with some trepidation that I am going to jinx things, but other than a pair of glasses, we haven’t dropped anything into the ocean when loading our belongings on and off the boat. I know of others who have lost furniture. We always wear life jackets on the boat and I continue to wear mine when we are off-loading ’cause I am sure that if I ever do fall in, it will be when we are backing and forthing along the narrow finger beside the boat carrying heavy boxes. I can just see me ever so acrobatically falling in while heroically saving the box of groceries. For just such a situation we wear auto hydrostatic life jackets which inflate when wet but are lightweight and comfortable when dry. I often forget it is even on.

I don’t know where I am going with this but, if not obvious yet, I spent some time today pulling hundreds of little rocks out of the iris bed when I was supposed to be weeding. The bed is a mess and very high on my list of things to deal with this summer. I had thought at one point I would move the iris, dig out the bed and plant roses until I realized the bed is about four inches deep and actually just a rock ledge with iris planted on it. As I pulled all those little rocks out and threw them on the path I was reminded of the money I wasted bringing path pebbles to the island.

The good news from the greenhouse, because I know you have been worried, is that the tomatoes are alive. I didn’t kill them with my soapy spray. In fact, three of the four which were really damaged by the white fly yesterday give every impression of a complete recovery. So a collective whew!!!

And, because you have been so patient to read along so far, I include tonight a video of me feeding my sweet little squirrels. We have two who have been with us since we got here. I have grown quite

fond of them