I'm not talking much about food in this post, although most of what I ate on vacation did turn out to be vegan. I just have some pretty photos I want to share of one of the most beautiful spots I've seen -- St. John. For several years now our family has been regrouping on this tiny island. There are only a couple of hotels on the island and thus far we have opted to rent villas. We go on the off-season to make it affordable (hot) so being on top of a mountain makes it much more pleasant -- there's plenty of cooling breeze up there! This first photo is sort of an artsy shot through the funky spindles of the lower terrace of our villa. The Westin complex and it's dock in Great Cruz Bay is below. We rent a dinghy from the Westin each year so we can check out isolated beaches and coves which have no other access.
My favorite time of day on the island is the early morning, before the sun has risen over the hills when it's still quiet except for a few cockadoodledos. This is a shot from our upper terrace next to our pool. All the tilework and blown glass in our villa, The Sapphire Breeze, was created by the professional artists who own the house. Not much of it is featured in these photos, but it's stunning.
The island is in a drought currently, so you can see that the verdant tropical isle of years past features more shades of brown. Still, the more muted palette reveals some interesting things I may have otherwise missed. This tree is seriously struggling -- appearing basically dead, but yet . . . it blooms! This immediately reminded me of [spoiler] the white tree of Gondor in the "Return of the King" LOTR fans will understand. I am rooting for this stalwart little tree which, while fighting for its life, also plays host to AIR PLANTS! This is a real world, full grown version of my own fairly recent obsession -- see this old photo of one on my kitchen table:
This healthy little guy is what the wild tilisandria would look like if not enduring a drought. I know this because my little house plant looked like the wild one after I'd been away a week.
Back to the villa -- sometimes it really was too hot to hang outside, but look at the view from my bed! That's the infinity pool right outside the french doors, and Great Cruz Bay beyond.
Finally, my week in paradise was not all play and no work (though my work is actually a form of play too!) I brought supplies for a few prayer beads that I made for
InspireDesigns, the wonderful company where I work. I noticed how pretty the beads looked draped around a conch shell up on our veranda. What do you think? I love my job!
Oh -- I almost forgot to follow up on the food I mentioned earlier, and with good reason. Life on St. John is very active with snorkeling and hiking and boating and jeeping all over steep and narrow mountain roads. By the time we returned to our villa each day we normally just boiled a batch of pasta and ate it with a bunch of vegetables -- vegan but not gluten-free. The gluten does not bother me as much as cheese would have, but I'm back on the gluten-free plan at home now, no worse for the wear.
