Heat in a Can

It was bright and cold on the weekend -- the perfect time to take a walk in the woods and maybe pull in a few cut logs and fallen branches.


But what to make for lunch that would warm us up?


Then I remembered the can of conch (pronounced 'konk') chowder that I'd bought in a grocery store in Nassau in November.


I made sure to make it really nice and hot.


It warmed us up right away.


The soup was nicely spiced and warm and kept us that way for the rest of the day. After lunch: out to find more wood!

Dreaming About the Bahamas

Its FREEZING here so I was thinking about the gorgeous, hot weather that Richard and I enjoyed in the Bahamas last November.


The square we sat in had the most magnificent and odd tree. Have you ever seen such a thing?


I tried drawing it but I don't think I did it justice.


One of my favourite moments on our visit was sitting on the cement pier that ran to the beach and drawing the sea.


The turquoise of my watercolours doesn't even come close to how blue that water was. Ahhh. I wanna go back!

Graffiti in the Bahamas

I noticed (how could you miss it?) this graffiti-styled art on an abandoned building near the public beach in Nassau.


Pretty cool. But I couldn't help but wonder if it was actually graffiti or graffiti-styled advertising. Even the security camera is splashed with orange paint.


Note the website for bahamas.com spray painted into the image. Not sure which part is art and which part is advertising. Hmmm. Maybe that's the point?


This fabulously painted cement wall was in front of a work site.



I spotted this insect painted in various empty spots around the city. Love it.

Da Junkanoo Shak

As a regular viewer of Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, I'm always looking for that hole-in-the-wall place that features REAL food.


Da Junkanoo Shak in Nassau, Bahamas seemed to fit that bill.


The menu looked promising.

You may be familiar with conch (pronounced "konk") shells. They are basically GIANT snails. The meat of the conch is second in popularity only to the escargot and is very popular in the Bahamas (and the West Indies too).



We started with conch fritters.


They were yummy, kind of a corn bread-y type dough with a bit of conch right in the middle.


I ordered a conch salad. Really good and now I can see those hot peppers that are sitting on top of the salad and man, they were some hot!


Richard had a conch burger. Yum.


We washed it all down with a couple of local beers.


Gotta love Kalik! Unfortunately it is not exported and can only be enjoyed in the Bahamas. Okay so when's the next plane?

The Colours of Nassau

Last week Richard and I took a 2 day cruise from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to the Bahamas which stopped in the capital city of Nassau.


The colours were astounding.


We walked for hours in the sun and gawked at the architecture.


Lovely, eh?


And this was no set up for tourists. This cop was really directing traffic...and it seemed to me, taking his life into his hands.


We also took a glass bottom boat tour and saw amazingly colourful fish, which were impossible to photograph. From the boat we passed by Paradise Island with the Atlantis Hotel in the background. It's just huge!


Later, back in Nassau, we headed to the public beach. Richard took off to take photos.


I had to get that white sand between my toes.


The water was so turquoise, the air was 90F with a breeze. I'm ready to go back!