The colours of les Saintes

 

Let us first take a look at the bay of of Terre-de-Haut, the main village in the island group les Saintes. Next to the blue sea and sky one can not miss the happy-colours houses, the famous "cases creoles"...

 

In this blog entry I will take you on a  short walk through the streets and enjoy with you the cheerful ambiance of these bright painted doors, windows and posters written in creole language. 

Musee de la Graine, Trois-Rivieres/ The seed museum in Guadeloupe, Trois-Rivieres

 

A fantastic way to see, learn and touch different local and not so local seeds is offered during the guided visit of the green Seeds Museum ("La Musee de la Graine"), which is a private garden on the top of a hill in Trois Rivieres, facing the archipelago les Saintes...The owner Pippo moved here some 14 years when he bought the property and started planting his favourite trees and bushes. Nowadays he enjoys showing the visitors also his atelier where he creates with his home-grown seeds different masterpieces: jewellery for women and men (like colliers) or selection of seeds as decoration for walls, tables and other furniture...

 

The variety of colours, shape and texture is simply amazing and almost overwhelming...For every tree and seed Pippo has a story, either about its origin or about its usage health influence. The so called "blue seed" or "holy seed" (on the last picture) is for example used by the monks in Tibet and is supposed to positively influence the health of everyone caring it...

Underwater colours in les Saintes

 

While waiting for the spring colours (+ all flowers in the Netherlands) I would love to take you on a dive today with me in underwater colours of the island group les Saintes...I have written earlier about this paradise place (part of the French Caribbean, under Guadeloupe), but now I would like to elaborate on all the hidden beauties: the ones under the water surface...

 

Before one goes underwater one may not imagine all the huge diversity of colours, shapes and inhabitants. Next to colourful rocks and caves (see first picture), one should also watch out for the tiny and shiny locals. The famous "crabe tour Eiffel" (second picture) and the cleaning shrimps (last picture) need a closer look before one may enjoy them...

Crocus time&flower carpets in Rijswijk, Holland

 

We know spring is in the air...How would you ask?!
Because there are carpets of purple and white beauties all around my place:-) I am actually more used to have first the snow drops then the crocusses and afterwards the dafodils, hyacinths and tulips, however in the Netherlands the first two often come...together!

 

For the last 2 weeks I have enjoyed a lot those colourful carpets all around Rijswijk...and not only spring is on its way, but also they are ladybugs around too! What a fantastic colour-therapy:-)))

The colourful market in St-Leu/ le marche de St-Leu, Reunion

 

Every time I am in a new place/city/country I love to go to the local (fresh food) market...In countries like France and its overseas teritorries the market visit is at the same time gourmet/ nature-discovering&people-meeting event! One can learn a lot about the way people live (and eat) when visiting the local market... During our vacation in Reunion island we went to the weekly market (every Saturday from 6am till 1pm) in the cute and cozy village St-Leu, where we stayed for around a week. Even if we went to the market around 7.30 am, the outside air was already very sticky and heavy (extremely hight air humidity)...

 

However I really enjoyed the bright colours of all local and exotic fruits. I have spotted some unknown to me veggies and even bought one new for me fruit, (tastewise between a melon and strawberry). The home-made soap stand was a great find too. All soaps were produced with local eteric oil and there were some yummy smelling products like choco-mint-soap or orange-lemongrass...

 

We found also forest mushroom, which we prepared later this day with rice in one delicious risotto!

How to (learn to) make your own cacao powder: part 2

 

Thank you so much for the comment on my previous blog entry showing real cacao pods and the fresh beans inside....As a lot of you asked me about the home-made cacao powder, today I would like to show you my final products! After cutting the pods open and letting the beans ferment in the sun and then dry I have followed the following next steps:
- toast them for 20-30 min in the oven;
- then peel them;

 

As I did not end up with too many beans I did use my coffee grinder to grind them and the powder I got was pretty red-light colour...This powder I used then to mix with dried cocos (for 1 min together in the coffee grinder) and created the yummy dessert on the last shot...