Counting our Blessings in the Warm Bahamas

(An Ocean Club Estates property).

Yesterday I was counting my blessings = I mean really counting my blessings - that I call the Bahamas home.

My brother sent me pictures of his car, all but buried under snow after 28 inches fell. Four foot drifts were piled in front of his windows in Baltimore.

Brrrr! All that freezing snow to shovel and the horrible mess to come when it melts.

Here we were in our Bahamas home, enjoying an unseasonably cool spell, temps in the mid-60s (F), track suits on and a piping hot plate of “fire engine” – corned beef in a spicy tomato sauce and grits – on our laps while so many people in the north were dealing with the Wicked Witch of Winter.

Our Canadian friends decided they wanted to go for a swim and check out the coral reefs

We told them no self-respecting Bahamian would be caught dead in the water in this weather. They told us no self-respecting person from their neck of the woods wouldn't be caught dead in the water on such a beautiful sunny day.

So we threw together a conch salad with lots of sour orange and hot red pepper (we Bahamians like pepper), packed the ice chest and took them to Rose Island for a snorkel.

We stayed on the boat. They snorkeled.

Then we toured Nassau Harbour and showed them all the waterfront homes and mansions at Ocean Club Estates on Paradise Island.

Back at our Nassau home a few hours later, we made a fire in the chiminea in our garden and settled down to watch the Buntings and other winter birds come to water, glad to call the Bahamas home.