November 13, 2009

We're living at our beautiful home in Coral Bay, St. John, USVI.

Life has been wonderful. Yesterday I hosted a meeting with the Paradise Knitters. It was so much fun knitting, eating and chatting with my Coral Bay friends.

Between knitting, yoga, the beach, reading, walking, taking care of a cat feeding station and relaxing the day goes by very quickly.

My daughter Rachel should be giving birth any day now to her baby boy. He was due last week so we're all sitting at the edge of our seats.

I'll be going to NY for the baby's Brit Milah and will stay for a week to help Rachel.

I'm still teaching an online graduate course for NYIT and give webinars for Scholastic from my home.

In a few weeks I'll be flying to NY to give a Fastt Math workshop but hopefully most of my work will be from home.

David is very busy with our garden. It's so exciting to see our crops grow since there is very little organic, fresh vegetables here.

Kat Sowa painted our garden fence. We think it's beautiful.

Stella's Babies

Stella's Babies
Originally uploaded by SusanSilverman

It looks like both mommy and daddy are with these babies.

One of the best parts of living in Coral  Bay, US Virgin Islands are our new wonderful friends and neighbors.  Peter and Dorothy Muilenburg are our closest neighbors and have become our closest friends.  Peter built his sailboat The Breath in 1969 and has quite an interesting history.  Captain Peter wrote ADrift on a Sea of Blue Light which describes all of his adventures.  

Peter invited us along with two of our friends from Long Island on a half day sail.  The weather was perfect and it was just so special to spend time on this beautiful boat especially after reading his book.

Click here for more pictures.

This Morning's House Guest

houseguestdec3108
Originally uploaded by SusanSilverman

At first I thought it was a little leaf....
If you know the name of this insect, please tell!

Susan's Artistic Creation

Susan's Artistic Creation
Originally uploaded by SusanSilverman

This is the work that I did with Richard yesterday. If you click on this picture it will get you to my Flickr collection. You will be able to see the stairs.

Today's House Guest

katydid
Originally uploaded by SusanSilverman

When I walked outside this morning I saw this lovely katydid relaxing on our masonry wall.
Right now I'm looking at two hummingbirds and one bananaquit drinking sugar water from our hummingbird feeder.
Life is good.

Today I assisted Richard in building some stone steps down to our property. Richard has been working with my husband David and teaching him all about the flora on our property. We call it our plantation. We bought this piece of land next to our home to give us total privacy.
I mixed the cement, sand and laid in some rocks and shells that we collected at the beach. What difficult labor!

Rainbow from My Deck

rainbowbordeaux
Originally uploaded by SusanSilverman

This is the rainbow that I saw from my deck at Peace of Bordeaux.

November 12, 2008
I'm sitting on my deck at Peace of Bordeaux. This is my winter home in St. John, US Virgin Islands. We're having company tonight and after I prepared the meal I decided to relax and watch the sky. When I sat down on the comfortable lounge chair it was wet. I didn't realize that it rained. My first reaction was that my clothes got wet and then I looked at the view and saw a rainbow that stretched from the clouds down to the water. I've seem several rainbows in my time but nothing was as beautiful as this one.
I never imagined that retirement could be so sweet. It really doesn't get any better than this.

September 27, 2008
It's been quite some time since I posted anything on my blog. The reason is because I haven't been traveling to exotic locations. This past May we purchased our dream home in St. John, US Virgin Islands. We've made several trips from our home on Long Island, NY to our home in paradise. We plan on living there during cold winter months.
It's still so new and exciting that we would rather spend our time in St. John than travel around the world. I'm sure that we will resume our adventure travel in time.
For now, I'll be posting photographs from St. John.
This is the view we have from our living room. We can see the British Virgin Islands.

Little Plantation View

Little Plantation View
Originally uploaded by SusanSilverman

This is our third week at Little Plantation. This photograph was taken from the deck.
http://www.littleplantation.com/
Only one more week left and I'm beginning to feel sad. We absolutely LOVE St. John.
Today we hiked the Petroglyph Trail.
http://www.stjohnbeachguide.com/Petroglyph_Trail.htm
I've been spending my time swimming, reading, knitting, hiking and looking at houses. We hope to buy one and live there during the cold winter months.
We had our son Gary and Rachel, Gui and our granddaughter Sonya spent time with us. Gui's parents Irene and Alain spent a few days here as well.
It was wonderful having company but we cherish our time alone.
We will be meeting with a realtor this week and if we don't find a house we'll be back to look in a few months.
Click on the photograph to see more pictures.

Jungle Bay Resort and Spa

dominica1
Originally uploaded by SusanSilverman

After spending 4 days at Crystals in St. Lucia, our next stop was Jungle Bay Resort and Spa in Dominica.
http://www.junglebaydominica.com/
It was our third trip to Dominica and won't be our last!
Here is a picture of the restaurant where I had the most delicious organic and creative vegetarian meals.
The accommodations were absolutely beautiful. Every evening we went to sleep listening to the sounds of the surf and tree frogs.
The sea was too rough to swim in but they have a beautiful stone swimming pool.

Crystals in St. Lucia

stlucia8
Originally uploaded by SusanSilverman

We spent four days at Crystals in St. Lucia.
www.stluciacrystals.com/
Here is the pool outside of our private villa.
It was a relaxing and beautiful holiday. What a unique and beautiful place!
The hosts, Monica and Martin were warm and friendly. Monica told us the best places to go for dinner and arranged a lovely sailing trip.
We had dinner some lovely restaurants but the one we had at Crystals was the best!
We've been to many wonderful places in the Carribean and Crystals is high on our list of places we would like to visit again.

Jaguar Reef Lodge

Jaguar Reef Lodge
Originally uploaded by SusanSilverman

October, 2007
David and I spent a few days of rest and relaxation at the Jaguar Reef Lodge in Belize, Central America.
http://www.jaguarreef.com/
Getting there took some time. We flew from La Guardia to Miami to Belize City. We then took a short flight to Dangriga and were driven to the lodge. The van ride was round forty minutes.

Kripalu Wildflowers

kripalu7
Originally uploaded by SusanSilverman

Click on this image to see more photos from Kripalu.

There are some times that I don't travel with my husband. Some of my trips are private and give me time to reflect, relax, and restore my body and mind. I recently spent a few days Kripalu.
http://www.kripalu.org
I spent my time doing yoga, meditation, hiking, knitting, and reading.
Kripalu's evening programs are wonderful. I had the best time listing and chanting.

Susan and Steve Ross
Originally uploaded by SusanSilverman

Happy Yoga Workshop
June 3 - June 8, 2007
Omega Institute for Holistic Studies
Rhinebeck, New York
http://www.eomega.org
One of the best experiences of my life!
Click on the photo to see more pictures.

My yoga teacher told me that her favorite place for yoga retreats is at Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in Rhinebeck, New York. After attending a five day workshop with Steve Ross, it's become my favorite place as well. The workshop, Happy Yoga, ran from June 3- June 8.
Here's a list of the books we were required to read before taking the course. They are both wonderful.

• Happy Yoga by Steve Ross
• A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle

I didn't realize that we would be doing vinyasa (flow) yoga so on Monday morning I was in for quite a surprise when Steve had us doing vinyasa for an hour. This was way out of my comfort zone and I had doubts that I would be able to walk the next day or complete the rest of the week.
After an hour of vinyasa he had us doing stretches and holding the pose for a few minutes. It wasn't my idea of a good time but I got through it.
The afternoon wasn't as grueling. We did Tai Chi, chanting and listened to Steve's stories about the years he spent in India.
When I woke up the next morning I expected to be in pain but I felt great! I wasn't tired and my joints didn't ache like the often do. I felt strong and invigorated.
So for the remainder of the week I continued to take Steve's workshop and loved every bit of it, pain and all!
The entire class bonded and we ate our meals together, went on walks, swam, and enjoyed the beautiful grounds of Omega.
I didn't think to bring my digital camera but fortunately a few people had them and emailed pictures to the group.
I'm going to take another workshop with Steve this July in Ojai, California.
Life is good.
Namaste

losroquesunset4

losroquesunset4
Originally uploaded by SusanSilverman.

Los Roques, Venezuela.
February 2007
We spent a wonderful week in Los Roques, Venezuela. This was our fourth visit and we hope to continue to visit every year.
Click on this picture to see more Los Roques photographs.

beachlodge
Originally uploaded by SusanSilverman.

These were our accommodations at Punta Caracol. I wouldn't mind relaxing on one of those lounges right now!
Have a look inside an aqua-lodge. If you click on the photograph you will be able to see the rest of our Panama pictures.

Enjoy!