Our parrot, R2D2, was with a little green friend, Jade, when she came to live with us about 8 years ago. Eventually, Jade died of parrot flu, leaving poor R2D2 alone. Parrots are incredibly social animals, but she has managed as well as she can with our company … and sings to the little parrot owned by the family on the other side of the fence.
Every year at this time, somewhere in my yard, this happy pink flower appears at just above eye level. It is a beautiful surprise first thing in the day … a little WOW moment, that makes all my senses dance. It is the lowest point of a vine that is growing high in the trees overhead, and has just burst into flower.
These beautiful white lilies sprang into flower a couple of days ago after our first intimation of rains.
Last year, Project Ix-canaan hosted a vermiculture workshop led by Cathy Nesbitt of Ontario, Canada (Cathy’s Crawly Composters) and Maria Rodriguez of Guatemala City (Byoearth). You can read more about the workshop here. The goal was to find a way to replentish and reenergise the incredibly bad soil so it would support garden vegetables.
I found this little critter on my door this morning. It reminded me of a cross between a spider and a Praying Mantis, but wasn’t either. Thanks to the miracles of Google, it took only a few minutes for me to discover that it is from the order of Phasmida, otherwise known as stick-insect, walking sticks or stick bugs.
For ages I have been wanting to find a perfect vegetarian “burger”. I have collected a pile of recipes, and I’ve tried a couple, but still hadn’t found one that made me want to run out to the kitchen and make more. Until this recipe.
Purchases at the Mega-Paca fall into two categories … those that you go looking for specifically to fit a specific need, and those that you just see and know that it is perfect for something.
This Nail Art is in honour of my sister, Arlene, whose favourite flower was the Stargazer Lily. She asked me if I would do a Stargazer Lily design and I told her I would. It took me a couple of weeks and lots of different attempts to achieve a result that I was happy with.
I was walking into the house the other day when i glanced down at the path and saw this scorpion being dragged across the stones by a lot of ants.
A few years ago the Ix-canaan Women’s Group began a program of Square Foot Gardening under the direction of Rose Lord from Philadelphia. The reasoning behind this program is that many campesino people have poor health, not from lack of protein in their diets, but for lack of fresh vegetables, which are not grown here in Peten and cost more because they are imported from Southern Guatemala. With a properly functioning square foot garden just outside the kitchen door, a woman can feed a fresh vegetable to her family most days.
Until really recently, I knew nothing about Nail Art. I suppose I had seen it somewhere, but it didn’t enter my consciousness. I don’t know what caused me to take notice now. But suddenly I found myself googling “Nail Art” and “Nail Art Designs”. The next time I went to town, I bought a bunch of different colours of polishes. And a few colours of liners (which I had never heard of before) and I started watching You Tube videos and Pinning pictures of Nail Art that i like and eventually, painting designs on my nails.
Heliconia has just become my favorite flower .. the flower of the season … a symbol of Spring and Easter and New Beginnings. I’d never really noticed them before this one planted itself right underneath our bedroom window. It grew rapidly and burst into flower just before the Spring Equinox and Easter (and my mother’s birthday).
It seems appropriate that Jungle Jouissance begins at spring equinox and Easter, the time of New Beginnings. Above, the Goddess Eostre brings eggs of peace, love and joy to begin the new cycle.
Welcome to
JUNGLE JOUISSANCE
Jouissance?
What is “jouissance”?? And how do you pronounce it?
I had never heard of this word until recently … I found it when I was researching synonyms for “joy”, and its definition according to google is:
jouissance |ZHwēˈsäNs| noun
physical or intellectual pleasure, delight, or ecstasy.
This blog is a reincarnation of Rainforest Recipes but with so much more. It will continue to cover the creation and/or consumption of great foods here in the jungle, as well as just about anything else that adds “juice” and “joy” to life in a small jungle village.
You can expect to read articles about:
I love to hear feedback.
Don’t miss a single post of Jungle Jouissance … click “subscribe” in menu bar above and sign up to get an announcement in your inbox when a new post is posted.
Rainforest Recipes has now moved to a new location! We have been offline for awhile but expect to be back posting lots of delicious recipes at our NEW LOCATION: Project Ix-canaan: Rainforest Recipes.
Finally I’ve managed to cook and post this recipe! I apologize to readers who came looking for this post when I was supposed to have posted it waaaay back about 3 or 4 weeks ago. I fully intended to make this on the right day, however, my difficulties began on shopping day when the only avocados to be found were hard as rocks. By the time I had bypassed that hurdle, Unificacion Maya 2009 was upon me, and everything else in my life … including cooking and blogging … was completely out of my mind.
I have just finished the Unificacion Maya Ceremonies for another year. It is pretty all-absorbing for the month of December, and I haven’t been able to take even a moment for blogging. However, it is over now, and I am determined to get back on my usual schedule.
This Pineapple-Ramon Upside Down Cake was the dessert for our second ceremony.
