Hunter is in the cockpit scraping the bark off of the two new hiking sticks that we cut this morning. We took a four hour hike this morning in the north end of Bequia. Along the way we walked through a few bay tree forests and chose our walking sticks with care. My current old favorite stick has spiral cracks so it is best to plan ahead and break in a new stick. We walked in the deep shade of the bay trees rubbing the leaves of the bay and inhaling deeply. Yes, these are the same bay leaves that you use in cooking and I did grab a handful for the spice locker and to put into flours and grains to repel weevils.
I found two bird nests on the ground that had the paper thin bark of the bay tree in the nest among the twigs and grass. I wonder if the bark repels insects in the nest. When we sat in the shade and ate our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches I declared my sandwich the best I had ever tasted. What a nice way to start a New Year.