Most people I speak to can’t remember a wetter January and February. I certainly can’t. Although a smattering of sunny days gave us hope for a change in the weather, the rains have persisted throughout the month and, as a consequence, working in the garden has been sporadic.

Despite the rain, there’s plenty of activity in the garden. The agouti family make regular forays to the guava trees, cleaning up any fallen fruits, and birds have been busy building nests. For about the last ten years, a pair of brown tremblers has been nesting in the same roof alcove, and they were back again this month. We were also visited by a tropical kingbird, which was a first observation for me, and a Lesser Antillean flycatcher.

More blossom has appeared in the coffee grove over the course of the month, and I’ve been happy to see feral bees pollinating them. The flowering pandanus is in full bloom now and looks amazing.

One of the many things I love about living here is swapping plants with friends and family. I was happy to exchange some of my young forastero cocoa saplings for a pitomba tree which I planted out and hope will do well up here. One of my many jobs is to transplant some of the arabica coffee seedlings that grow at the foot of the trees into bags for people who have asked for them. Anyone who grows coffee knows that there’s usually a plentiful supply at this time of the year.

As I write this entry, it’s still tipping down and I can barely make out the end of the garden through the low cloud ceiling. One day – soon I hope – it will feel like the Caribbean again.