We Are Ladera Two

Some of the faces of the Ladera family and friends.

Carving A Legend

Listen carefully because like his name Modeste, Boniface is modest, quiet, soft spoken but with bright clear eyes that dance as he speaks of wood carving. He has been carving since childhood and much of his career has been at Ladera where you are left to marvel at his skill, imagination and growth. Like many of the artisan craftsman who work at Ladera Boniface has learned much with on the job training.

His natural gift for wood is evidenced by each piece he creates. When he is not carving he can be found building, furniture making or doing a variety of masonry tasks. Some of his newer sea scape's are simply outstanding. His stellar design skills marry his craftsmanship with every stroke of the chisel.

Boniface demonstrates his art form most Tuesday nights at The Ladera Managers Cocktail Party. Guests can even have custom carvings made during their stay at the resort. While he carves and answers questions a soft jazz father and son duo often provides a beat. It is one of those Ladera moments where everything is perfect.

The carving and wood working skills at Ladera are simply magnificent. The few photo's appearing on this blog are only the tip of the iceberg when it come to wood working. The furniture, hand turned bedposts, mirror frames, doors, hand carved cabinet pulls, wains coating, window frames, towel racks, sculptures and wall hanging are so beautiful you want to photograph each feature.

I Am Improving

Many times while driving south on the main road toward Vieux Fort I noticed The Bamboo Bar, last week while we were going on plant patrol I asked the driver, Peanut aka The Maniac to watch for the sign and words in the photo. He did not know the place I spoke of as I did not refer to it by the proper name, I only recalled the improving and manure parts. Anyway turns out the story behind the words is a family dispute.

The Bamboo Bar was originally a shop owned by the mother of a Ladera employee. With her passing there began an argument between the brothers and sisters regarding who would inherit the shop. Writing their feeling on the wall in front of the bar is how the victor spoke their peace. I always thought it would be a cool spot to visit.

Passing through the doorway the bottle cap curtain grabbed my attention. A young woman greeted me and eagerly showed me the batik prints that hung on the walls. A couple of locals sat at the bar. The simple shelves held meager stock ; a few Piton beers a bottle of Bounty rum and a jug of homemade spiced rum. Crates of vegetables were stacked on the floor near a small child's table and chair. Lots of local color that's for sure.

Varnishing, waxing and oiling are all part of the natural upkeep at Ladera. Mahogany and cedar are prominently featured from the roof to the poles and wood walls. All of the hand crafted furniture is made on site at the workshop. That is why you frequently see someone stroking and caressing the wood with various liquids to bring out the glow and grain of this marvelous feature.

This stunning tropical flower arrangement was part of a welcoming for Bruce, my husband. He arrived last Monday and the flowers still look great a week later. I have been reading about propagation of various tropical plants, the boss wants to put a greenhouse back up and I might help.

Suite L & The Lizard

Installing landscaping between the view with a room and the actual view I feel like I am sometimes working in a road runner cartoon one wrong step and I am a splat on the valley floor. It would not be a dive but more of a rough tumble down the mountain side. Trimming yesterday Ray pulled on a vine which gave way with his weight on the wrong side and he bounced down a quick 10 feet a hurting waist was the result. I am careful moving about on the mountainside of the rooms not that I don't watch my footing at most times, there are lots of roots and obstacles when working here.

This is one of our projects, an exterior room restoration. We came in after the plumbers and had to hide their pipes, that meant hauling about 10 wheelbarrows of muddy, heavy, clay, pumice and rocky soil by hand up the steps and through the rooms. While I did not haul it up I did do my share of digging the mixture since I drove the golf cart to and from where we removed the soil off a mudslide pile. For this design I used sea stones to build a dry creek bed and Eddie installed additional stones around the splash pool to increase soil retention.

The plants we used with the exception of the palm were all ones that Ray, the head gardener grew from starts and the ground cover purple heart were fresh cuttings. We have been lucky to have had ample rain for the plants since watering is not easy and evaporation and use are rapid.

A spot below a guest suite was left unfinished with the rough earthen wall. The lizard and snake have adorned the area giving it a southwest flavor the boss wanted it kicked up so I added the cactus planters. We don't have to worry as much about watering but I am watching to make sure the cactus get enough sunshine to thrive.

Sunday Brunch

You sense a great day when it begins with a beautiful rainbow and the slow deliberate passage of a pristine cruise ship in the harbor below as you look out to sea. This was the first Sunday brunch at Ladera since hurricane Tomas and it did not disappoint.

















The sun was bright as the old musicians played their gentle, peaceful renditions of traditional Lucian music, the perfect accompaniment for a slow luscious meal. The brunch offers more of a local flair to the cuisine with mac and cheese, coleslaw, pineapple/chicken salad, red beans and rice and fabulous pumpkin gratin. The grill smokes lightly in the corner as you watch the chefs prepare chicken, snapper and barracuda. A giant beef tenderloin grilled to perfection is sliced to order and several sauces are available to enhance its flavor.











Even the plaid skirts that adorn the tables are remnants of times gone by when these plaids were worn by most everyone. The dessert table is filled with chocolate layered cheesecake, fresh local fruits with the most delectable passion fruit halves and a more local version of cheese cake dripping with fresh cocoa sauce.


Below us at the beach at Jalouise a barge labors with imported sand to replace the fine, white sugar sand that has been washed to sea by Tomas. Once the sand at Jalouise was the coarser black sand that is prominent on other parts of St. Lucia.

All In A Weeks Work

Jungle sodding, chop it off the mountain, install it in the garden, instant green.

Spectacular new mahogany wood wall was built to replace hurricane damaged wall.

Lattice triumphs cactus

Gardens are in the rooms as well as outside.

It takes lots of different trade skills rebuilding and repairing the damage caused by hurricane Tomas. The work is inside and out. Plumbers, masons, electricians, carpenters and gardeners working side by side long hours in the tropic sun seven days a week have accomplished the impossible. With a smile and a song we help each other, compliment each other and cheer each other on and this week it has all come to fruition as many hotel workers proudly appeared Wednesday in their finely pressed and beautifully tailored uniforms to greet and serve our first returning guests.

Hypertufa an art form of pressing images into wet cement is displayed in many of the walks and paths at Ladera.

It is great to see the restaurant open, hear the guests comments about the beautiful gardens and peaceful surrounding, we even had a live band softly singing last night as we dined.

Who Hid The Rubber Tree Stump?

Unfortunately I do not have a photo of the rubber tree next to the gazebo, although it was less than 25 years old the mighty tree and roots claimed territory like Napoleon. It provided shade and beauty but had begun chewing the earth, in conquest of all ground, pipes and foundations in its subterranean path. Hurricane winds bent and shoved the trunk spewing leaves and debris in all directions. The removal of the tree not only wounded hearts and souls but left a huge whole in the sky and an ugly stump with multiple above ground roots. Those roots did serve to stabilize the hill where the reception drive gently winds through tropical foliage, but made digging and planting nearly impossible.

Knowing we needed to disguise it was one thing but how to accomplish that task in a reasonable amount of time with a reasonable amount of money and limited materials was a heroic task. Many ideas were kicked around but it was Chef Orlando's concept that was the winner. He suggested using the antique sugar pots and stone to hide the tree skeleton. We had the pots on sight albeit scattered, the crushed stone was easy to obtain but weed barrier, rolls of plastic or other weed blocking fabrics were not readily available. I compromised with the purchase of a 20 x 50' tarp which we cut to fit, the tarp was around 450 EC. Buying plants and good soil completed the material list.

One thing the owner of Ladera, Mr. Hooper requested was that I try to find a new home for a beautiful wood sculpture that had been repaired after suffering insect damage. In addition Mr. Hooper is a big fan of hummingbirds and wanted a location where the majority of guests would be treated to feeding hummers. Chef Orlando wanted to revitalize the herb garden I planted in 2008 so I designed a garden space that attempts to meet every ones needs and is athletically pleasing. One component I could not install yet was the dry creek bed constructed of round, flat sea stones that are readily available here. Currently most sea stones are buried under mudslide debris from the torrential rains that were the aftermath of hurricane Tomas.

I am pretty satisfied with the results and more importantly the boss's seem pleased. We used coconut husks as edging and one sugar pot is a water garden. The overall effect is well balanced, structurally sound, hides a big sore spot and provides a fresh look to an otherwise mundane seating area. I applied 30 #'s of sea salt to discourage the trunk from sprouting again. We hauled soil from the back forty to level the area which I top dressed with Canadian peat moss.

I bought some Bermuda grass seed on a shopping trip and have sown it with high hopes. Most local people have never seen grass seed sown, it caused a bit of chatter.