Calabash International Literary Festival Returns this Weekend
This weekend, an estimated 5,000 lovers of literature and poetry will descend on the community of Treasure Beach on Jamaica's south coast to listen to 30 authors read from their works at the Calabash International Literary Festival. The theme of this year's festival, which starts this Friday, May 25th and ends on Sunday, is Jubilation! 50. Started 11 years ago, Calabash was shelved last year because of lack of funding. At the time of the announcement, the organizers, poet Kwame…
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Hands
It's hard to think of what our lives would be like without our hands, the subject of this Weekly Photo Challenge. We use them in so many different ways - to tie our shoe laces, comb our hair, feed ourselves and others, dress, write, and gesture. [caption id="attachment_9041" align="aligncenter" width="574" caption="Weekly Photo Challenge: Hands"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_9040" align="aligncenter" width="572" caption="Weekly Photo Challenge: Hands"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_9043" align="aligncenter" width="574" caption="Weekly Photo Challenge: Hands"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_9042" align="aligncenter" width="578" caption="Weekly Photo Challenge: Hands"][/caption]
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Soulful Sundays: Phyllis Dillon
On this lovely Sunday, I'd like to share two songs from ska and reggae singer, Phyllis Dillon, who made her first recording, Don't Stay Away, for producer, Duke Reid, in 1967. She was at 19. Dillon did a lot of covers of popular songs from the U.S. [caption id="attachment_9031" align="aligncenter" width="497" caption="Phyllis Dillon, photo from the Internet"][/caption] Take a listen to Perfidia and One Life to Live. Dillon, who was born in St. Catherine in 1948, moved to New York in…
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The Awesome Splendor of Kingston’s Holy Trinity Cathedral
With more than 3,000 square feet of murals and frescos on its ceiling and walls, Kingston's Holy Trinity Cathedral is, undoubtedly, the most beautiful church in Jamaica and one of the most beautiful in the Caribbean. It covers 12,600 square feet. [caption id="attachment_9017" align="aligncenter" width="577"] Holy Trinity Cathedral[/caption] Like a beacon, its 85' copper dome guides the faithful to its doors. Holy Trinity Cathedral was built in 1911 to replace the original Roman Catholic church that was constructed in 1811…
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Blue
Another week, another photo challenge. This time, it's the color blue. [caption id="attachment_9005" align="aligncenter" width="602" caption="Weekly Photo Challenge: Blue"][/caption]
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Jamaica’s Also Great for Bird Watching
A few years ago, bird watching was not on my list of vacation activities. But after driving past the sign to Rocklands Bird Sanctuary, my curiosity got the better of me. Rocklands is located about 30 minutes' drive from Montego Bay going west along the main road towards Reading in a place called Anchovy in the parish of St. James. I really didn't know what to expect when we turned off the main road on to a very bumpy drive…
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She Would’ve Loved London – Remembering Mama
Happy Mother's Day! This week, Catherine Sweeney, my blog friend, asked a few of us to write a travel tribute to our mothers. [caption id="attachment_8984" align="alignright" width="220" caption="Mama, 1950s"][/caption] Since then, I've been thinking not only of the trips my mother and I took but of the places I've been that she would have enjoyed. Walt Disney World: Well, I didn't really go on vacation to Disney. I was there to participate in the Walt Disney World Marathon on…
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#TPThursday: At the Montego Bay Flower Show
As is to be expected, there was a wide variety of flowering plants at the Montego Bay Flower Show last weekend. There were several species of orchids, including Broughtonia Sanguinea that is indigenous to Jamaica, the ZZ Plant, cacti, anthurium, bird of paradise, crown of thorns, ginger lily, etc. But it was the hibiscus that had me pull out my camera. They were gorgeous! See what I mean? [caption id="attachment_8947" align="aligncenter" width="570" caption="Hibiscus"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_8945" align="aligncenter" width="570" caption="Double Yellow Hibiscus"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_8944" align="aligncenter"…
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Unfocused
When I saw the topic for this week's challenge, I swore out loud. Usually, I delete photos that are unfocused or blurry - why keep them, I think to myself. And with a digital camera, it's easy and it's immediate. No waiting until the photo's printed. There's no reminder, no evidence of my miscalculation. I searched and found this: [caption id="attachment_8938" align="aligncenter" width="572" caption="Weekly Photo Challenge: Unfocused - Outside Emancipation Park for the premiere of Marley, the documentary"][/caption] …
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Soulful Sundays: Rita Marley
Before Rita Marley became known internationally as the wife of reggae superstar, Bob Marley, and a member of his backup group, the I Threes, she was a singer with the girl group, the Soulettes. They began recording with legendary producer, Clement Dodd, in 1964. It was Dodd who suggested that Bob become their mentor and manager. And during this time, Rita and Bob fell in love. She released her first single, Pied Piper, in 1967, a year after she married…
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