As I travel around, I’m fascinated by some of the Jamaican houses I see. Styles change as the population changes so I’m not surprised to see European, Asian and African influences, and materials such as wattle and daub, brick, wood and zinc being used. Usually, based on the design and the materials, I can pinpoint the time period during which most were built. I’m still trying to figure out where on the design continuum this one falls.
Jamaican house
This is my submission to this week’s Budget Travelers Sandbox Travel Photo Thursday series. Be sure to check out other photo and story entries on their website.
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 Dawes and novelist Colin Channer, and hotelier Justine Henzell, promised that the festival would be back this year for Jamaica’s 50th anniversary celebration of its independence from Britain.
With a lineup of international and local authors, poets and musicians, from Nigeria, South Africa, Ethiopia, the U.S. and the U.K., this year’s Calabash International Literary Festival resumes its proven format. Gathered under a huge tent that is pitched just steps from the Caribbean Sea, attendees will hear the sound of waves crashing (or rolling) to the shore as they listen to readings interspersed with interviews and open mic performances. Each day’s session ends with music.
The following authors will be heard at the Calabash International Literature Festival this weekend:
Chimamanda Adichie The Admiral Wayne Armond Jacqueline Bishop Loretta Collins
Carolyn Cooper Michael “Ibo” Cooper Christine Craig Fred D’Aguilar Marcia Douglas
Garfield Ellis Carolyn Forche Steve Golding Vivien Goldman Colin Grant
Laura Henzell Paul Holdengraber Melissa Jones Sadie Jones Ronnie Kasrils
Victor Lavalle Shara McCallum Alecia McKenzie Maaza Mengiste Anis Moigani
Orlando Patterson Patricia Powell Claudia Rankine Olive Senior Seretse Small
Sonjah Stanley Niaah Ian Thomson Kerry Young Kevin Young
Despite its funding problems, the Calabash International Literary Festival remains free and open to the public. Donations are welcomed and can be made at their website.
Other literature festivals that take place in the Caribbean:
* Anguilla Literary Festival, May
* BIM Literary Festival & Bookfair (Barbados), May
* Bocas Literary Festival (Trinidad & Tobago), April
* Havana International Book Fair, February
* Nature Island Literary Festival (Dominica), August
* St. Martin Bookfair, May
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.
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.
Dillon, who was born in St. Catherine in 1948, moved to New York in 1967 and, for a while, would travel back to Jamaica to record. She ended her recording career in 1971 but resumed it twenty years later, touring Japan, Germany and the UK. In 1998, she returned to the studio with former Duke Reid session guitarist, Lynn Taitt, who had discovered her. She continued to perform until she became ill. Dillon died in New York in 2004. She was 56 years old.
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.
Holy Trinity Cathedral
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 and destroyed by earthquake in 1907.
Holy Trinity Cathedral, Kingston, Jamaica
The new building, of Byzantine architecture, was commissioned in 1908 by the Catholic community and U.S. Bishop John Collins. It was designed and constructed by Walker-Fyche, a Canadian company at a cost of US$150,000. The artwork was created by Jesuit Lay Brother Francis Schroen. It is believed to be one of the largest of his work.
Holy Trinity Cathedral, Kingston, Jamaica
Sadly, the murals were painted over in the 1970s either because they had deteriorated over the years and there were no funds to restore them, or in response to liturgical trends following Vatican II, they were considered a distraction.
Holy Trinity Cathedral, Kingston, Jamaica
Whatever the explanation, the cathedral was in serious disrepair. When restoration began in 2008, it was discovered that the murals had been buried under ten coats of grey paint. Many of the stained glass windows that had been destroyed by hurricane in 1951 had not been replaced, the baldachin had been removed, the ceiling and pews were infested with termites, and the organ – only five of its kind exist in the Caribbean — did not work.
Holy Trinity Cathedral, Kingston, Jamaica
Restoration of Holy Trinity Cathedral begun under the leadership of master restorer Professor Antonio Sanchez-Barriga Fernandez of Spain and a team that included 32 young people from the community. The painstaking work continues.
Holy Trinity Cathedral, Kingston Jamaica
The day I visited, the doors were closed so I walked the grounds taking photos of the exterior. I had started back to the car when someone called and offered to let me in. I gasped when I saw the interior. Though I had seen photos, they didn’t prepare me for the remarkable tableau in front of me. Except for the floor and pews, every surface was decorated. I didn’t know where to start and fumbled the camera several times. My ‘guide,’ one of the trainees, heard my running comments on the beauty of the artwork and invited me to Mass that Sunday so that I could see the cathedral when it is decorated and illuminated. I promised to return.
Holy Trinity Cathedral, Kingston Jamaica
The ceiling and most of the walls have been restored. New stained glass panels featuring Catholic saints and icons like Saint Josephine Bakhita of the Sudan, Saint Martin de Porres of Peru and Pierre Toussaint, a Haitian slave who purchased his freedom and went on to contribute significantly to raising funds for the Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, have been installed.
As I was preparing to leave, the current restorer arrived and offered to show me one of the walls that was being worked on. Several layers of paint were still left to be removed.
Holy Trinity Cathedral has welcomed the Pope and is the venue for many official services and funerals. In 2000, the Jamaican Government named Holy Trinity to the register of historic places.
Holy Trinity Cathedral
1 George Headley Drive at North Street
Kingston
876-922-3335
Sunday Mass: 8:30 a.m.
This is my submission to this week’s Budget Travelers Sandbox Travel Photo Thursday series. Be sure to check out other photo and story entries on their website.
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 leading to the sanctuary but I was about to find out. Rocklands Bird Sanctuary was opened in 1962 by Lisa Salmon. Ms. Salmon, who was known as the “Bird Lady,” passed away in 2000. Rocklands is now managed by the husband and wife team of Fritz Beckford, a long time guide, and Claudette, his wife. Fritz has been at Rocklands for more than 20 years now.
When I arrived, he welcomed me to the porch and I sat, uncertain what to do next. A couple from Florida who was there ahead of me, saw my uncertainty and smiled. The husband began telling me about their trip – they had arrived by ship that morning, specifically to visit Rocklands, and were on their way to Mexico. As he talked, his wife added little details to their story. We were still talking when Fritz gave me a small water bottle with a sugar water mixture and told me to hold it in one hand and keep the index finger of my other hand out.
You mean, that’s all I have to do?
Hmm, I don’t know about this, I think to myself.
The birds must have read my mind as within seconds, a hummingbird landed on my finger, zoomed in on the pin-size opening in the water bottle and started drinking. It happened so quickly, I gasped.
Jamaica's Also Great for Birding - Hummingbird at Rockland Bird SanctuaryJamaica's Also Great for Birding - Hummingbird at Rockland Bird Sanctuary
It was that simple. I relaxed, and another bird landed.
Jamaica's Also Great for Birding - Hummingbird at Rockland Bird Sanctuary
It was an unbelievable experience. As the bird landed, I felt my body shift and the tension, which I didn’t realize was there, disappeared. I had no choice but to relax and feel the peace that came over me. I looked at the couple sitting across from me and we all started chuckling.
I don’t remember how long I stayed at Rocklands Bird Sanctuary — I didn’t stay for the guided walk — but I left feeling like my mind had been blown.
Some of the Birds You Can Expect to See at Rocklands Bird Sanctuary
Hummingbird
Bananaquit
Jamaican Mango
Black-faced Grassquit
Yellow-faced Grassquit
Orangequit
Jamaican Woodpecker
Jamaican Parakeet
Getting There
Rocklands Bird Sanctuary is an easy 30 minute drive if you’re staying in the Montego Bay area, about an hour from Negril.
Hours: Monday to Saturday – 10 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
For more information, call Claudette or Fritz Beckford, 876-952-2009 or 876-871-4759
Cost: US$20
Other Birding Spots/Tours
With some 200 species, more than 20 of which are endemic to the island, bird watching isn’t limited to Rocklands Bird Sanctuary. Here are a few other locations and tours that you can arrange:
December through June are the best months for bird watching as more birds are visible. In the mornings, I wake up to several birds calling in the trees nearby. I am not yet able to identify the calls but there are at least 5 distinct ones.
Have you ever been birdwatching? How many species of birds can you identify?
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 behalf of the American Stroke Association. However, I did get a taste of what Disney offers the child in all of us and I know my mom would have lapped it all up. I can see her eyes now twinkling like a school girl’s.
London: When Prince Charles married Lady Diana in 1981, Mama was up at 4:00 a.m. to watch the wedding on television. She would have been tickled to see Buckingham Palace, even if only from the street, and would have loved to see a changing of the guard.
We were so different, Mama and I. Once, when we were visiting family in Boston, someone mentioned a sale at Filene’s Basement and asked if we wanted to go. Thinking I was speaking for us, I said no, only to find out that she wanted to go. She returned with several shopping bags full and her face flush with excitement. I discovered that day that my normally calm and quite proper mother had been energized by the frenzy of finding what she wanted before someone else did. Just hearing about it made me feel exhausted.
Looking back to the day I lost her, I so happy now that remembering her brings smiles rather than tears. And as The Intruders sang, I’ll Always Love My Mama.
I’ll always love my mama
She’s my favourite girl
I’ll always love my mama
She brought me in this world
Hmm, A mother’s love’s so special
It’s something that you can’t describe
It’s the kind of love that stays with you
Until the day you die
(Lyrics by Kenneth Gamble / Leon Huff / Gene McFadden / John Whitehead / Victor Carstarphen)
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!
I love orchids but they’re very finicky around me so when the flower seller told me the Broughtonia didn’t have to be treated with kid gloves, I felt I had found my orchid match. Here’s the sweet little Broughtonia Sanguinea that I bought. They love indirect sunlight and do well hanging onto the trunks of trees.
Broughtonia Sanguinea
If you love flowers and are going to be on Jamaica’s south coast this month, be sure to check out the Manchester Horticultural Society’s Flower Show, which will be held in Mandeville on May 23rd (Labor Day here).
Later this month, from May 22-26, the Jamaica Horticultural Society is scheduled to participate in the Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show in London. If you’re in London, hope you can check it out.
This is my submission to this week’s Budget Travelers Sandbox Travel Photo Thursday series. Be sure to check out other photo and story entries on their website.
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:
Weekly Photo Challenge: Unfocused - Outside Emancipation Park for the premiere of Marley, the documentary
