This was our brief view of the sun at 9.12am shortly after it heaved itself out of the firth on this, the solstice day. Minutes later it disappeared behind heavy cloud. It did show its face a couple of times more this morning, but most of the day has been wet, very windy with gusts well over gale force, and cold. So, once again, my thoughts wandered to warmer places and past times, like those spent in Jamaica.
Whenever we could we escaped the heat and unpleasantness of Kingston and headed for this little beachside hotel at the relatively unfashionable east end of Jamaica. It was called Ports of Call and it stood at the centre of a wide bay, appropriately called Long Bay. So, sitting on the hotel's terrace with rum and ginger ales in our hands we could look north along the beach, or....
....if we could find the energy, south; and whichever way you looked there was hardly a soul to be seen.
The hotel only had a handful of rooms as it seemed to make its money from its food, based mostly around the wonderfully fresh fish from the waters it faced. It didn't offer lunch, but we made do with the huge breakfast served late in the morning, which did mean we had to....
....amuse ourselves until it was served.
It was such a lovely place, so gentle and relaxing, that we had to show it off to anyone who came out from the UK to visit us, which included....
....our mothers and....
....good friends from our Ludlow days.
Sadly, Ports of Call didn't last for the whole of our time in Jamaica. The story was that the people who ran it fell foul of their landlord and had to give it up. We missed it dreadfully but, as with so many things, it is so good to have the memories of those happy times.
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