A Tropical Adventure - 2

We took the two grandmothers to as many interesting places as we could, and this included a visit to our favourite escape, a small hotel at the eastern end of Jamaica. Bea, my mother-in-law, may have been in Jamaica a fortnight but her pleasure at what she saw around her hadn't diminished. This is another entry in the diary she kept:

Saturday 30th March

6.45am - morning tea

8am - breakfast

Packed up for the trip to Long Bay.

10am. Journey along the coast to Long Bay - on to Boston Bay for picnic lunch. Gill bought 25 bananas for 50c.

Boston Bay is a lovely bay with shade. I found a few shells and drift wood. Gill, Jon, Elizabeth, Helen all swam - I found it better to just paddle along the beach as I still found the strong sunlight on the water a little upsetting. The colour of the water is unbelievably blue and so warm. Had to sit in the shade after a while - at noon sun is almost overhead. 

About 3.30pm we went back to Long Bay to the guest house - ‘Ports of Call’ - run by a Canadian and his wife. It is right on the coast - walk out from the terrace onto the sea shore. We had a welcome cup of tea sitting at tables just by the sand.

Very attractive bedrooms. All furniture made of bamboo with beautifully coloured bedspreads. Walked along the shore.

8pm. Dinner. We all had shrimps cooked in butter, with sweet corn.

A Morning

We watched from our breakfast table as, well before sunrise, a thousand and more pink-footed geese filled the sky as skein after skein - some better organised than others - flew north to their daylight feeding grounds, more....

....and more of them in bigger or smaller groups as the light grew and....

....the sun finally broke the horizon.

After breakfast I walked up the track that climbs into the forestry, carefully because....

....the night's clear sky had brought a sharp frost and there were places where the going underfoot was treacherous; and as I walked so the birds gave me more joy, first as....

....more geese passed over, lower than the earlier ones, then as....

,,,,three buzzards wheeled above the fields which, in summer, had supported the glut of rabbits which has now given way to famine.

I walked for about half-an-hour uphill, far enough to be able to see the warmth of the sun light the Silver Rock, seen here with Loch Fleet away in the distance.

A Tropical Adventure - 1

When we set off on our two-year contract in Jamaica we asked both sets of parents to come out and visit us - confident that my well-travelled parents would take up the offer, and equally certain that Mrs MW's parents wouldn't - her father refused to fly so the furthest they had been was Italy.

To our surprise and disappointment my father refused to come, even though he could have done the journey by ship, so my mother asked Gill's mother, Bea, if she would accompany her - and, to everyone's surprise, she jumped at the chance.

While in Jamaica Bea kept a diary. This is the first of two entries from it, from the day she arrived in the country after a thirteen hour flight from the UK.



March 17th 1974 - Sunday

Disturbed night with barking of dogs and crowing of cocks. Awake at 4.30am. New bird songs and a beautiful humming bird in the garden - so tiny. I find the colour here fascinating - garden full of lovely tropical flowers - hibiscus (red, pink-yellow, etc), pride of Barbados (lovely flame-coloured flowers), cactus (in bud), banana trees, etc. I did a few arrangements for Gill but found the hibiscus did not last - seemed to last only one day after being picked.

Spent an easy day - in the afternoon went across to the school. Can well understand Jonathan getting depressed about things - broken windows, general air of neglect - although an enormous expansion is planned (1000 pupils during the day but evening classes as well). School starts at 7.30am finishes at 2.30pm.

Very tired in the evening - had to go to bed before the others.

The Daily Challenge

A little excitement each day - not too  much, for I'm an old man - is what keeps me going, particularly in winter when, despite the miles we walk, there's relatively little to be seen in the natural world. So, a photograph combining the recent red sunrises with the daily commute of pink-footed geese northwards in the early morning, seemed a challenge worth attempting, and this is the result, taken yesterday morning from our bedroom window.

Another challenge, which happens quite frequently as we walk along Squirrel Alley on our way down to the village, is to get a picture of one of the red squirrels which come to the squirrel feeders put out by the people in the houses that back onto the woods.

Again, yesterday, Fortune smiled, for no fewer than three red squirrels were running around in the trees, of which only this one paused for long enough for me to take its portrait.