A Trip Down Memory Lane

They always say the fun is in the journey rather than the destination.  Today I decided to share a few photos that I stopped to snap while on the way to somewhere else.  This first two photos are a before and after from some housing developments on the West End, aka out by Dockyard (which I would kind of think of as the North End, but it is not so).  The building below is pretty beat up, and presumably unoccupied.  But as recently as last year some of its neighbours looked to be in the same shape, but showed obvious signs of habitation...things like laundry lines and chairs on the patios.

Change is everywhere in the West End right now

It was a pleasant surprise to see something new popping up in their stead.  For those of you looking for the sea glass beach...turn left when you hit these new homes.

I was drawn to these new pastel homes, they style looking more American than Bermudian to my untrained eye

I also stopped to take this picture of a quiet river scene.

On the banks of the Bermudian River...not

This is a tough shot to get in Bermuda because there are no rivers in Bermuda.  In fact, we have no freshwater source at all except rainfall.  All the water that we drink and shower with is collected in a cistern beneath our homes.  If there is a water table in Bermuda, it's only got salt water.  But, this little ocean inlet looks a lot like a pretty river, and was one of those rewards for pulling over and backtracking when a flash of unfamiliar hit my periphery while zooming down the road on my scooter at the legal 35 km per hour.

There is a little gatehouse on the bridge entering Dockyard.  I stopped to photograph it, and when looking through the bars could see a white cross on the rocks beyond it.  Another quiet roadside memorial to someone's beloved.

The Gatehouse

There is also a stately home in this area which I always presumed was left over from the naval presence at Dockyard.  It is close to but not within the confines of the old Fort, but the structure reminds me of the Commissioner's House.  I was surprised to drive up the little path to this spot and simply find it to be a private residence with a beautiful view.

Old style homes with a view

The view that comes with the house

I also cannot count the amount of times I have driven past this next little spot and never stopped. When I finally did I had to laugh, as the name is clearly marked and it is a rather notorious little spot that I have been to before...but by sea rather than by land.  This would be the site of a rather famous annual event known as "The Non-Mariner's Race," which takes place at the end of the annual Cup Match Holiday (we take 2 days off for Bermuda's Emancipation Day and the ends of the island become rivals for the 2 day Cricket Match).  Due to the rivalry, try to avoid wearing red, blue, or blue and blue or blue and red, as any combination will be interpreted as support of one of the teams by everyone local that you meet during the day.  Any other time of the year these colors are fine, but the last weekend of July/first weekend of August, it's easier to just wear pink or something.  The Non-Mariner's Race is a short race of home made vessels that are most definitely not seaworthy, which is part of the fun.  Rafts, blow up toys, lawnmower powered crafts, etc will all be entered.  Most spectators look on from boats, as a good percent of the island population sails or motors into the area and "ties up" with other boats turning this area into a very large and disparate floating raft of ships and bodies.  This annual, quasi controlled chaos takes place near Mangrove Bay.

I dug through some old digital snapshots looking for a photo of this event, and ended up taking a stroll down memory lane as I came across a couple of pictures taken from the race 2010.  A lot has changed, as it does in an Ex-Pat community.  I am the only one on board that day that is still in Bermuda today.  Our vessel was "The Cactus" with Captain Clarke, the Newfie Rogue of the Bermuda Seas.  Can you pick him out of the photo below?  I wonder if he dresses the same in Vancouver now.

Life is tough in Bermuda

More of the boats can be seen behind Lisa's portrait.  Lisa's work has taken her to Colorado and now Boston.

Lisa with the Non-Mariner's Armada behind her

Selfie of Cherie, Lou and me.  Both are on the mainland now.

Overboard at Mangrove Bay...we never know where this one will turn up next but one of the last pictures I saw on facebook was titled, "The Sheik of Qatar".  They were kidding.  Well, mostly.

But fast forward 3.5 years to a nice spring day and Mangrove Bay looks a bit more tranquil.

I wonder what type of tree this is?  Please don't tell me mangrove...

And these are the treasures of my spare time as of late.  Hope you enjoyed them.

MH 370

I have been glued to the news for over a day now.  The inability to find MH370 tugs at my heart and nags at my soul.  I know grief personally.  The magnitude of that times 239 is incomprehensible to me.

I know that 18,000 children die of hunger every day.  430 die of cancer.  262 people die of AIDS every hour.  I do not mean to minimize the importance of these travesties by focusing on the tragedy that leaves 239 people's current fate "unknown."  But I am still strongly affected by this "missing" aircraft, and pray for those individuals and their familties again today.

xo

Pretty Placid Places

Apparently I like alliteration.  A lot.  Hence the title of today's blog, which really is a few photos of some pretty little places that I pulled off the road for and stopped to take in their beauty and tranquility.  Placid, pleasant, peaceful places to ponder and pontificate upon.  See, I really can't help myself

Picture A (compliments of moi) -- Horseshoe Bay in the tourist off season

There are a lot of beautiful places in Bermuda.  A lot.  And a lot of them are blissfully void of other people.  If you want to commune with nature, gather your thoughts, de-stress by listening to gentle waves on the beach, or watch the wind blow through flowers without being disturbed, you can do this.  But you won't likely be able to do it on some of the more popular locations on the island once tourist season opens.  In 2012, 265,000 tourists visited Bermuda.  Tourism brought in 431 Billion that year according to the World Bank stats.  What this means is that Horseshoe Bay goes from picture A (above) to picture B (below), which coincidentally I grabbed online as I tend to stay close to things that look like picture A and far away from picture B.

Picture B (not mine) -- Horseshoe Bay in the summer, peak tourist season

It doesn't matter where I reside, I always find a special place that I go when I want to sit alone and think.  Whether its the field west of the farm in Saskatchewan, a deserted park bench on the north side of the river valley in Edmonton that overlooks the parks and shows the skyline, or that patch of air above Eden North, I always have a cache of special places to give myself a little break from the world.  And so it is in Bermuda as well.  Even when the buses are crammed full, the ferries are surrounded by lines of people, and Dockyard is bustling with thousands of people stepping off of their cruise ship, Bermuda still has plenty of places where you can go and get alone time, if you step off the beaten path.  On this particular day, in February, I could go almost anywhere for a moment of silent beauty, but I decided to bypass some my usual haunts and take photos of some other gorgeous places.

This is one of my go to places to hide out with my camera.  I believe with some patience, this will be the year that I get the photo of the longtail bird that I have been longing to catch for, oh, about 5 years.  Every year I try and spend afternoons perched with my camera waiting and failing to catch the perfect picture until the season has gone by, and think...next year.  Well, this is it, the last chance.  And this is my secret spot.  So I am not telling you where it is until I get that shot, but it's lovely isn't it?

My secret favorite spot

My coworker Sue and I started out on a photo expedition a couple of Sundays ago, but at the worst possible time of day, high noon when the light and shadows are just a little too harsh.  We didn't stay out long, but we ducked under the bridge heading into dockyard to get some pictures, and discovered a little bench where one could sit and watch the slow waters ebb in and out from the sea.  The vehicles overhead may make it a little less placid than I like however.

Beneath the bridge going into Dockyard

Just a little further down the road you will find a gorgeous little patch of beach, only a few metres off the main road.  It used to be totally quiet, with nothing but a picnic bench set on the site.  As of last summer, there is now a kiosk that appears, rents, and unfortunately hangs, hammocks all along the site during tourist season.  It gives the tourists a nice view from the hammock, but unfortunately the view from the road gets obstructed by lucky tourists hanging in hammocks like ripe, plump melons over the crystal blue waters.  However, one cannot begrudge the tourists from enjoying a piece of paradise so close to where the ships dock, knowing how full the buses to the south shore get in the summer.  There are plenty of other empty places even in the summer.

A little roadside beach near Dockyard

The fun thing about photography is that it starts to change how you see what is in front of you.  Sometimes people who live here will ask where a photo is taken and be surprised to find out it is something they have seen many times, but never really stopped to take it in.  This next photo is taken about 5 steps away from the photo above.

Tranquil idyll bliss spot

Every second year Alberta Sport, Parks, Recreation, and Wildlife puts on a conference for it's sports groups in Banff, Alberta.  I will never forget one of the seminars, which was on change.  Change is such a cliche topic that there seems to be an unspoken rule that it must be addressed at all conferences.  This session focused on the changes in technology and the questioned the ability of the younger generation to process information in a world where they face constant input via cell phones, ipods, tablets etc and therefore have a dramatically diminished amount of time for reflection.  In a mind that is constantly bombarded with experiences and information without reflection as part of the processing, how does that change how they relate to those experiences and react to the world.  The research was out at that time as to whether modern technology would indeed to to a less introspective and environmentally reactive generation.  I don't know if the research is in.  But I do know this.  I grew up playing with dirt and rocks because my parents didn't have an ipad to put in my crib.  Granted there were loads of stuffed animals, games, even Barbie's and Cabbage Patch Kids (believe it or not, yes), but also mud pies, forts, rope swings and imaginary intergalactic adventures taken with the neighbours from a particularly large spaceship...well. it was a tree but you know what I mean.  Sometimes it was just hiding out among stalks of wheat watching the clouds go by.  As an adult I still crave that peace and it takes me off the beaten track, to find quiet beautiful places to sit and reflect on all the information that bears down on me from the day's events, interactions with others, media, social media, and thousands of blips of sensory information that bombard us every day.  On my cliff or under my tree it all filters through my thoughts and sorts out into what is important, and resets me for the next barrage of information to come.  I think I am glad that I had to spend a little time playing with rocks growing up.

Sea Glass Beaches

I heard of the sea glass beach several years back, with a wall made out of sea glass.  It has taken a long time to find it.  It seems to exist by word of mouth.  You will not find it on a map, and if you ask about it you may get a blank stare, directions somewhere else, or maybe you will be lucky enough to get directed to it straight away.  That's the fun of finding the off the wall spots on the rock.

I thought I had found the sea glass beach in November, over by the Alexandra Battery in St. David's.  In fact, the girl who described the sea glass wall to me specifically told me it was out in St. George's.  And so, eventually, near a little cave and by following the sound of tinkling glass, a beach littered with smooth, opaque pieces of glass was found.  Green, brown, and white glass is the most common, blue is uncommon and red is positively rare.  Local artists craft it into bracelets and necklaces for the tourists, and it can be quite pretty indeed.  However, it turns out that this is not the sea glass beach that is referred to as the sea glass beach.  Tricky.

I had been told that there was a sea glass beach out by Dockyard as well, but the directions were vague.  Yet another friend said that he had found it just behind the row houses heading into Dockyard.  And so I set off intent on finding this beach.  I scooted off down a few lanes, not seeing anything that looked like it would be a sea glass beach.  Asking for directions is hard, because along with the blank stare you often get when asking how to get to the sea glass beach, you also get that special look when someone asks which beach you are looking for again and you know it doesn't have an official name but there is a lot of glass on it.  On this particular day, I decided to ask the only people in sight if perhaps they knew where I was going...surely the trash collectors just ahead of me must be familiar with all the nooks and crannies of the area.  "Excuse me, good morning, do you know where the sea glass beach is?" I asked.  To my surprise they both nodded in the affirmative.  "It's just a ways back, if you go back where you came from, turn right and you can't miss it."  Having scooted extensively up and down the area, I was familiar with those directions and pretty sure that I could indeed miss it, and already had missed it once or twice this morning alone.  There was a beach area that I could see through trees in that general area, but it was larger than I expected, so I tried to clarify.  "I was just over that way and didn't see it, unless you mean I should follow the little path beyond the Convict Cemetery and go down there."  Now I got the familiar looks.  "Convict Cemetery?  I don't know what you are talking about.  Just drive along until you see the banana patch, you can't miss it, it's right next to the banana patch."  "OK," I said.  I grew up in Canada.  A banana patch to me is a box next to the cantaloupe in the grocery store.  The only way I am going to identify a banana patch is if I see banana's stuck to it.  This is highly unlikely in February, so rather than waste time scooting around looking for rogue bananas, I decided to just park the bike at the Convict Cemetery and take a stroll.

National Heritage Site.  Anyone see any banana trees nearby?

I don't know what this convict did, but he ended up with a pretty beautiful resting place, so it either wasn't that bad, or this is one of life's strange ironies.

Could not make out the name, but pretty nice spot and headstone for a convict

Just below the Convict Cemetery I found the sea glass beach, for real this time.  A much larger beach than the last time I thought I found it, there was both more glass, and a few more decorations.

Sea Glass, Sea Weed and not a soul in sight, except for me and the ghosts on the hill

Each piece is rubbed smooth by the friction at sea before washing ashore.  At least I hope so.

There was a wall, but it was not as impressive as I was expecting.

Big wall, but kind of ugly

Although it has an intricate design.  It just didn't call to me.

I did quite like the little murals in place, and wondered if they were made on sponsored occasions, or if people sometimes just bring their own concrete and make a little patch.

Concrete murals at the beach

This little boat made me wonder who named it, and was it a nod to Madonna in the performance of Evita?  Don't cry for me Argentina?  I kinda liked the boat more than the sea glass wall.  My curiosity has been satisfied, after 5 years, I have seen the sea glass beach.  I did not take a souvenir -- the signs say not to, and, it would simply be more to pack.  My photos are souvenirs enough for these last chapters of my Bermuda life.

The seas rejecting the products of man

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

View from the lawn chair throne

As I sat in the wooden lawn chair and surveyed my domain, green beyond the ponds and gardens until the rocky ledges give way to the beach and beautiful ocean, there was one song that played in my head to describe my life.  OK...well maybe it has nothing to do with my life but I just wanted to hum "rock superstar" from a lawn chair throne on the hill of this little isle.

This is how life is lived when you're rich and maybe a little famous.  If you are not fabulously rich, notorious, and infamous enough to enjoy views like this yourself, then I suggest you take my advice and do what I did to get here.  Trespass.  Actually it wasn't even trespassing, I waited diligently for the day when my day off would coincide with both sunshine and the "open to the public hours", but since no one else was in sight I kinda imagined this as my front yard view...and to be fair when I followed the path through the trees I did temporarily trespass on the next door mansion owner's lawn.

The mansion next door

The Palm Grove Gardens are located on South Road in Devonshire near a modest little sign that announces their presence and that they are open Monday through Thursday 9-5.  When I first pulled off the road to explore these little gardens, it was to tour the lovely Tamiko on some interesting grounds that I had seen, thinking she may be interested with her landscaping architecture background.

Tam at the Palm Grove gardens in the summer of 2012

The grounds by the roadside sport a quaint old wishing well, a very nice moongate, loads of flowers and sculpted shrubbery, and a stream that reminded me of what a Japanese garden might look like.

Reminding me a lot of a smurf shack, this is the building that houses the wishing well

covered in vines on one side and led into with a trellis on the other, this is my favorite island moongate

And so, for another 18 months, I thought that I had already seen the Palm Grove gardens.  One day I was perusing the internet about Bermuda and read that somewhere on the island there is a little pond shaped like a map of Bermuda.  My coworker Sue told me that it was in the Palm Grove Gardens.  When I said I had not seen it there, she just casually mentioned that I had to go around the top to see it.  And so, on this Bermudaful morning (yes, this blog is all still part of the day of adventure that I mentioned yesterday), I planned on making a 10 minute stop at the gardens to take a photo of the fabled pond.  Little did I know.

When I parked at the top of the hill, the first thing I encountered was an aviary.  I met two very friendly parrots, and scores of their friends.  As you can well imagine, I was riveted to this spot and our a 10 word dialogue for quite some time.  And yes, he did ask if it was one o'clock when I arrived but would not say it again on camera :)

Just around the corner from my new feathered friends were a couple of gardener's sheds which just had a nice weathered but cared for look to them.  I am sure the buildings get a lot of used based on how well manicured the grounds were.

Event the tool sheds are pretty here

Beyond that, I immediately spotted the pond...and realized that the Palm Grove Gardens that I thought I had seen down by the road were just a tiny piece of the overall parcel of land.  And it did indeed look like a little map of Bermuda, although it was hard to get anywhere high enough and close enough to get an really amazing photo.  I did the best I could, and am happy to say it is at least as decent as the ones I found in the online archives, so will be content with this one.

A miniature Bermuda!

Looking back on the pond from the oceanfront lawn in the gardens

To the left of the pond is a big old mansion.  That's when I wondered if I had missed the public part and was actually trespassing.  Nobody seemed to be around, and the sites were too good to pass up, so I carried on.  If you do want to visit the gardens however, the deal is that this is known locally as the Gibbons' Gardens (yes, as in the department store and the bank), and the estate is owned by the Gibbons family.  It is open to the public, so don't let the mansion alarm you.

I felt very humbled even by the stairway 

You know you are really wealthy not by when you start purchasing statues for your gardens, but when you can afford that statues that are so incredibly creepy close up that the hair on the back of your neck stands up.  From a distance I thought this was going to be a happy musician...then I got close enough to see the horns and cloven feet.  Creeeeeepy.

The gardens are really really large.  There are numerous types of trees.  Including this neat one.

Tree Art

Random ponds as clear as the blue sky itself.

The crystal pond forecasts a wonderful day

Manicured paths that lead all the way to the ocean.

undeveloped space in this quantity is rather rare in Bermuda.  Worth it's millimeters in gold I suspect.

And now that I know the property belongs to one of Bermuda's wealthiest families, what I saw down by the ocean makes a little more sense.

What to do when you have too much money.

I was like, "Did someone seriously make an swimming pool in the ocean...and add an ocean sculpture like a lawn ornament?"  Yes, I think they did.  Maybe they wanted a fish free area.  OR maybe they wanted an area to fill with fish so they can soak their toes and have a fish pedicure like that weird trend that was going on a while back.  Either way, they sure have a pretty little place.

Must be nice to have the edge of your front lawn look like this.

Have a Bermudaful morning!

I have a lot of catching up to do!  Guess I will just get to it and start finish a post I started about a very nice day off I had a while back.  Here it goes

Sometimes you just wake up knowing it's going to be a good day.  Sometimes in Bermuda, instead of it being a beautiful day, they call it a Bermudaful day.  Well, I had an absolutely Bermudaful day on my last Monday off.  I took more pictures than I can use in one post so I will have to made an attempt to edit this post somewhat and focus on the first part of it.

The first part of a good day in the life of an island dwelling cat lady, is a sleep in, which is appreciated by both the cat lady and the cats.  It is nice to wake up with the sunshine streaming in through the windows.  Even Miss Lexi was relatively content.


Sunbeams and snuggles after a sleepy morning

I had it in my mind to take a couple of photos to the Bermuda Arts Center at dockyard.  The Arts center sells crafts to tourists, including photographs.  They also do a themed art show every month.  I have long been wondering if my photos would be of a high enough quality to display, and so my goal of the day was to see if my hobby might turn into a craft that would be appreciated by some of the islands many many visitors.  On the way to Dockyard, I pulled stopped at Somerset to look at the Somerset bridge and thought this house must have the most idyllic view from its yard.

Sunlight glistening off turquoise and crystal clear waters

The water in this area is particularly pretty and still.  In one direction you see Dockyard.  The old concrete blocks in the water are what remains of the Bermuda Railway when a train used to run up and down the island.  Much of it's old path is a walking and bicycling trail, also called the Railway Trail, but in places where it went over water, the pedestrians must take to the street to continue.

Remains of the Rail

In the other direction, you see Somerset bridge.  This little bride is a functioning drawbridge, and it may be the world's smallest one.  That's the claim at least.  It was built in 1620, although it has been updated a bit in the last century, but it still opens to let the odd small yacht go through.

Somerset Drawbridge

Just before I reached Dockyard a patch of calm water between the trees really caught my eye.  I had never noticed this little clearing before, and the way the ship was sailing in on still waters made me reach for my camera.

Calm Seas on this Bermudaful morning

These are the times when I wish I had just a little bit larger lens.  But the next shot turned out pretty all the same.

Life inside the glass bottle?

In the end, the arts center said that I could put a couple of my prints on display in their open show starting on March 2nd.  I chose a couple from the blog, and there will be many other things on display, so drop by the Bermuda Arts center during the month of March if you want to see them framed and in print...they do look a little nicer behind glass after all :)

Blip

"I'm sorry, this blog is having technical difficulties, please return in a few days." I am far from a perfectionist, but as all lab techs, I am slightly OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). I can exist happily in a whirlwind of paper and disorder, knowing full well where every piece of paper I have seen in the last 5-10 years is right now (even the ones in another country that were packed into boxes with haste for the move to Bermuda -- it never ceases to amaze my mother when I call looking for something on a piece of paper and tell her the precise location of the paper in relation to the other contents of a box, and where the box is, because I notice if they have moved since my last visit to her house). What drives me absolutley insane though, is the papers moving around. My coworkers love this. And so, some technical issues are preventing me from posting my photos in order, and we simply cannot have that. In addition to lacking a "v" key on my typewriter, which either fell prey to a rogue panther while I was at work or just plain wore out (I don't think I use the "v" key all that often, and Harry always looks guilty when I find him perched on the keyboard), as well as having s stubborn opposition to buying a new computer and paying the 25% duty to bring it to Bermuda for my last 4 months on the island, I am also not able to properly size the photos today, and have run out of time. I will also be visiting with a friend from Canada, and so I will throw my hands up in the air, find another cup of coffee, and promise to blog like a madwoman next week. You are free from my addicting ramblings until then. Have a great weekend!