Barbados on Late Blooms

Far Away Places

Tue, 27 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

[caption id=“attachment_2443” align=“aligncenter” width=“584”] Don’t tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you traveled.” – Mohammed[/caption]

Most of us are fortunate to be able to travel today to many parts of the world. It’s fascinating to meet people, both young and old, who have wonderful stories to share about places they have visited and adventures they have had. As one who likes to travel myself, I always tell anyone who says they’re off to some place to “take lots of pictures.” To have the experience of being in a different place is unsurpassed joy but we also need those images so that when we’re back home, we can relive those moments in a different way - hopefully with happy memories.

Wedding Decor and Styles

Sat, 04 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000

“Once in a while, right in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives us a fairy tale.” (Anonymous)

Every couple wants their wedding to be memorable and to reflect their own tastes, styles, and traditions. While I’m very aware that a wedding is not a marriage, but only the start - these occasions come filled with a promise and hope for love, family, and life, that matches no other earthly celebration. All the images in the collages here were taken at memorable weddings of close family and friends. Enjoy!

"Rise to Power" - St. George's, Barbados

Thu, 08 Aug 2013 00:00:00 +0000

[caption id=“attachment_1163” align=“aligncenter” width=“584” caption=““Rise to Power” Painting - St. George’s Anglican Church, Barbados”][/caption]

Our happiest moments as tourists always seem to come when we stumble upon one thing while in pursuit of something else.” — Lawrence Block

When I travelled to Barbados to attend a fabulous beach wedding, I didn’t know that I would be taken to visit a beautiful Anglican Church called St. George’s in the village of St. George. On the afternoon of my last day in “Beautiful Barbados,” I became a tourist. I took in all the scenery and the church itself and was happy to take many pictures.

Seascapes

Thu, 01 Aug 2013 00:00:00 +0000

[caption id=“attachment_1150” align=“aligncenter” width=“584” caption=“Barbados Beaches”][/caption]

What each must seek in his life never was on land or sea. It is something out of his own unique potentiality for experience, something that never has been and never could have been experienced by anyone else. (Joseph Campbell)

[caption id=“attachment_1146” align=“aligncenter” width=“584” caption=“Seascapes”][/caption]

Tomorrow will be exactly one month since I returned from an amazing time in Barbados where I attended a beautiful wedding. Not too many settings can compare with the sea for words of love and vows of love. " Each human life is the journey from childhood to a realized adult life. Each day is a journey out of darkness into light. Each friendship and love is the intimate journey where the soul is born and grows. The journey is the drama of the heart’s voyage into the tide of possibilities which opens before it." (John O’Donohue)

Coconut Water - Good For Your Daughter!

Fri, 19 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

[caption id=“attachment_1135” align=“aligncenter” width=“584” caption=“The Coconut Man - Barbados”][/caption]

“If you could count the stars, then you could count all the ways the coconut serves us.”

“He who plants a coconut tree, plants vessels and clothing, food and drink, a habitation for himself, and a heritage for his children.” (Phillipine Proverbs)

Fresh coconut water is one of my favorite beverages. I was very fortunate to attend a party in Barbados recently where there was a coconut man with lots of coconuts serving the guests coconut water. He slashed the top off the coconut very deftly with his cutlass and put a small hole in the top before he handed the coconut over. It is possible to drink the water directly from the coconut but most of the guests chose to drink the coconut water using a straw. Listening to a live pan player in the background and sipping coconut water with family and friends was the ultimate Barbados experience. Some people had rum and coconut water which is a specialty for some wherever fresh coconut water is available - especially in the Caribbean. Many of us had the coconut cut in half for us by the coconut man and ate the coconut “jelly” which is delicious on its own. A special treat!

Green Pastures

Sun, 14 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Maid with the Flaxen Hair (Background Music - click to listen)

[caption id=“attachment_1109” align=“aligncenter” width=“584” caption=“Cows in Barbados”][/caption]

On my recent visit to Barbados, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the home in which I would be staying was in a pastoral setting. From the moment I saw the cows grazing in the green pastures, a certain peaceful feeling descended upon me.

My excitement was palpable. I hadn’t seen cows this close for many years and had no idea that my thoughts would turn to Thoreau and his experience at Walden Pond. He was deliberate in his experiment but the Universe smiled on me by allowing me this peaceful adventure and time with the cows. “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms.”

Barbados Flame

Fri, 05 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

[caption id=“attachment_1075” align=“aligncenter” width=“584” caption=“Barbados Flame Tree”][/caption]

“Poinciana, your branches speak to me of love Poinciana, your branches speak to me of love Poinciana from now until the dawning day Our love, will live forever and a day Blow tropic wind, sing a song through the tree Tree sigh to me, soon my love I will see” ……Song to the Poinciana

I just returned from a beautiful wedding in Barbados. All the pictures in this post show the “flame tree” and its flamboyant display of flowers. This is what it is known as in Barbados. I always knew it by the name “flamboyant” which its display of flowers truly is. It is also known as Royal Poinciana, Pride-of-Barbados, Barbados Pride, and Peacock Flower. It seems that the name changes according to the part of the world you happen to be in." Pride of Barbados, Caesalpinia pulcherrima is a member of the pea family (Fabaceae). It is referred to by other names including Barbados Flowerfence, Peacock Flower, Mexican Bird of Paradise, Dwarf Flamboyant Caesalpinia, and Dwarf Poinciana. The species name pulcherrima literally means “very pretty” and this plant definitely lives up to the name. The blooms of Pride of Barbados are incredible with terminal flower clusters showing an orange-red with a tinge of gold on the edges. Each flower is composed of five showy petals with very prominent six inch long red stamens."