Archive for the ‘cool stuff’ category
What A Marvelous Mantra
October 1, 2012
Time and Tide
April 17, 2012
Walk, saunter, run, swim, wander, feel the sand and warm water between your toes. Or close your eyes and cyber-stroll. Enjoy every tiny treasure of your own personal paradise …
Grand Bahama’s Junior Junkanoo Parade
January 22, 2012
Playing the Cowbells. photo by Paula Boyd Farrington
I love a parade. Especially Junkanoo Parades—those uniquely Bahamian celebrations of sound and bold colors and creativity—pulsed to the steady heartbeat rhythms of goatskin drums, cowbells, whistles, horns, and dancing feet. The Junior Junkanoo Parade is one of my all time favorites. Students, dedicated teachers, parents, and a host of volunteers from all over the island work countless hours creating meticulously-crafted, handmade costumes, and rehearsing lively music and dance routines to parade through the downtown streets of Grand Bahama. This year’s parade was held Saturday evening, January 14th, 2012, with a big crowd of friends and well wishers lining the streets to cheer the students of all ages on.
Junkanoo is loud. It’s proud. And totally adorable. Here’s a peek at some of the fun … congrats to all who participated and made it possible!
photo by Paula Boyd Farrington
photo by Paula Boyd Farrington
photo by Paula Boyd Farrington
photo by Paula Boyd Farrington
- photo by Paula Boyd Farrington
- photo by Paula Boyd Farrington
Avast! It’s International Talk Like A Pirate Day
September 19, 2011
September 19th is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. This is the official day to practice saying “arrrggghh, matey”—and other plank-walkin’ talk—an occasion dreamed up by a couple fun guys who were bored one day, but had plenty of Pirattitude. They told funny guy/author, Dave Barry, about it back in 2002, and he put it in his Miami Herald column. The rest is shiver-me-timbers history, and people all over the world now use this date as an excuse to swagger about in their swashbuckling finest and to think about stirring some rum into their coffee. Or maybe that’s just me. Anyway, it’s all about having fun—and got me thinking about Grand Bahama’s own brush with fictional pirate fame.
Filming for some of Disney’s Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and Pirates of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides took place on Grand Bahama Island, back in 2006/2007. It was a thrill to see The Black Pearl and Davy Jones’ Flying Dutchman cinema-ships up close and to catch random sightings of the cast and crew out and about on the island.
We were all swept up in the movie-making excitement—especially my daughter and her friends, who had a great time devising their own buccaneer ensembles in which to search for treasure and adventure during Ye Olde Playtimes.
Halloween at our house that year included a rather commanding and fierce-looking Pirate Princess known as Sparrowla—an imaginary long-lost sister of Captain Jack Sparrow:
Here’s to sailing the Seven Seas of Imagination and Laughter for as long as you can! Yo ho, me hearties, yo ho!
Heartsong Haiku
August 20, 2011
simple island joys
dance brightly in lush greenness
nature’s love abloom
From My Grand Bahama Garden: RED Avocados!
January 11, 2011
Now here’s something you don’t see every day. In fact, after living here on Grand Bahama Island for over 20 years, I’d never seen one until a couple days ago. Looks more like an apple or a big plum, doesn’t it?! But look inside at the familiar creamy green …
Yes, it’s an avocado! (And a perfectly ripe and tasty one too.) A quick Google search shows it’s a Florida variety of avocado that turns red when it ripens. These beauties came from a tree in an out of the way area behind the guest cottage garden. This is what they look like growing way up on the tree …
(and yes, I drew the little arrow and circle on the photo so it’s easier to find the avocado, but other than that, all these photos of the avocados are straight out of the iPhone camera, no-retouching at t’all!)
I had no idea avocados could be red. But Miss Lue knew. Miss Lue is an amazing woman who hails from Jamaica originally and is the reason we have clean clothes around here every week. And clean everything, despite my creative clutter. We are truly blessed to have Miss Lue in our lives. In addition to her generous and helpful heart, she also has a green thumb and knows about all sorts of edible island garden treasures. I only knew we were already graced to have two different varieties of green avocados in our garden, but to find a new kind — a RED avocado (I just have to keep saying that because I’m so in awe of it) — feels like winning some sort of tropical arbor triple crown!
I’m so pleased to be at the stage of life where horticultural discoveries in my own back yard are my idea of Headline News. Worthy of a special report. All these amazing trees and plants, and I’m finally getting acquainted with them on a deeper level and asking their names and stories. Pleased to meet you, Red Florida Avocado.
red-when-they're-ripe avocados
so yummy
And thank you again, Miss Lue, for the introduction!
Miss Lue: Household Heroine, Wise Island Gardener & Patient Teacher of Natural Grace
Making Something Bright & New from Your Old Calendar
January 11, 2011A brand new year means a brand new calendar. But what do you do with your old one? Sometimes I save it as a keepsake of the year’s events, but this year I decided to recycle it into something new and useful thanks to the ARTchix Studio challenge to make something out of your old calendar. My 2010 calendar was full of beautiful and whimsical illustrations and heart-brightening quotes from a company called Brush Dance. The name Brush Dance got me thinking about giving my paint brushes a fun new container to shimmy in and out of in 2011. Next thing you know, an old holiday cookie tin was being repurposed and jazzed up with a collage of inspiring images from the old calendar, mixed together with some retro-cool ARTchix graphics. Here’s the 360 degree view, together with wishes for a New Year painted with love, a playful heart, and plenty of reasons to smile.
Sand In My Shoes: A Collection of Island Stories
December 20, 2010
I love this book. It’s touching. Tender. Laugh-out-loud funny. It gives you a taste of island life that goes beyond the usual idyllic picture postcard images and gets straight to the heart of things. I love these vibrant, adventurous, warming, and humorous stories so much that I helped the author (a dear friend of mine—Marina Gottlieb Sarles) orchestrate the layout of the book for publication, and I’m pleased to say it has been received as a new island classic. Well into its 2nd printing, the book has garnered fans from around the world. It’s a wonderful gift any island lover will enjoy and a great introduction and insight into Grand Bahama’s beginnings—the author, Marina Gottlieb Sarles, is the daughter of the first village doctor and nurse—and draws storytelling inspiration from her childhood in The Bahamas.
Sand In My Shoes author Marina Gottlieb Sarles
You can learn more about this delightful book by clicking here. And it can be ordered online here or via Amazon.
On Grand Bahama Island, Sand In My Shoes is available at the Coldwell Banker James Sarles Realty offices at #9 Regent Center, at the beautiful new Art of Giving gift shop at The International Bazaar (beside Island Watch Repair near the arcade), at Oasis drug stores, and at the Underwater Explorers Society (UNEXSO).
Falling in love with the island and getting sand in your shoes is a true treat—enjoy!
Shades of Blue Bliss: Water Inspiration
December 10, 2010
Blue Bliss: Water Inspiration 8821 © christine matthäi
Artist Photographer Christine Matthäi has created an alluring and intriguing series of images inspired by the changing shades of blue and blissful reflections of what surrounds and supports us most—water. Her travels to Grand Bahama Island and watching the wind and waves create motion, reflecting the sunlight on our gorgeous clear sapphire seas, is certainly part of her ongoing inspiration and fascination with water—that life-giving source vital to us all. Take a look at these modern, contemporary art works:
Blue Bliss: Water Inspiration 9589 © christine matthäi
Blue Bliss: Water Inspiration 8789 © christine matthäi
Blue Bliss: Water Inspiration 9587 © christine matthäi
Blue Bliss: Water Inspiration 9592 © christine matthäi
Blue Bliss: Water Inspiration 8908 © christine matthäi
If you are interested in prints for your home or office, write to the artist at christinematthai (at) mac (dot) com and note the image number in the caption.
Or take a look at all Christine Matthäi’s gorgeous contemporary portfolios by clicking here.
I am fortunate to call Christine a friend, and am posting this because I admire her incredible talent and brilliant work. As with all things I enthuse about here, it’s simply because I enjoy it and like to make the world a brighter place by sharing the good stuff!
That said, I DO have a vested interest in my husband’s printing company—Freeport Advertising & Printing—a Grand Bahama-owned full service printing and graphic design business here since 1973. If you would like to win a big beautiful 24″ x 36″ inch, fomecore-mounted print of one of Christine Matthai’s images (your choice of the ones shown above), just click here to subscribe to their free Printer At Work newsletter. You can see a sample issue by clicking on the Printer At Work button on the bottom left side of the screen. The newsletter is a quick read, with great tips on marketing, design, technology, and ways to save money and increase business sales. It comes out every two weeks, so you won’t be getting tons of email or anything. There are even a couple fun cartoons in each edition. (And of course, your email address is safe with us and will be kept private.)
Okay, that’s it. If you’re already a subscriber or have an account at FreeportAdvertising.com, you’re already entered and eligible to win. Subscribe by January 1, 2011 to be eligible to win the print. A random entry will be drawn by over-caffeinated gerbils, or some objective technological wizardry, and the winner announced the following week.
If you want to leave a comment here letting me know you’ve subscribed, or which print is your favorite, or just to jump in and say the water’s fine, that would be wonderful, but is completely up to you.
And if you need some last-minute Christmas cards printed, or little notepads with people’s names on them as thoughtful gifts, I know just the place! (that was the last commercial plug–but aren’t imprinted personal things so cool?—okay that was it, really … I get on a roll and can think up all kinds of fun goodies to print!)
Enjoy the blue bliss of water that surrounds our wonder-filled island and makes us all fortunate in business … in beauty … in life … each and every day. In gratitude for the time and tides—Paula.
It's about the water. It's always about the water. Southern shore of Grand Bahama Island.
Invent Your World
August 27, 2010
Love this quote by artist and author Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy, also known as SARK. Eat Mangos Naked, Succulent Wild Woman, Change Your Life Without Getting Out of Bed, Prosperity Pie, Glad No Matter What — you just gotta love anybody who writes books with titles like that — I do!
