Saturday, February 26, 2011

Day 6: Andy Sachar on The Arts/ Jamaica




The view from Calabash House looking toward the road by Sherwood Brown











Art generally pops into being on its own in Treasure Beach. Flowering trees are currently showing red, orange, blue, white, yellow and pink. The sea is all turquoise blues and beach glass greens. And so on.

The women's cooperative down the road and off to the right sells carvings, clothing and other crafts from local artists, and hosts art classes for the community. Over by the market, a pair of teenage drummers perform an incredible duet, all smiles and pride. Calabash House itself is awash with its mosaics and paintings.

And then there's Sherwood Brown. While the rest of us are up on the veranda writing and laughing and making sounds of awe in class, Sherwood grabs his hat, walks outside with his paint brushes, paper, and the big enamel pan he uses as a water color palette, and comes back every day with a painting.


The view from the hammocks at Calabash House by Sherwood Brown


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Friday, February 25, 2011

Day 5: Kathleen Worrell's Ode to Calabash Dining



What about the food? Has anyone talked about the food? That stunning bouquet of colors that Suzett arranges on our breakfast table: purple of star apples, pale pineapple, rose colored watermelon, the coral and orange of papaya and mango, creamy bananas. The richness of ackee scrambled with onions and peppers (ackee is a Jamaican fruit that is a buttery yellow with a large purple-black seed when opened. And you never eat it when unopened, or it will be your last meal). There is the exotic design of dinner: white meaty king fish with rice cooked in coconut milk and thyme, glistening jerked pork and rice and beans, peppery beef that falls apart on the tongue, the local green, callaloo, luscious salads of crisp green lettuce and rosy beetroot. And we still have two more days to go.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Day 4 in Photos


Our Breakfast


Our Painters and Writers



Our Shoppers


Our Flora and Fauna

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Day 3: Gayle Marano-Brown's "Sunset Haven"



As the brilliant warm day gives way to dusk, we watch with rapt wonder the soulful Jamaican sunsets -- each glorious, all encompassing, and beyond awe. The azure Caribbean Sea is lit with gold, orange, yellow, and pink, while cloud formations appear to paint the sky. Doesn't this beauty abound all over the globe, you might ask.

Yah, mon, but Jamaica's got the edge on Soul. Especially at the Calabash House.

by Gayle Marano-Brown

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Day 2: Up the Black River


Flora




This is such a wonderful experience! Challenging writing workshops in the mornings and wonderful adventures in the afternoons. Our group is so energizing because everyone brings such rich personal histories with them and as we share with each other, I find myself inspired to dig deeper and to write better. Then, the fun and laughter of our excursions --- walking down the road to the little shop for sodas, boating across the seas to the Black River with crocodiles and egrets to admire along the way --- dinners around the long table on the back veranda with the sound of the waves washing the shores behind us --- my senses are full and I feel myself letting go of all the tensions of work and responsibility. Watching Flora, our companion dog this afternoon in the launch as we cruised the Black River, her nose high and ears forward, eagerly searching the banks for crocodiles, made me realize how much I need to live more in the moment, how we all must relish every second that we have on this earth. And it's only Tuesday! I can't wait to see what Wednesday brings! Thank you Tracy, Liz, and Sara. You said it would be great and it really, truly, is.

--Nancy Shumaker

Sunday, February 20, 2011

From the Grandiosa Hotel




After a relaxing night in Montego Bay, today we head to Calabash House for a wonderful week of Writing, Writing, Writing.