Old Times ....

After yesterday's nostalgia, more of the same but from a different era. (just trying to vary the endless flower pics until I can go out again)

This is a beautiful wrap knitted for me to snuggle in during chemo or meditation, by my lovely friend Liz. We met in the 70's when we both lived in Jamaica, WI, for a while, during the heady days of Black Power. The streets of Kingston were dangerous places back then with all the political unrest, unsafe for a woman to drive alone so Liz and I shared a car, always doing messages together. We even shared a sewing machine to make curtains for our apartments and to take advantage of the gorgeous colourful Jamaica cotton. Outside of Kingston and Montego Bay, there were very few hotels. Explored lonely and beautiful bays and wonderful friendly villages, ate corn on the cob cooked over oil drum fires, picnicked on Christmas Day turkey on the beach, went on an alligator spotting hunt. Our favourite wild headland played host to the Canadian army one time, where we were feted and fussed over like Royalty, with the ever present backdrop of the turquoise Caribbean. We learnt to reggae with its strange (new then) beat. We saw Ian Fleming's house and came out of the water in our bikinis at the exact same spot Ursula Andress emerged from the sea in Dr. No - there the similarity ended, sadly! There were some nasty incidents when we got caught up in trouble, once our car got stoned and we were robbed a couple of times. But on the whole, an exciting and amazing time, tinged always with a hint of danger and spiced with the scent of ganja (marijuana) on every corner. We were young, what can I say?

I came home after a year so my son could be born on British soil, Yorkshire in fact so that if so inclined he could play cricket for the county. I don't remember him ever playing cricket in his life! Liz followed and so did family life. We both moved several times and eventually lost touch. But out of the blue in 2009, we met up in Oban on the west coast of Scotland, shared a super meal at Ee-Usk on the north pier, and have renewed our friendship, though we live a few hundred miles apart.

Sadly I don't have photographs of us together, we took 'slides' in those days, but this is me with my Jamaican dog, Sammie, named for Samwise Gamgee from The Lord of the Rings.


"There's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo........and it's worth fighting for!"

"I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you."

Quotes from Samwise Gamgee


"One Love! One Heart!
Let's get together and feel all right."

Bob Marley

"Oh my Little darlin', don't she'd no tears
No woman no cry
Little sister, don't she'd no tears
No woman no cry"

Bob Marley