These are a few of my favorite things from the joyous wedding week...

Mother and son 

My choice of flowers

Sunsets

The colors of the Bahamas

My sister Inel

A walk on an isolated Bahama beach 

Fred snorkeling and bringing up the ubiquitous conch of the Bahamas

Our hands and toes of friendship

South Africans sailing in the Abaco Sound

A Magnificent Frigatebird

Joy of Friendship

The bride who took our breath away

The perfect wedding dress

The beauty of the sea and our catamaran

Pleasure of symmetry 

Setting of the wedding table

and the Hope Town Lighthouse……

Hope Town Elbow Cay, Abaco's, Bahamas
what an amazing venue for the wedding…..

Here are photo collages of the special event:

Collen and Sarah from the UK...

Fred, mostly behind the camera, this time centre stage and such a proud father…

The 'aunt of the bride' all the way from Cowra, Australia….

Krone clan, gorgeous Jess a bridesmaid….

My joy as the 'mother of the bride'...

Geoff and Nikki…..

Vincent and Natalie...

Rosella and Neville…

A fun moment with the chef at Hope Town Harbour Lodge…

Vanessa and Neil...

Gathering my bones...

“She creeps and crawls and sifts through the…mountains…and…dry riverbeds, looking for wolf bones, and when she has assembled an entire skeleton, when the last bone is in place and the beautiful white sculpture of the creature is laid out before her, she sits by the fire and thinks about what song she will sing…

 

she stands over the criatura, raises her arms over it, and sings out…sings some more…sings more and the wolf creature begins to breathe…and as she sings, the wolf opens its eyes, leaps up, and runs away…suddenly transformed into a laughing woman who runs free toward the horizon…”

 

Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes

My Shawni is now married!

A long time ago Natalie gifted me her Estes book and I was enthralled. 

This past week here in Hope Town, Elbow Cay, Bahamas has been the much anticipated wedding.

It has been remarkable. 

I thank my daughter and new son-in-law.

The pineapple is a symbol of hospitality, and the Bahamas has made me welcome as we welcomed friends and family who made the long journey to get to the wedding from 7 countries, planes, ferries….I thank each and everyone, I also thank my friends and family who were here in thought  and love.

I now feel the action of creeping; as my body aches and sifting; my soul aches, tears sit close behind my eyes, I crave quiet.

I am looking for my bones, reassembling my skeleton and looking for the transformation Estes promises me….. 

Diving the Blue Hole, Nassau

The weather was perfect for the outing to the Blue Hole and the trio were ready and eager!
Diving was exceptional - Caribbean Sharks, Green Turtles, Nassau Grouper, Spotted Ray and a myriad of gorgeously colored fish.

Inagua National Park

The park encloses all of Lake Rosa, the largest salt water lake in the Bahamas.The birding was a treat and here are some of the highlights of our visit. 

A skulking Clapper Rail

Bahama Mockingbird

Reddish Egret

Real special for the trip - Roseate Spoonbill

Gorgeous adult Spoonbills

White-cheeked Pintail

Spotted Redshank

Snorkeling Inagua

Up in the northwest corner of Inagua, some drive from Matthew Town, you can walk off the beach and swim a few metres to a reef to snorkel.

Not a single person in sight and you dip your head into a new world, coral and colorful fish…

A story of Fillymingoes and Salt

The Inagua landscape is dominated by either the Morton Salt company's vast reservoirs or the salt pans where it produces salt by solar evaporation. It is a stark and harsh landscape. 


We wound our way along the edges of the pans and reservoirs to access the Inagua National Park to get to Lake Rosa. The preservation of these 'fillymingoes' which is how the Bahamians pronounce flamingoes - has been a joint action between Morton's and the Bahamas National Trust, and these birds have been brought back from near extinction to more than 50000 birds here on Inagua.

Phoenicopterus rubber,  are gorgeous birds with vividly pink feathers and they stand 120 to 140cm high. They were hunted for their meat, especially the tongue, and for their feathers, Fred was so frustrated trying to get  a good photo which was almost impossible  as they are very skittish!  The birds like the many salt ponds on Inagua that supply their favorite meal—brine shrimp and also creates the famously crimson color.

Caribbean Flamingo

A poem message from Inel in Australia

Untitled
by Dawna Markova

I will not die an unlived life,
I will not live in fear
Of falling or catching fire.

I choose to inhabit my days
To allow my living to open me,
To make me less afraid,more accessible, 
To loosen my heart
Until it becomes a wing,
A torch, a promise.

I choose to risk my significance; to live
So that which came to me as seed
Goes to the next as blossom
And that which came to me as blossom
Goes on as fruit.

Great Inagua Lighthouse

Built in 1870, the Great Inagua Lighthouse is one of only three remaining and (still operating) hand-wound, kerosene-burning lighthouses in the Bahamas. Standing 120 ft. tall, and easily visible from my balcony position here in Matthew Town. We climbed the stairs including the steep last ladder section to take in the view across Matthew Town. 

As always the sea is gorgeous. We strained to see a glimpse of Cuba which is 80 kilometers west but could not quite make it out…

We signed the dog-eared guest book, Fred and Sharon were here.

love this interior view of the lighthouse

view across to Matthew Town

straining to see Cuba!

Birding Inagua, Bahamas

As always birding takes me into the most unusual places in the world and Inagua, one of the Bahama Out Islands, is just such a place. 
No cruise ships, no high-rise hotels, no crowds, in fact less than 1000 people on the island, not a coconut palm in sight, dry scrubby bush, 3 flights a week into Matthew Town, only industry is Morton Salt,no fresh produce to be found, but it is also a haven for birds, so here I am.
First lifer for the trip was a confiding Burrowing Owl watching us cautiously…

The owl has prominent white eyebrows and a white "chin" patch which it was expanding as we watched and an endearing habit of bobbing the head as we approached.

From the balcony of our lodging (where dinner is dropped off in your room at 2.30 as the staff go home!) we watched the Rose-throated Parrots in a tamarind tree. They are rock stars around town, noisy and move in a gang.

Photo highlights of our first week in the Bahamas

• The bird photo for the week is the Hairy Woodpecker which we heard drumming on our walk at the Clifton Heritage National Park. It was happily foraging along the trunk of a tree on our path.

• The food photo of the week has to be the bucket of mojito at Compass Point on the night we arrived. Good way to get over being in the air for more than a day!

• The sunset photo for the week, a pier in Nassau.

• The art photo for the week, "Sacred Space" sculpture installation by Antonius Roberts, a representation of slave women carved out of Casuarina trees still rooted in the ground on the cliff edge at Clifton Cay. Since I was last here he has added the luminous headscarves.

• The seascape photo of the week is the turquoise sea through the window of the loyalist era Johnston Plantation ruins.

• And the best photo of the week has to be the crystal clear waters of Exuma...