I’ve known about Grenada’s underwater sculpture park for years, but I’ve never been.

Until I saw this photograph, I had no idea what I was missing.

BRB, signing up for SCUBA lessons.

(Source: Jason deCaires)

(Source: National Geographic)

Make me want to sing. 

In January, Bean and I spent a weekend watching a sailboat race. This photo was taken from the water, off the coast of Grand Anse.

(I miss my camera.) 

Way better than diet Coke. 

For Sexy Sex Thursday. Passionfruit blossoms. 

Lately I find I have a hard time staying vexed about anything. 

Beauty heals. 

Sometimes I feel like I’m the only blogger in the universe who doesn’t edit her photos. 

IDK. 

Nature is as nature does. 

Five minutes later. 

It rained a lot last week, which meant rainbows, including this one that I caught on Thursday about four minutes before sunset over Saint David’s Harbour. 

Happy Monday, internet. 

Today is Carnival Friday. In preparation, I’m stepping up my hydration routine. 

[photo via grenadaphotoalbum.com]

So I started a photoblog. 

photosfromgrenada:

I can catch a mosquito bare-handed but this is the closest I could get the frog to center frame. 

Bean started going to school in Grenada when he was about two and a half. He was the youngest kid in the classroom, which worried me a little at first, but it worked out well in the end, because the older boys made him their mascot. 

He loved school. He had a uniform, a yellow and white checked shirt and khaki shorts. His hair had never yet been cut, so every morning his father slicked it back into a neat (and manly!) ponytail. Then I we walked together the three blocks to a church with no roof. The roof had been blown off during Hurricane Ivan, and was being repaired the entire time Bean attended, and so the place was kind of like a construction site, which of course the child loved, because he gets almost as much glee from cement trucks as he does from chocolate. 

I say the roof was missing, and it was, but Bean and his classmates were well-covered, because the church was two stories, the school was on the first and the floor of the second story was intact. 

On Grenadian Independence Day, there was a class trip to Grand Etang, which is a beautiful natural lake in the rainforest that sits right in the center of the island. I tagged along, and it was a wonderful day. 

I took this photo in front of the school, in the morning while we were gathered waiting for our bus to arrive. The kids are all dressed in their “national colours”. Independence Day commemorates the end of Grenada’s time as a colony of the British Empire. It should not be confused with Thanksgiving, which celebrates the anniversary of that time some United States Marines landed on the island, sent there by Reagan in response to the (socialist) Grenadian Revolution. 

(A photo very similar to this one ended up in the inside cover of the Grenada Yellow Pages. Click here and here.)

One of my top ten (five?) favorite photos from Grenada.

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Gary is a good friend and a great guy. Check out his blog and you’ll see for yourself that he’s a fantastic photographer. 

(While I appreciate the the flattery I hardly consider myself a power anything. I am merely a mommy-blogger. With awesome hair. And a flair for words. Oh, and sometimes I’m funny.)

trinilikesalt:

Can I Do This, Part 2 - This Time, With Instructions!

Wow!

So about 10 minutes ago, I posted this:

So - who in the Boston area (and beyond) might be willing to help me with a potential long-term photography project: “1000 Faces”.

No, I can’t pay you. Yes, I’d likely ask you to sign a release. Yes, I will give you a .jpeg. No, I have no set timetable or time limit for this - but I think it’s a cool idea that will keep me shooting, maybe for the next couple of years.

In that time, it was reblogged by (clearly!) one of the power users of Tumblr - one @piscesinpurple - and already 5 or 6 people have responded in the affirmative.  The interwebs, man - wow.

@kalamazu asked how this would work. Well, I don’t really have a “this is how this will work” rubric, truth be told.  I just think it would be a cool photography project - one that will likely take more than a year (given my life and “real job”), and so I have no pressing timetable for it.  But - for those living in the Boston area (and those who fate might dictate we be in the same place at the same time), I figure it’ll be a if-we’re-in-the-same-place-at-the-same-time-maybe-we-could-meet-and-I’ll-take-your-picture kinda thing. 

So - if you are in or coming to Boston at any given point, give me a shout, and we’ll see if it’ll work.  If not, no biggie - my day-to-day schedule is pretty flexible, but 2 young kids make it unpredictable!

I’m at garyottley@yahoo.com. Or at gary@garyottley.com <— my photography website.

Now…if only @piscesinpurple would reblog this so that I can ride that Eastern Australian Current of hers.  Damn, gyul!

The interior of the same structure.

Hurricane Ivan hit Grenada in 2004. 90% of the buildings on the island lost their roofs. By 2008 most had been repaired or rebuilt, but some, like this one, were abandoned.

Standing here I was struck by the absolute stillness and silence, as well as the sense that the house was slowly but surely being reclaimed by the wilderness.

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