Visual surprise
Photographed in early March 2010, sunny Grenada was a sight for sore eyes!
“Visual surprise is natural in the Caribbean; it comes with the landscape, and faced with its beauty, the sigh of History dissolves.” — Derek Walcott
There’s nothing like a good dose of the Caribbean to warm and brighten the dullest March. There are places more elegant, more prestigious, more affluent or trendy, but I’ve never been anywhere that was quite as good at making me feel welcome, relaxed and carefree.
Part of the vibe comes from the colors, which are everywhere. The tropical flowers and birds would be enough, but islanders add splashes of vibrant hue in their buildings and even their roofs. And then, of course, there’s that incomparable Caribbean blue; warm saltwater of a color palette not quite duplicated anywhere else, even in Hawaii.
I don’t know about you, but for me, this is the time of year when I could use a little visual surprise here and there. I did a quick Google search using the term “Colors of the Caribbean” and then clicked on “images.” I came up with this collection of island brights. Scroll through them quickly and let me know if you can hear Calypso music playing in your head!
One year ago today:
This post was first published seven years ago today. The original post, comments and photo are linked, along with two other related posts, below. These links to related posts, and their thumbnail photos, do not appear in the blog feed; they are only visible when viewing the individual posts by clicking on each one. I have no idea why, nor do I know how they choose the related posts. That’s just the way WordPress does things.
Defeat Despair 
Well I hope Florida is sunny for you. Pouring rain here ugh. Glad you and Matt are able to travel a bit even now. Maybe you can get to the Caribbean soon as well. Take care
It was lovely, sunny and right at 80 degrees while we were there, but the day we left it was headed up to 88! I would love to head down to the Caribbean to wait out the weather here but I have no idea when the cruise ships will sail again. Maybe I need to catch Southwest to Aruba now that they have flights there?? We tried to plan a quick trip to San Juan last month but the Covid restrictions were still pretty tight there. Oh well, it’s nice to dream…
Good morning, Julia! I was just talking with my Mom yesterday about the year that she flew home from Hawaii at Christmas time. The change in colors struck her. She said that when she got off the plane in Minneapolis, she was struck by how gray everything was. The people, skin, clothing. After coming from such vibrance and sun-kissed faces, the change was enormous.
Getting out of bed this morning, I remember deciding to paint my bedroom in “Florida” colors. I think it’s been helpful to me, to have these colors surround me.
When I was renting apartments in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, I factored the “repainting fee”, the cost of the landlords having to put a double layer of paint over a door or “accent wall”, right into the cost of the rental. It was worth it, for a little color in my life (and also I used better quality paint that could be washed, so that I could continue yoga practices that include repeatedly touching or putting my feet on the wall).
Thank for the fun trip into color today!
Blessings on your day!
Susan, as much as I love color, I’ve never had the moxie to paint my walls in different colors. Maybe that will be my way of getting wild as I get older 😀 Seriously, I think my love of color mainly focuses on flowers, color pens and markers, and the occasional brightly-colored shirt. But that’s the great thing about color – there are all kinds of ways to get your fix, even in the dreary winter months!
My youngest son went through a period where he loved to dye his hair wild colors.
Like the walls, it can be a bit of work to change, but it need not last forever, if one decides they don’t like the color.
Yes, I don’t “get it” about bright primary-hue hair colors, but then, neither do I get tattoos or even many of the shades of nail polish people wear nowadays. But all such methods of personal adornment are a thing now, it seems, and I’ve resigned myself to keep my lip buttoned and get used to it. Let’s just say that I don’t intend to stand out in the crowd, at least not in that way. But some people like it. If you ever see me with purple hair and black nail polish, you can remind me of this comment. 😀
I am chuckling to myself at this moment, because I was actually scheming out a method to put a purple or turquoise stripe on my hair! Maybe it’s the boredom of being home during Covid, maybe it’s knowing I won’t see many people before it fades or grows out, maybe it’s the quantity of white hairs that offer to provide a superior canvas, or … maybe it’s the left-over tubes of hair colors I have in my house!
I guess my only reply to that is one that I don’t really enjoy using, but have been gradually saying more and more….”Whatever!” 🙂