September 2022

Of Life and Love

Nevis is alive! Her people, her friends, our family, our guests, all are finally able to come back home and life got big again. It has been a summer of life.

Hermitage became a hub.  The kitchen was busy producing spreads of West Indian feasts, lively nights and garden parties, with the food and the drink forever. In between the comings and goings of guests, we closed the gates for the exclusive excitement of making a movie. It was Hollywood in Nevis with costumes, designs, lights, cameras and action!

Then, as the set was cleared up, and as we waved goodbye to the movies stars, we set our own stage for our summer celebrations with a family wedding. In a week long, island wide flurry of events, Richard and Maureen’s grandson William married the beautiful Maura. With the same champagne left over from their celebration we toasted the engagement of his little sister, Tess, when her beau Josh bent down before her with a ring, in the garden. A summer of love, so long anticipated after the last two years. 

While we raised our glass, and kicked our heels, so did the rest of the island. Many other Nevisians, who had been living abroad and gone for too long, came home for the Carnival we call ‘Culturama’. It is the celebration of emancipation, marked by the joy of unique Nevis culture, costumes, parades and dancing in the street. When Nevis celebrates it is with a ‘Long Jam’, an event that starts at sunrise on the far country roads on either side of the island. The dancing carries down through every village, lead by bands on tractor beds, until the revelry meets up in the middle of town at the bay front. Two years of waiting led to this party and it lasted for 10 days!

It was a summer of both planned and impromptu parties; guests in the office strumming guitars, lying in the garden on blankets,  gathering at long tables, with food and drink and sharing platters.

Now as we come to the end of summer, I feel that summer lingers on in the simmering delight of memories and the joyful anticipation of seeing more friends on the coming horizon.