More Sand Sculptures

A fantastic sand sculpture, by the Sandtastic pros, at the entrance to Horseshoe Bay. Inspirational, but also slightly off putting when entering a competition! Definitely worth clicking on to view large!

It took three days to construct, and even took a beating in a heavy downpour the night before. Apparently it uses 100 tonnes of sand, though not sure who was counting!

Here are some more of my favourite sand castles from the competition:

‘Life’s a Beach’ by Gibbons Company employees

Beach Belle – she was our neighbouring plot

The general construction scene. ‘Lizard on de Rock’ is in the foreground of these two photos.

Our Dragon Storming the Castle again.

It’s Sandtastic!

The 15th Annual Sand Sculpture Contest was held this weekend. My daring friend and I, ably assisted by Anton and my mother, entered with a ‘Dragon Storming the Castle’ affair (title thanks to Mark Tatem).

From a lump of sand…

..we carved out our castle and Very Friendly Dragon

We even won 2nd place in the Open category!

Team Sandtastic, professional sandcastle builders from Florida, were brought in to Bermuda by the Dept of Tourism (yup they really do spend their time flying here, there and everywhere building sandcastles!) to show off just what could be done with sand:

One of the pro's sculptures - a personification of Tropical Storm Fiona, which had threatened Bermuda over the weekend.

Winner of Professionals category

The overall winner, built by tourists from Venezuela and Greece

The general scene on Horseshoe Bay. It turned out to be a beautiful day, so there was a good turn out of participants (over 40 sculptures in total) and sightseers.

A peaceful way to travel

Keeping with the theme of boats, here is a rather idyllic way to spend an evening: kayaking in Harrington Sound.

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Hungry Ducks!

This little scene at the Botanical Gardens made me smile!

See these ducks on the map.

The Appearing Act of the Disappearing Cannon

A little while ago I posted the view across the Great Sound from Fort Scaur. I was at the Fort again, this time to photograph the Park Rangers demonstrating the Appearing Act of the Disappearing Cannon, one of only a very few of these cannons in the world. It dates from the 1870′s and was placed in Bermuda by the British.

An embedded video *should* be here, if it’s not, view video here.

The cannon is loaded out of view, below the ramparts, and then released to rise up and fire. Its recoil would then send it back down below, ready to be reloaded while the enemy collapses into chaos trying to sight the offending cannon! A police sergeant asked that the cannon not be fired though, apparently the West End community are a bit delicate, so unfortunately I haven’t been able to witness its namesake disappearing act yet.

 

Torrential Rain

You know this was serious rain at the National Stadium when our hockey practice was ended early – by the coach whose normal mantra is the only reasons a game in Bermuda might be called off is if we’re hit by a hurricane (but maybe play during the eye?), or if it snows (or else get out the red cricket ball)!

Not sure the umbrella helped much – we were already pretty wet!

The sun breaks through just as we leave.

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Sunset Fishing

We find silk (or lane- or whitewater-) snappers bite best just before sunset. In fact tonight we caught a range of types of fish which should keep us going with fish pies. In the morning we’ll look at what we caught and count our catch – it’s supposedly bad luck to count while fishing so I really have no idea how many we have! Location-wise we were in Harrington Sound, but beyond that, our fishing grounds are a secret! (Unless of course you saw our red boat at anchor as the sun went down!)

Onions at Masterworks

Working at the Bermuda Botanical Gardens this summer has revealed a lot of hidden corners and secret gardens to me. For example, today I came across this vibrant mural behind the Arrowroot Factory in the Gardens, home to the Masterworks, Museum of Bermuda Art. I’d never poked around this area before, and I’m fairly certain not many others have either.

It features a wall painting and two women painted onto ‘onion’ seats in front that merge into the background if you squint.

I found a small title in the corner: “Homage to Houghton Cranford Smith by Jennifer Keats ’08″. The Onion seats are part of a public art series, where artists and groups were invited to paint the seats a few years ago, and then they were auctioned off for charity. Now several have been placed at various spots around the island.

Onions are a suitable motif for Bermuda – sometimes Bermudians are even called Onions, after the distinctive Bermuda Onion that they used to exported out of Bermuda, in bulk, to US markets…until a Texan ‘Bermuda’ decided to trademark the name!

The entrance to Masterworks, Museum of Bermuda Art.

It is located in the North East corner of the Botanical Gardens, from 10-4, Monday to Saturday and is free for children and $5 for adults. It’s well worth the trip to see the permanent exhibition of art painted in Bermuda by well known foreign artists, and current shows by local artists.

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Young Fishermen

These two young boys at Fort St Catherine’s in St Georges were very pleased with their catch! (and I think pleased to have found someone appreciative of it and willing to take a photo, rather than tell them how gross it was!) It looks like it might be a baby bonefish.

A Lazy Sunday Morning

A young fisherman and his dog in Harrington Sound.

The house in the background is an interesting sort of house: it’s Italian as can be within the Bermuda Planning Regulations.

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Cup Match Camping

The other major Cup Match tradition is to go camping. These are the only days of the year that camping is free-for-all, and allowed pretty much across the island in parks and along the roadsides (perfect spot to lay off and wave to friends!). Last night I camped with my cousins on their boat in Castle Harbour, which was tons of fun.

Sunrise this morning, just peeking out from behind Castle Island:

Cliff Jumping (at high tide!) is lots of fun!

A set of really cool photos taken by my cousin, Amy, of some more of my cousins and me jumping from The Wall of the western fort.

Amy and another Show Off!

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Cup Match Fever! Berrrmmmppp Berrrmmmp!!

 

 We’re into our annual Cup Match summer holiday, two days off for a cricket match pitting St Georges (for the east of Bermuda) against Somerset (west). It’s now also designated Emancipation Day (Thursday) and Somer’s Day (Friday).

I went with my cousin from the States and a friend to the match today. Very hot but great atmosphere. St George’s is winning so far. So get out St G’s Blue and Blues (and definitely not Blue and Red, Somerset colours) and let’s hope for a win for them and hopefully not a draw (or loss)!

The Crown and Anchor tent was heaving – this game and these two days are the only gambling legal on the island.

 

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Bermuda Celebrates 400 Years

28th July 1609: A mighty storm in the Atlantic Ocean damaged the Sea Venture, a ship en-route to Jamestown. By some heavenly luck, just at that moment land was sighted on the horizon! It was the cluster of uninhabited islands marked on many maps only as the ‘Isle of Devils’. The Captain, and Sir George Somers, Admiral of the fleet, ably guided the Sea Venture into the reefs and off-loaded all crew and passengers, each safe  and well, to paddle the last distance to the island. Once ashore, Bermuda was claimed with the English flag for King James.

28th July 2009: A beautiful sunny day with a slight ocean breeze and a rainbow arching into St Georges. The Spirit of Bermuda glides along the channel from the Sea Venture’s shipwreck site and a pair of dinghies, complete with oarsmen clad in 17th Century dress, appear from around Fort St Catherine. To commemorate the beginning of permanent human habitation on Bermuda, the Sea Cadets of Bermuda reenacted the final struggle of the first settlers to reach the island, and their first actions to claim the land for the King.

The Commemoration Ceremony

Along with the Bermuda Pipes, some of the Regiment Band and visiting cadets from Manchester, UK, the ‘settlers’ marched as a procession past Builder’s Bay, where the Deliverance and The Patience were built to continue the journey to Jamestown, past Gate’s Fort and on to the Town of St George.

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Swimming in the Shallows

Swimming in the shallow water at Castle Island = perfect. We were able to run our toes and fingers through the silky sand and find sand dollars of all sizes. Of course the fun is in finding them, so we placed them back down on the sand and watched them sink into it as if it were quicksand.

See it on the map (trusting that no environmental thief will use this to plunder the sand)