Rosemary Parkinson • Contributor
Tanya (left) and Rose, always with huge smiles. - photo by Rosemary Parkinson
I sit here, computer on my lap, propped by soft, white, cotton pillows, the mahogany four-poster bed taking my weight as though I were a feather. Through the wide-open doors of my room, the Blue Mountains rise through a misty sky, and the sea that makes up Annotto Bay continuing to Robin's Bay shines as if polished. The backdrop for green lawns, colourful flowers, birds of every description - some that bellow in the mornings, awakening from their nest in a tall and handsome royal palm, just across from the swimming pool where I've done laps for the several mornings of my stay.
I have been fed delicious breakfasts, scrumptious lunches and calming dinners. I have roamed the 1,600 acres of the estate where organic coconut oil is extracted from the acres of coconuts, where pimento and cocoa are grown hand in hand with grass-fed...
Life Turns and Begins Anew
Green Castle Estate house is an idyllic getaway. A dream of a place and a windfall at this time, for it is here that I have been given the opportunity to write a joyful last story for this newspaper. Life has a way of turning sadness into unimaginable happiness, "a looking forward to a new beginning," in my own words. I had been feeling a tad disoriented (as anyone who has written four stories every month for seven years would be), by my decision, but here that near-forgotten strength has been renewed. I have fully come to terms with closing the door to one life in order to begin another. And, the quiet of Green Castle has definitely been the source of this inner understanding of how things change and yet remain the same. This decision does not mean that I will stop writing, only that I will be writing more! Books, that is. I shall, of course, miss my readers who when they meet me say wonderful things like: "I have never missed one of your stories, they have been my Thursday breakfast since 2001."
Or: "I read you weekly and in all these years, you sent me to one wrong place" - this last remark coming from Kingstonian Gordon Arnold (thank you sir) on my last visit to the big capital, and a great memory that brings a smile to my face every time I am reminded of it.
Early mornings at Green Castle begin with breakfasts of seasonal fruit - the sweetest mangoes, the juiciest pineapples and morsels of refreshing otaheite apples, aided by the ever-present grapefruit. Skipping the bright yellow bananas (not my cup of cha, unfortunately) - my lost source of potassium there picked up in the soft and tasty boiled green bananas and the best callaloo I have ever had; a fact cemented by my Jamaican friend and fellow photographer, Cookie Kinkead - a callaloo connoisseur!
I plucked some information out of Rose - she makes her callaloo with Green Castle coconut oil and ginger. Smooth soft dumplings and yellow yam, bought in Highgate market, added to the experience. Sad in a way, for I wondered why this huge estate would not be growing its own of everything?
Perfectly done
Our first dinner consisted of jerk chicken, jerk pork and jerk tofu - perfectly done by the in-house 'jerker', Chris, whose secret is, "de marinade and de sauce, and me sprinkle a likkle Red Stripe every now and den over everyting". Sweet, sweet. Now, Miss G is the marinade and sauce queen and promised a recipe for Jerking Around Jamaica (my next book). The piece de resistance of this evening had to be Tanya's coconut cream and stewed guavas. Lawd, have mercy! The following day's lunch consisted of stew peas and plain white rice. Previously, not one of my favourite dishes, but I can safely say I had three helpings. Rose did her thing brilliantly, topping lunch with a simple over-the-top key lime pie and whipped cream.
Maroon celebrations
Today, (Sunday), we're off to the Charlestown Maroon celebrations of Quao's Day, thanks to Colonel Frank Lumsden. Tomorrow, it will be an estate tour (part of Green Castle offerings) and Sue Crum Ewing's afternoon of High Tea with scones, et al, at her historic home on the property. This has been a divine way to say goodbye. And I thank you, Jamaica.
"Today and every day, I will pray for the wisdom to choose wise counselors and the love and strength to heal myself."
Karen Casey's 'Each Day a New Beginning - Daily Meditations for Women'. Green Castle Estate Villa. Call Angie Dickson: (876) 881-6293 for reservations.
A most amazing stew peas by Rose got top marks from me.
Chris is number one with this Red Stripe Jerk.
Fresh daily salads were all part of the goodness.
