Return to Bermuda


I lived in Bermuda over twenty years, from age five until grad school. I returned in August, 2007 after an absence of 28 years. I thought it would be so different after such a long time. And Bermuda has become a very rich land. In fact, the CIA World Fact Book says it is the richest country in the world (though it is really not an independent country but a colony of Great Britain). I was surprised; it was pretty much just as I had remembered it. True, there were some fancy modern buildings in Hamilton and a big excavation project where Trimingham's and Smith's used to be. To me, the most dramatic change has been the complete loss of any authentic character whatsoever in the Hog Penny Pub. They no longer even serve English Ale! This was where my drinking career began. I was crushed! I went to Bermuda with my wife Dianne and two younger kids, Andrew (23) and Jacqueline (16), my stepmother Jane, sister Kari Baldwin, her husband John, their two boys John (10) and Will (8), and Sharon Trumbull, the wife of my late cousin Rob. The purpose of our family gathering in Bermuda? To spread my father's ashes. His name was Charles Pendleton Trumbull. Click on a picture to see it enlarged. Use the Back button to return.

Tintagel, our house in Saint David's Island, where we lived from 1969 to 1978. Tintagel is situated on a hill overlooking Saint George's Harbour. It was in the waters of Saint George's Harbour, below Tintagel, that we released my father's ashes.



This is the view of Saint George's Harbour taken from Tintagel.		Tintagel from the water below.


Jacqueline, John, Kari, and Janie spreading my father's ashes in Saint George's Harbour below Tintagel.		Flowers mark the spot, at least momentarily.


Jacqueline, Will, Andrew, and John. The boys, as usual, are clowning around.		John Baldwin with his sons Will and John.


Andrew and Sharon enjoying a chuckle.		Me and Dianne.


Jacqueline, Dianne, and Andrew.		Janie.


Sharon.		Andrew.


Andrew and Jacqueline at Bluck's Point, where I lived from age nine to thirteen.		Jacqueline looking glamorous.


Andrew looking scruffy.		Jacqueline. No, she was not the model for the statue.


Cousins Andrew and John.		Little John.


Will.		Little John.


Big John.		Andrew, Jacqueline, John, and Will.

Will has been very bad! Actually, this is one of the stocks in Saint George's Square. The tourists love it.

Bermuda is outrageously beautiful. Though not located in the tropics (it's on the same latitude as Savannah, Georgia), it sits directly in the path of the Gulf Stream. While certainly humid, temperatures are very moderate, seldom rising above the high eighties in the summer or falling below the low fifties in winter. There is usually a nice breeze, as well. There's lots of rainfall, but much of it in the form of cloudbursts in otherwise sunny days (though mid-winter can be a bit dreary). Warm temperatures and lots of moisture makes for a profusion of tropical foliage with flowers of every color and shape.

The charm of Bermuda is also a result of its almost complete lack of natural resources (unless you call the world's most gorgeous beaches a natural resource!). Bermuda is so resource-poor, it doesn't even have fresh water other than what falls from the sky. People have to catch their own water on their roofs. So roofs, which are made from limestone slabs cut out of the ground, have to be clean and whitewashed. Lush tropical flora and brilliant whitewashed roofs make for a stunning combination. The houses are, in fact, constructed entirely of limestone and most are painted in various pastel colors, adding further to the natural beauty.

Bermuda actually comprises well over three hundred islands, though all but three are very small and most uninhabited. The three main islands, Bermuda (or Main Island), Saint George's, and Saint David's, are connected by causeways and bridges. The whole arrangement, adding up to all of 20.6 square miles, is in the shape of a fishhook. Actually, it's an oval with the northern portion barely submerged. This submerged portion makes for some great diving. It has also resulted in some of the richest discoveries of treasure, as many ships, including Spanish galleons loaded with gold, have foundered on these reefs.



Here are the pastel-colored houses and whitewashed roofs interspersed in the dense vegetation that is so typical. I photographed this early evening scene from the Saint George's Club in Saint George's Town in Saint George's Parish on Saint George's Island, where we were staying. That wreck is all that is left of one of those famous nineteenth century clipper ships, a sister ship of the Cutty Sark.		Another scene from the Saint George's Club looking down on the town and Saint George's Harbor. All that whiteness can be hard to look at in the sun!


Jacqueline on the rocky tip of Bluck's Point. This is the limestone from which all the buildings are constructed. When cut out of the ground, it is a pearly white and very soft, but when exposed to the air it turns grey and becomes hard. This makes the houses very sturdy, which they have to be to withstand the frequent hurricanes that sweep up from the south.		This is Oxford, the house situated on Bluck's Point in Pembroke Parish on the Main Island where I lived for several years. The house is very old, dating back to the earliest period of the island's colonization.


Captain Andrew Sinclair, here with Dianne, Jacqueline, and Andrew, owns Oxford with his wife Margaret. They also own one of the biggest real estate firms. This used to be my bedroom.		Margaret Sinclair.


Oxford is more or less in the middle of the Main Island, near the capital city Hamilton, while Tintagel is on Saint David's Island at the eastern end on Chapel-of-Ease Road, named after the Chapel of Ease, which you see here. The Chapel is right across the road from Tintagel. Note the graves in the foreground. Burial space in Bermuda is very limited, so each of these limestone boxes is covered with a slab that is easily removed so that a new casket can be lowered down. They don't last long in the moisture underground and soon rot away, leaving room for the next.		Horseshoe Bay, one of the many beaches along Bermuda's south shore. Bermuda has some of the whitest beaches in the world, tinged with pink from the ground up seashells mixed in the sand. Horseshoe can get crowded, especially when the cruise ships are in but those in the know know that just a short walk east are numerous tiny coves where you can have all the privacy you could want.


How's this for a dramatic place to swim?		Church Bay, also along the south shore. This small cove was a favorite of mine as a kid, as Horseshoe could get a bit crowded, especially on weekends.


This bus driver typifies the friendliness of Bermudians. We were on our way to Horseshoe on a bus that stops at a small park overlooking Church Bay. The stop there was about ten minutes, so she suggested we hop out to take some pictures. By the way, the busses are very comfortable and they go everywhere, so there is really no need to rent a moped (and car rentals are not allowed).		An elderly Bermuda gent on a bus. The population of 66,000 is about 55 percent black, 35 percent white, and rest mixed and other, according to the 2,000 census.


A Bermuda sunset.		This is the Anglican Cathedral in Hamilton, the capital. This totally un-Bermudian gothic structure surrounded by tropical vegetation is a little odd, I admit!


Another view of the Cathedral. Stunning, isn't it?		This colorful building is in the center of Saint George's, the second largest town in Bermuda, at the eastern end of the archipelago. You can see the whitewashed limestone slabs of the roof with a ridge that funnels the water down to a catchment below the building.


Front Street, the main drag in downtown Hamilton, right along the waterfront where cruise ships tie up.		Rosemont Inn on Pitts Bay Road on the outskirts of Hamilton.


The back of Saint Peter's Church in Saint George's taken from our lodgings. Note the ruins of a church in the background.		Fort Saint Catherine just outside Saint George's.


A small bay near Saint George's in the twilight.		These sorts of scenes are everywhere. But where, you might ask, is the entrance?


A pretty nook in downtown Saint George's.		Aunt Nea's, a B&B Janie and Sharon stayed in the first few days.


The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club. A great place for lunch, especially if you want to want to run into the Island elite.		Another view of Saint George's from our lodging.


A cluster of houses in Saint George's.		The entrance to Saint George's Harbour. It's amazing that such huge cruise ships can fit through that gap.


A pilot boat waits to bring ships into Saint George's Harbour.		Saint Peter's Church in Saint George's.


A close up of Saint Peter's.		Practicing in a corner so that the sound reverberates back. When I heard the bagpipe from our condo, I went out and saw him in the middle of the lawn, but when I ran back to get my camera, he had retreated to this corner.


Typical pastel-colored house.		The old and very classic Hamilton Princess. Pink is popular in Bermuda.


A picturesque roof.		This white cottage is just below Tintagel.

This copper praying mantis fountain is in
Par-la-Ville Park in Hamilton.

One could spend a lifetime recording the flora
of Bermuda. Here is just a tiny sample.



Wonder where those pastel house colors come from?		Frangipanis are very common in Bermuda.


As is the hibiscus. And they come in so many color combinations.		Not to mention shapes.


The hibiscus makes a wonderful hedge.		These look like some kind of miniature crepe myrtle.


More frangipani.		Natal plum.


Natal plum flowers. Another plant that make a nice hedge, as here.		A colorful succulent.


The oleander is another common flower. I especially like the really dark ones like this. They also come in pink, yellow, and cream. Like the hibiscus, it grows into a large bush or a row can be planted to create a hedge.		This cluster of Royal Poinciana flowers is just beginning to open. Royal Poinciana are large trees with very wide, sweeping branches and feathery leaves.


A Royal Poinciana tree.		The bay grape (or sea grape, as Americans call it) can be found all along the shore. Those berries turn dark purple when ripe and are edible. Very, very edible! I spent many childhood hours devouring them.


Here's a papaya tree with flowers and immature fruit.		Some kind of non-conical, tropical, spruce-like evergreen. Anyone know?


The fruit of a screw pine.		Not a flower, but just as colorful! These guys grace a watercourse at the Hamilton Princess Hotel.

The amazing Passion Flower. The fruit
of this plant is edible, but something
of an acquired taste.

When I was thirteen, my buddy Tom Wadson and I cleared a large (for us) patch of land behind his father's place and planted almost everything we could think of. We also had a garden at my house and I kept chickens. We entered our products at the annual agricultural exhibition and won first place in the junior age class. I went on to other things, but Tom became a farmer. There's not much farming in Bermuda, what with the incredible cost of land. But he is making a go of it anyway. Visit his web site at http://designsimone.com/wadson/contact.htm.



Tom and his wife Nancy live here on their farm on Luke's Pond Road in Southampton Parish. They farm a total of thirty-five acres using organic methods, as you will see.		Just down the road from the corn field, just past the house, is this mixed pasture. The pens house various kinds of poultry and are portable. The pens are moved every few days. In this manner, the whole field is fertilized naturally. The sheep graze on the field. Their droppings are used to fertilize the fields. Tom grows everything (as his web site says) from anise to zucchini.


Here's a pen getting ready to be moved.		He also has free-range chickens.


These are Dorper sheep, highly prized for the flavor of the meat. These are almost finished with their annual molt. Dorper wool, by the way, has very little lanolin, which, Tom tells me, is why the meat tastes better.		A ram. Very impressive chap.


Very impressive, indeed! Look how lush this pasture is.		Another look at one of the sheep.


Besides pastures and fields, Tom grows greens and herbs using hydroponic technology.		And here's Tom himself.


A tray of red-leaf lettuce growing hydroponically.		Looks good, doesn't it? Tom has his own market and he supplies various restaurants, including one run by his sister Judith, Aggie's Cafe.

All good things come to an end and so we said
our goodbyes to Bermuda. Unfortunately, we got
stuck at the airport for hours because of
delays in Philadelphia. Seems this happens on a
regular basis. All the other airlines were running
on time. Don't ever, ever go anywhere
on US Airways through Philly!

Andrew waiting it out at the airport.

Maintained by William N. Trumbull. Updated 2/10/08.