Tag Archives: St Helena

Nov 24 2021
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Art and architecture, Daily Post

Back to school

Tuesday 23rd November 2021, 11.30am (day 3,743)

I am an educator, yes — a teacher if you like — but that doesn’t mean I hang around schools very often, if at all. This morning was an exception, however, and here’s where I spent it; St Helena’s only secondary school, opened in 1988. This is, of course, a model, which resides in the reception area, but it’s as good a way as any to get a feel for the place. The eponymous Prince visited in 1984 and obviously made a big impression on the islanders. Whether, in light of more recent events, they are thinking of changing the name, is not yet recorded.

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Nov 22 2021
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Daily Post, Landscape

Briars Pavilion and the Heart-Shaped Waterfall

Monday 22nd November 2021, 10.35am (day 3,742)

Heart-Shaped waterfall, 22/11/21

Briars Pavilion — the first home of St Helena’s most famous resident, Napoleon Bonaparte. When he arrived here in 1815 post-Waterloo, he lived here for the first couple of months while his more permanent home (Longwood House) was being prepared.

The Heart-Shaped Waterfall — well that is its official name, and you have to say that it is appropriate. But it seems they only turn it on during the winter months (May – September).

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Nov 21 2021
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Canary

Sunday 21st November 2021, 1.30pm (day 3,741)

Canary, 21/11/21

Specifcally, a yellow canary (Crithagra flaviventris) — a name which seems a little tautological, but that’s the particular species which resides here on St Helena. They have done very well since being introduced, as there’s thousands of them, all over the island as far as I an tell. And very attractive birds they are too. I like this shot — it was trying to hide away in the undergrowth, but I shot it (metaphorically) all the same.

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Nov 21 2021
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Daily Post, Landscape

The interior

Saturday 20th November 2021, 12.25pm (day 3,740)

Time to do some exploring. It’d be nice if the weather improved — even the locals are complaining that it should be sunnier and warmer by this time in the year — but at least the drizzle gives this shot a nicely melancholy atmosphere. This is taken almost in the very centre of the island, very close to where Edmond Halley, the famous astronomer, set up an observatory in 1677.

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Nov 20 2021
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Out (in Jamestown)

Friday 19th November 2021, 10.15pm (day 3,739)

The Muleyard, 19/11/21

Friday night — and I’m out! In every sense of the term. So were plenty of other people who were on the flight, ten days ago. The Muleyard pub in Jamestown hosted ex-pats and locals alike, and we all celebrated being part of the land of the living.

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Nov 19 2021
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Daily Post, Landscape

Visitors’ parking, Bradley’s Camp

Thursday 18th November 2021, 9.20am (day 3,738)

Bradley's Camp view, 18/11/21

After eight days in a row in the house, a morning out — so I could have something stuck up my nose, and then be returned. Somebody, somewhere, thinks there’s a point to all this. (I will add that I had things stuck up my nose both before flying here, and on arrival, and have been in isolation since.)

The island has a verdant interior but the rim is very barren. Out by the airport sits “Bradley’s Camp”, a bunch of prefabs surrounded by barbed wire and personal security that is presumably where the local authorities stick the asylum seekers, people with a 0.0001% chance of having a currently fashionable communicable disease, and other undesirables. But at least it has parking facilities for visitors.

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Nov 17 2021
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Daily Post, Landscape

The bigger picture

Tuesday 16th November 2021, 1.15pm (day 3,736)

Hillside Villa view, 16/11/21

OK, it’s time to do the main panorama from my place of incarceration. The movie director in my head would still prefer to wait for the lighting to be just so, but to be honest, breaks in the cloud have been rare this last week — indeed, as I type this on Wednesday morning, it’s raining heavily and none of this can be seen at all.

To the left, Ladder Hill, depicted in close up a few days ago. Below it, tucked in its valley, Jamestown, the capital and one of the few places on the island where one can actually land a boat. To the right, Rupert’s Valley, more industrial (i think those are fuel pipelines visible) — between them, Munden’s Hill. All to be more intimately explored at a later date. In the direction shown, the next land is, I calculate, the Ivory Coast, or perhaps Ghana, at least 1,800 miles away.

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Nov 16 2021
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Daily Post, Friend, Portrait

Gareth and Jamie bring essential supplies

Monday 15th November 2021, 2.40pm (day 3,735)

Gareth and Jamie, 15/11/21

The tape marks the legal limit of my world. But I have suppliers who can transfer across it some essential supplies, not least a couple of six-packs of Windhoek beer, from Namibia. Thank you Gareth — who’s also, in the end, the reason I am here in the first place (more on this next week, probably) — and his other half, Jamie. Dear St Helena Government: I didn’t cross the tape.

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Nov 15 2021
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Baby flora

Sunday 14th November 2021, 1.55pm (day 3,734)

St Helena flora, 14/11/21

A new place means a new ecosystem, and new flora. I have absolutely no idea what these babies (they are about the height of my hand) will grow into — cacti perhaps, but that’s just a guess. I don’t have a garden here as such; these are growing at the top of the rocky bank at the back of my house, that currently marks one of the limits of my world. But they’re something cute to look at, all the same.

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Nov 14 2021
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Daily Post, Landscape

Ladder Hill, from afar

Saturday 13th November 2021, 12.30pm (day 3,733)

Ladder Hill, 13/11/21

Sunshine has actually been at a premium thus far, and I’ve been waiting to give you more of the panorama from my place of incarceration until the light gets better. But a burst of it after lunch did today illuminate the distant Ladder Hill. So named as it is the top of Jacob’s Ladder, visible heading down to the right — an infamous 700-step climb up from Jamestown below. People run up this for fun, so I’ve been told. Rest assured that once I get out of here, I shall not be joining them.

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