October 31st was of course Halloween and it is celebrated here much the same as back home. The picture at left is of St. Paul's Church located in Paget Parish. Playing around in Adobe Photoshop, Lori transformed the image to momentarily look spooky for the occasion. Just "mouse over" the image to see it change...... Booooooooo.....

I've also been aware that sometimes, in order for the image swap to occur, or even a pop up image (involving java script and active X), you have to "allow" Microsoft's Internet Explorer to show it, by clicking on the sentence appearing under the address bar and "Allowing blocked content". Even I have to do this now, although I have my security settings set very low. Every time Microsoft upgrades my operating system to protect against hackers and viruses, any potential harmful content downloaded from a web site is blocked. For this reason, many people who use the internet a lot have switched to Firefox which is a much simpler web browser, easier to manage and doesn't have malevolent people trying to hack it!

One of the stained glass windows inside the cathedral.

Johnny James Barnes ~ June 23, 1923

Most places have a famous person from the past whose image is replicated in a statue on the town square. Bermuda is no exception in it's depiction of it's celebrity Johnny Barnes, except in one respect .... Johnny is alive and well, and everyone who drives through the Trimmingham round-a-bout on their way downtown on any weekday morning, can give him a wave or a toot of the horn as he waves you through with a; "I love you", or a "God bless you".

Born at home in Pembroke Parish with the assistance of a midwife, Johnny went to Central School, (which incidentally is near Tynes Bay.) Johnny's first job was as a waiter. His second job was working at the Coca Cola factory for several years. His third job was with Burnaby Cycles, where he worked as a push bike mechanic. He then went to work at the US Military base as a mechanic and fixed tires for 5 years. After the military job he worked on the government railway for 4 years until it closed in 1948. The railway brought in 10 buses and Johnny worked as a mechanic for 6 months. He then went to Hamilton where he got a job driving buses. He had one bad crash where the bus went off a bank and was totaled. Johnny lost all of his teeth in the crash. That was his only accident. He drove buses for 29 years. He retired a the age of 63.

On April 12, 1951 he married his wife Belvina, and they live today in Paget. His hobby is gardening. When asked if there was something that happened that made him stand on the roundabout yelling I love you to everyone, he said; "When you get old, you just know what you have to do." He said that one day his mother sent him on an errand to a neighbors house. When he came home from running the errand, his mother asked him what he talked to the neighbour about and he said; "We didn't speak a word to each other". Johnny told me his mother was very angry, gave him a spanking and said; "I don't ever want to hear that you met someone and didn't talk to them. Speak to everyone, because you never know when you might need them".

He has spent the last 30 years yelling "I love you" to everyone who passes by between 6 and 10 every weekday morning. When I first passed Johnny on his station at the round-a-bout at 6:30 am, he frightened me half to death when he yelled; "I LOVE YOU!", his face only a few feet from mine.
A quote from Johnny is; "Love is contagious. It's the most perfect thing in the whole world"
I asked Johnny if there was anything he wanted our readers to know about him and he said "Tell them I love the Lord".

~ Lori Goodwin

Another sample of Lori's imagery showing winter blossoms in Bermuda. We don't have a clue as to what they are, but they are beautiful. It also shows that even in the colder months the flora of Bermuda is rampant.

Of course the papaya continue to grow all year long. We have several trees growing in our back yard.

As you can see our little beach still looks inviting in November. This picture was taken at sunset. Sunsets don't last all that long here as we are closer to the equator. One minute the colours are more vivid and the shadows long, and the next minute it's dark! Click on the picture to see the same image only taken by me instead of Lori ;)

So that's about all folks! Talk to you again in a month.