We used to be able to go to the park and look at flowers and butterflies. Simpler times. They will come back one day.

Food and travel blogger Mark Wiens was recently in Jamaica, and has documented a trip to Port Antonio in Portland. I wonder when this was shot, as social distancing appears to be absent…I wonder when we will be able to travel for recreation again…

Apparently someone fed or tried to feed a dog to a crocodile in a drainage pond outside of Kingston. If true, this is horrific and barbaric. The US Ambassador is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the capture of the alleged perpetrators.

Last night, as Prime Minister Andrew Holness was addressing the nation via digital press conference, I was watching it on Zoom. I was waiting patiently online to ask a question, having figured out how to “raise my hand” digitally. I’m researching something for a story I’m working on, and was at the end of the queue, but was up next to ask my question. Then, the power went out. Apparently, it was a widespread outage. It lasted about two-and-a-half hours for us, less and more for others. Very bad timing. But is it ever good timing?

We also had no water. No power and no water for thousands of residents during a pandemic. Not good. But we go on. We are now under a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m curfew for two weeks, with all call centers shut down for two weeks. St. Catherine remains under a more strict curfew.

My contribution to a piece for Reuters on the devastated tourism industry.

Day whatever of quarantine. Playing in the rocks and sand.

Something lovely instead of another piece of bad news.

Pictures of an empty road would normally be boring. After all, why note when nothing is happening? But of course, this is an extraordinary time. We were on curfew all weekend, meaning we had to be off the streets by 3p.m. So it was silent. So very quiet. So very strange. I took the kids out on the road to look at the lack of activity and take some pictures. This street is normally packed with cars and pedestrians. It seems to be back to normal today, although there is still a 9pm. curfew.

We choose to wear pajamas for the day because we don’t go out, and we draw on the ground with chalk. Happy days for children.

To the surprise of many, dancehall artist Vybz Kartel lost his appeal of his murder conviction. I wrote about it for Reuters.