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Jan 5Liked by Diana McCaulay

Those are many of the reasons I chose to live near Highgate when planning my return to Jamaica. I am very happy and trying my best to maintain a tiny footprint. Could never live in Kingston again although I gre up in Constant Spring

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Jan 6Liked by Diana McCaulay

Haha. Well it was a really good party.

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I have many fond memories of that house. Your 60th birthday party or was it 50? The mangoes were next level.

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author

50. I had run out of steam for parties by 60.. 🙂

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We live in a not very graceful example of colonial architecture. It was built some time in the 1950s, pre-Independence anyway. We have tried to compensate for the townhouses sprouting up around us by creating a semi-wild garden, and allowing our guango tree (probably the only one for miles around) to grow to magnificence. However, I take your point: there is very little to go round, and the townhouses and apartments springing up are mostly sad little replicas taken from the pages of a magazine. I am not sure that we can return towards what Monbiot describes, quite honestly. All we can do is curate and cultivate our little wild patch.

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That's the challenge, I think. We all seek private luxury and if we already have it, we don't want to give it up. Much as we are a social species, we're also full of 'me and my tribe' impulses. I fear for our lifeboat..

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Absolutely. Our lifeboat is in bad shape.

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