Question: What are your favorite places on St. Croix?
Christie’s Answer: There’s a beach on the eastern end of St. Croix near Point Udall called Brown Bay. We call it “Straight 6 Beach” because there is an old straight 6 engine block rusting away in the brush half way down the path! Apparently, you could drive down to the beach many years ago. Now walking down the trail is the only way to the beach. It’s our favorite place to go with the dogs. We usually have that beach all to ourselves.
The St. George Village Botanical Garden is a delight! We love to go there just to walk around admiring plants, shop their garden area, and attend the different events. If you want more information about the garden, their website is https://sgvbg.org/.
Every Saturday we go to the Southgate Corner Farmers Market for local produce and plants. We love talking with the farmers! You can join the Market’s Facebook Group if you want, click here for the link.
Our home is our very favorite place. It’s half-way up a hill on a dead end road. The views are beautiful, it’s quiet and pastoral. We do love being home with our 2 dogs and 2 cats.
Chris’ Answer: St. Croix has moderate temperatures year ‘round. It doesn’t vary much more than 10 degrees from high to low on any given day. Currently, it’s between 72 – 82 degrees. As a holiday present to myself, I bought a weather station. We’ll be adding a weather page to our website in March and we’ll share the details with you next month. At any given time I can check the temperature, rainfall, wind speed and direction. As we watch the cold and snowy weather on TV, we realize that after 18 years in this moderate climate, we would be SO cold in the states! When the temperature dips into the low 70’s, we’re reaching for our light sweatshirts. We don’t even want to talk about what happens when it gets down into the high 60’s! Brrrrr!
International Coastal Cleanup is combining cleanup efforts in the territory with data collection. They use data to support natural resource management and different policies and frameworks. More than 30 volunteers participated in the recent Hull Beach cleanup event (read the VI Daily News article here).
Volunteers including members of the Black in Marine Science group also participated in the Salt Water Bay cleanup in St. Croix. According to the organization’s mission statement, it “aims to celebrate Black marine scientists, spread environmental awareness and inspire the next generation of scientific thought leaders.” According to one of the BIMS volunteers’ tweet, the group “in 50 minutes we collected 55 POUNDS of trash.”
Mark your calendar! The St Croix Orchid Society is having their 50th Annual Orchid Show & Sale from March 25 through 27. The event was previously postponed and we are excited to see it coming back in late March. Christie has been growing orchids (photo above) in our home and she is really looking forward to this event. We went in 2020 and enjoyed it very much, which you can see our video below.
The Orchid Show and Sale will be held at the St. George Botanical Garden in the Great Hall. There will be hundreds of orchids on display, raffles, and orchids for sale. If you would like to join the Orchid Society’s Facebook Group, click here and request to join the private group. For their public page, click here.
Say hello to St. Croix’s newest art gallery! Christa’s Art Gallery in downtown Christiansted features artwork and products from local artist Christa-Ann Davis Molloy that distinctly captures the rich cross-cultural experience of the USVI and beyond. A daughter of the Caribbean, Christa-Ann was born in Trinidad but has lived on St. Croix for almost 30 years. She became interested in art and design from age 11, sketching in pencil. Far from your conventional artist, her pieces are designed to take individuals on a journey rich in history and culture. The gallery acts as a carefully commissioned space where her cultural artwork can be on display for Virgin Islanders and visitors to appreciate and ultimately purchase the pieces that speaks the most to them. “Every piece I paint should tell a story to someone,” said Christa-Ann. “I want my art to create words.”
At Christa’s Art Gallery, you are sure to be spellbound by paintings and sketches highlighting mocko jumbies, quadrille dancers, carnival masqueraders, steelpan drummers, historical buildings, local and Caribbean scenes, and notable events. “I’ve aimed to be a photo-realist painter with main interests in visual art, watercolor, oil, acrylic, and ink in black and white and color.” At Christa’s Art Gallery, one will also find her artwork depicted on items such as mugs, canteens, shower curtains, coasters, umbrellas, throw pillows and bags.
The gallery hosts regular sip and paint events where attendees can create their own artwork. Art kits are also available for purchase to craft one-of-a-kind creations in the comfort of your own home. If nothing in the gallery sparks your interest, customized and commissioned works are available upon request.
Christa’s Art Gallery is located at 57 Company Street in Christiansted. For more information, visit the website at www.christaart.com or call 340.713.9959.
Article written by Anquanette Gaspard (agaspard@cruzanfoodie.com) for Coldwell Banker, St. Croix Realty
