Finding the Onion

Our good readers may know that Mel has been on a quest to find out what happened to Bermuda’s onion. Well, mission accomplished!  All it took was a trip to Hamilton to deliver $108 of cookies to her kids.

These homemade chocolate-chip cookies are baked by Greg and traditionally sent to the kids during their finals.  Not wanting the kids to miss out due to our, er, irregular lifestyle these days, Greg whipped up a big batch and sent Mel into Hamilton, a 30-minute, pleasant bus ride down the road, to ship them out via DHL.

“What is the worth of the items in the package?” the nice DHL lady asked.

“$1,” said Mel.

“Okay. Ship to the US? That will be $90 please…plus $1 In tariffs and $17 in processing fees.”

Oh my. To comfort herself, Mel walked around Hamilton, finding herself in the lovely Bermuda National Gallery. There she was surprised to find that, instead of thinking about onions when one considers Bermuda, one should think about…The Muppets. It turns out that a key Muppet designer and creative director, Michael K. Frith, was a Bermudian.  In addition to the Muppets and all of their manifestations, he also worked with Dr. Seuss and co-created Fraggle Rock, which was inspired by the caves we visited and are pictured below. 

It was while viewing some of Michael Frith’s artwork that Mel found her first onion!

Alas, after talking to tour guides and baristas, it appears that the onion is no longer a Bermudan staple. Another tragedy is that Mel was unable to find a local who would render her the compliment, “She’s an onion!”, try as she might.  She did learn that if they were willing to stick around until New Years Eve, she could witness a nod to the onion in St. George’s.  Unfortunately, the Burnetts will not be able to witness The Onion Drop this year.

Why? We are prepping the boat to sail! Fiberglassing and rigging projects are done!  On Tuesday, we head to Saint Martin.  Forget onions, Jerry wants baguettes!