If you want to get over a case of the winter blues, settle down with your favourite libation and break open Tropical Homes of the Eastern Caribbean by a former Ottawa writer and her photographer husband.

You'll find instant, sunny gratification in the 304 pages of lush photographs, including that of a fishing boat caught in the glow of a setting sun, shimmering water and the big and little living spaces of 31 homes from the Barbados to Grenada and St. Lucia.

There is no need to brave security at the airport or the expense of a hotel to savour the magic of homes set down in the Caribbean.

Derek Galon spent three months taking more than 20,000 pictures while his partner, Margaret Gajek, a researcher and trained architectural buff, captured the stories and memories of people living in the mountains or on a slip of sand by the Caribbean.

"People are asking for the stories because it's people who make the architecture. We wanted to present the homes through their eyes -- the people who built the house or are keeping the dreams alive," says Gajek, who says she wrote enough words to fill 800 pages. "That was too big and we cut it back because we wanted the words and pictures to work together."

The couple, who lived in Ottawa 12 years ago before escaping the long winters for the forests of Victoria, invested $25,000 to set up Ozone Books (www.ozonebooks.com) and publish the coffee-table book.

"We wanted to handle it all," says Gajek, who admits the work was intense, including research, lining up the 31 homes, four visits to the Caribbean when they would rise at 5 a.m., work through the day, return to their hotel to work further, and go to bed at 1 a.m. Day after day.

They would rise early because "the light is best early in the morning and at sunset, so we would work hard because the photography is a large part of the project."

The words and stories are entertaining, but the photographs are especially arresting, the colours intense, from the baleful stare of the endangered St. Vincent parrot Galon saw during a visit to the Nicholas Wildlife Aviary Complex at the St. Vincent Botanical Gardens to the gingerbread fretwork that decorates hundreds of homes in the Caribbean. We learn from Gajek that decorative wooden trim began to be fashionable in Caribbean architecture in the late 19th century. It's used to emphasize windows, doors, eaves, verandas and banisters.

"Over the years, what started as a utilitarian function of providing shade from the sun and of increasing air circulation in the house, gradually developed to become a way of artistic expression for skillful local craftsmen," she writes.

The homes range from Clemie Hendry's small wooden house that sits on stilts on Grenada's east coast in the fishing village of Marquis to splendid mansions built by Europeans. Hendry, who was born in the village, leans out of her window, into the lens of Galon's camera. You can almost taste the salty Atlantic Ocean.

Gajek's favourite among the 31 is the St. Lucia home of Lane Pettigrew, a Caribbean architect who has hundreds of clients from Miami to Honduras.

"Beausejour House is my favourite because the spaces flow from inside to outside. It is fluid," says Gajek, who has studied art history and worked as a researcher, cataloguing heritage architectural treasures before moving from her native Poland to Canada more than two decades ago.

A narrow path winds through dense thicket of tall ginger lilies, finally exposing Pettigrew's home which draws on ethnic architecture from many cultures, she writes.

"We love the mix, the blending in the Pettigrew house and the blending of architectural styles in the area," says Gajek during an interview from her Victoria home. "Also, nothing had been specifically written about Caribbean architecture."

Writer and photographer are already hard at work on a second book, Exotic Gardens of the Eastern Caribbean, likely available later this year.

Tropical Homes of the Eastern Caribbean, $48.95, is available at local book stores. The price is far cheaper than airfare, but then again, the plush pictures may well ignite your own trip of discovery to islands, leaving Ottawa and winter far behind.

Sheila Brady is the Citizen's Homes Editor. You can reach her at sbrady@thecitizen.canwest.com .