One Coconut Tree at Sunset

I normally take photos of this coconut tree at sunrise. I must have taken hundreds of photos of it over the years…against spectacular red skies or pink clouds…or lit by sunlight as the sun comes over the mountains…or in silhouette…sheltering doves or baldpates or on one occasion a very steely-eyed johncrow. But today I photographed the coconut tree, not as the sun was rising, but as it was setting…

This meant that I was standing on my roof with my back to the setting sun……seeing coconuts at various stages of development……some very small ones, just starting out….And all the while, behind me, the sun continued to set…

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A Venerable Mango Tree: On A Sunday

The morning after Gilbert had raked its eye across Jamaica’s spine, blasting through decades of complacency and careless wishes to experience a real hurricane, I went to see how a nearby neighbour was doing. Part of his roof was sitting in our front yard and when I got to his house, I could see that all of the roof had been blown off during the storm. He was all right, he said. He and his sister, both of them quite elderly, had retreated to the only part of the house with a concrete slab roof and his family had called and were on their way to help.

But, he told me, I could expect the next mango season to be a bountiful one. The hurricane would have pruned branches, shaken up the roots and new life would be coursing through the trees that had survived.

And he was right. The massive old Bombay mango tree in our back yard has never borne fruit as abundantly as it did in the post- Gilbert season. Not in the thirty years since Sept 1988. 

It was an old and venerable tree even then. Older and even more venerable now. It has had encounters with subsequent storms that have brushed past since. This year hasn’t been a very good season for the old Bombay tree, in fact. Relatively few in number, with a high incidence of worms in the ripe fruit.

The height of the hurricane season is still to come.

I don’t believe that there have to be storms for there to be good crops, not literally or figuratively. But my Bombay mango tree may be aligned with my old (long deceased) neighbour’s words.

“Nuh Wey Nuh Betta Dan Yard”: Weekly Photo Challenge – Place In The World

“Where do you belong? In the hustle and bustle of a big city or amongst friendly faces in a small town? For this week’s challenge, show us your place in the world….Where’s your safe space? Where do you go when you need to feel inspired or cheered up?”

Yard is where I belong….Jamaica…right here…home.

Looking north…

…south…

…east…

…west…

Weekly Photo Challenge – Place in the World

 

 

Potoo In A Pink Poui: Weekly Photo Challenge – Unlikely

“Maybe you can’t predict it, but you can still take a photo of it.”

I slowed down when we approached the pink poui in bloom. She is a beauty. As we drove past, Elizabeth asked what the big bird in the tree was. “What bird?” I asked. “Or is it a piece of stick?” she said. I reversed the car so we could get a better look. It was a Northern potoo, on its daytime perch. (And just to note that it’s not a patoo or owl, but a potoo.) I will always remember that day as the day we saw the potoo in the pink poui.
Weekly Photo Challenge – Unlikely

Pink Poui Tree: Weekly Photo Challenge – Prolific

“This week, show us your interpretation of prolific.”

It is still poui season and a poui tree in bloom is certainly prolific! Last week I shared photos of a yellow poui tree. This week it is the turn of a pink poui tree. (I declare my bias in favour of yellow poui trees, but I would never say this out loud in the hearing of any poui tree!)

Masses of blossoms on the tree…

…and on the ground….

Beautiful, even when fallen…

Weekly Photo Challenge – Prolific

Felled: Weekly Photo Challenge – Variations on a Theme

“This week, show the same thing — an object, place, or person — presented in several different ways….use your camera to discover the endless variety that one thing can contain.”

Early the following morning, they came into the neighbourhood…

…the team of men with a power saw…

…willing to cut up fallen trees for a fee, to make them easier to dispose of.

The huge Shower of Gold (Cassia fistula) tree had been felled during the hurricane and the men sawed it into pieces, most of which were carted away. But I kept a few pieces of the trunk…

… a reminder of the effects of Hurricane Sandy’s impact on our garden as it hit Jamaica on its path north through the Caribbean. And when you look at the actual stump, you can see in the background the new tree that grew from the fallen one. Nature’s variation on a theme…endings as beginnings….

Felled: Weekly Photo Challenge – Variations on a Theme

If There Are Hills: Weekly Photo Challenge – Serene

“This week, share a visual moment of blissful quiet.”

In the hills, watching the sun go down, a frangipani tree nearby…a moment of blissful quiet….

Weekly Photo Challenge – Serene