I tend to be a bit uncoordinated with my text and photos so for everyone who logs on to find no words, check a little later. I've usually gone to bed and left the photos uploading :)
This the family's home "down the islands" and we try to go at least once every six weeks. It's lovely down there and in August the magnificent Savonetta trees are covered with lilac blooms. These trees obviously thrive on these little islands because they are endemic and spread easily all over the main off-shore islands of Gasparee and Monos. They are quite rarely seen on the mainland.
I love this photo of the morning sun hitting the eaves of the house. My mother-in-law Christine has an amazing eye for colour and the reds and greens of the house are perfect for the lush background.
The hammocks provide lots of entertainment for the under 10s in the bunch, and as a result, the grown ups have to stake their claim early.The detail of this crab shell is amazing, There was no living breathing crab behind those glassy eyes. I'm not sure if they outgrow their shells but I imagine they must because there was no one home.
Morning in the bay and all is well in the world.
This vine is very prolific (VERY). It sends off silver curling shoots in addition to this lovely flower. I think it may be related to the morning glory family but I'm not sure. I did have it in my garden but could not control it. Since it clearly did not respect who the alpha was in the relationship, it had to go. But I love to visit when I meet it somewhere else.
Sun vandas. They don't grow down there but they could. This is just a bunch I took down to decorate our table.

This is the house in the next bay. And no, not all "down the islands" homes look like this one. Isn't it remarkable? The landscape behind gives a fair idea of the topography of the land with its obvious jungle appearance. It is not actually as dense as it appears but we have had a lot of rain recently. Snakes are not as much of a problem as you would expect here. There are some boa constrictors but I have never heard of the mappepire or fer de lance being found on these islands. Giant, monster, nightmarish, big centipedes yes! Vampire bats-yes. And the very worst- sandflies-YES, YES.