Smelling the Parrots

Every now and then I lose my rhythm. It is so insiduous that it may be days before I realize I'm off kilter. Something in my centre blurs and I have to consciously realign.

Tonight while searching for batchacs with a torch and watering my desert dry garden, I smelled the parrots. They have a distinct fruity smell and when I pick it up on the night air, I know they are nesting in nearby trees.
These photos tonight are from my sister-in-law Joy's garden. I have three sisters-in-law and two of them are excellent gardeners (the third lives a very glam life as a lawyer currently posted in Mumbia).
My post tonight is dedicated to Jackie and Joy who have taught me so much about having a garden.

I am happy that I live in a place that allows me these beautiful moments. Trinidad is no utopia. In fact, it can be a brutal and devastating place and any any random Google of Trinidad will turn up the bad with the good.
But it is also one of the most beautiful places on Earth and those of us born here carry our nationalism in our bones.
I have so much to post on- a recent short course in Greenhouse horticulture, a weeklong course in landscape management and a flamboyant tree that is waiting, waiting, waiting..... to burst into its annual scarlet show- but for tonight- I'm just glad to be back on track and happy to smell the parrots.