Ripley in the Forest

Believe it or not?!
This is stranger than fiction. The leaves of the incense tree are little mini-incubators for insects that set up residence for their eggs in the intra-cellullar spaces of the leaves. This is the beginning of the neighbourhood. Paradoxically, if the leaf senses that the area is becoming too crowded and presumably its own resources may be compromised, it creates "fake" homes. Basically saying to the expectant mamas- no room at the inn.



This is a crowded neighbourhood about to pop.
Most of these have moved on and left their home and the leaf high and dry. There is a particular butterfly that does this and the plant allows it because a symbiotic relationship is set up between insect and plant as the butterfly returns to the plant to pollinate the flowers. I only know this because Courtenay, my very knowledgeable guide, filled me in on this info.


This particular plant is the incense tree and it produces a red berry that smells divine and is a very potent insect repellent.

You could not dream up the things that go on in the rain forest. I was never very good at physics but somehow I have a dim sense of mathematical perfection in these minor miracles.
A member of the bactris palm family. This is one scary palm.Tiny white mushrooms deep in the forest. Each serrated edge more perfect than the other.
Courtenay has a great blog. He's well worth visiting- http://pariasprings.typepad.com/
Thanks Courtenay. My bites have finally disappeared so I'm ready for my next forest foray.

Maracas Drive Food

Have we taken street food to another level? It seems that the world is just beginning to discover Trinidadian food. I say this because for a long, long time, most Caribbean food was lumped under one banner. Trinidad's cuisine is different to any other island. In fact, each island is entirely unique. Certainly there may be general culinary adages such as rice and peas but for the most part, each island has very different cuisine.On the way to Maracas beach, the street vendors have taken street snacks to a new level. Pineapple and mango chow with heavy doses of chadon beni, fudge and salt prunes are just some of a few of the things that you can snack on while driving along the winding coastal road.
For all of us who grew up in the seventies, our school yard diet was a steady stream of red mango ( bright red pickled mango that had a chinese origin) and salt prunes which we would store in the pockets of our convent skirts and suck surreptitiously through the sticky, humid after lunch periods. We also lived for sno cones, aloo pies and tamarind balls.
Dixie biscuits and crix have always been in our lives. I don't know who the first baker was who miraculously stumbled upon the first crix recipe. I hope it was a Eureka moment. Little did he know the role that this little biscuit would play on the national stage.


My daughter has only just learned the joy of chow. Mango chow, cucumber chow, pineapple chow. If it grows on a tree, chances are that it can only be improved with a little lime, salt, garlic, chadon beni and pepper. I still love the bite and peel delicacies that appear throughout the year. Topi Tambo (or Tippi Tambo if you are from South) with its crunchy water chestnut/potato texture, Chataigne, the delicious bread nut, Peewah with its bright orange skin and nutty kernel are just some of my favorite things. I am never happier than when I am reading on the couch on a Saturday afternoon with a big bowl of anything that I can peel and eat.
A true farine and avacodo kind of girl.

The Incredible Beauty of Flowers

My wild orchid is a magnet to the bees. I imagine that they must all know the signs. Maybe a delicious whiff of pheromone on the breeze.

The information below is courtesy http://www.ttorchids.net/index.php
This is the Trinidad and Tobago Orchid Society's Data base. It is well worth visiting as they have excellent examples of species orchids that grow in our rain forests. The two below are both wild and indigenous to Trinidad.



Catasetum macrocarpum (Male Flower) Colour of sepals and petals vary from concolour green to green with wine red spotting. Lip colour varies from concolor green to bright yellow on external surface and red on internal surface.Flowers have a unique pollination mechanism. When the pollinator - usually a euglossine bee - lands on the lip a trigger mechanism on the column shoots pollen onto the back of the insect. This one has popped up on my frangipani tree.



Oncidium luridum is commonly known as Brown Bee. Colour varies from clearpale green or yellow to olive green with brown spotting, crest of lip usually has a rose purple splash. Natural spread varies from 1 to 2 cms. The flowers are appear on a long stem (5ft) that hangs down through the trees. Each spray can contain up to 100 flowers. This one is on my mango tree.





My "sexy pink". It flowers all year round unlike the orange which is seasonal. Its whole important name is heliconia chartacea from the family heliconiaceae


A close up of Pontederia cordata commonly known as pickerelweed. It is relatively new to Trinidad as far as I know. I thought it was quite exotic and considered myself quite the collector to have it; until I discovered that it is classified as a weed in the USA. What a beautiful weed!

Big blowsy beautiful cattleya. Horticultural Hussies.
Everything about them just screams overdo. But you can't help being very, very impressed with nature's coquettish behaviour.

Why I love this country

These photos are from my friend Carol Stone.
If I ever did have to leave, these are the things that would break my heart. The drive to Mayaro with its unique sound and smell. The corner that rounds from the Sangre Grande old road to Manzanilla always signified summer holidays. The sound of the wind in the coconuts and the ocean breeze meant that we were nearly there. We could see the sea!
I have seen this peaceful scene in many guises.
It is where the swamplands meet the Atlantic sea and it can be idyllic or horribly violent depending on the tides. On the opposite of this scene are the brackish mangroves and this is the only place that I have ever seen an anaconda in the wild. Supple and powerful, wrapped up in the roots of dense undergrowth, we were past it in a flash. A horrified glimpse from the backseat of a car.



This is Mayaro beach. It is quite simply beautiful. Not in the Maracas, north coast beach type of way but in the walk for miles and stare out to the horizon and imagine nothing between you and this sea until Africa way. As children every piece of detritus that was washed up, we imagined coming straight from an exotic ship wreck. It was also the beach that turned deadly beautiful at Easter time with the scores of Portuguese man-o-war that floated onto the beach trailing their lethally beautiful purple tendrils, irresistible to legions of daredevils, popping them with coconuts while running from the searing stray splash.




Sunset at Crown Point in Tobago

My Wish List

These are some more photos from Joanne de Gannes' garden. This water feature is set among the bromeliads and ferns and is very rustic looking which suits the mood of the whole area. This has given me lots of ideas because there is so much shade in my garden, I sometimes despair for colour. Especially in the rainy season.This unusual shrub around the large bromeliad is called excorcaria. I finally bit the bullet and bought some of it today. It is an excellent foliage addition as it provides bursts of colour with its red underside and variegated top.
It is paired very effectively with an unusual red and yellow curly croton and the variegated bromeliad.

Ixora is so common, it's easy to take them for granted. This is one that I had not seen before and the flower is big, round and bi-coloured.
A new canna lily colour.
Well, new to Trinidad. I am so tempted but the last time I tried with Cannas they all died. Hmmm.
This one I do have but it hasn't bloomed yet. The stem/stalk of this ginger (I think it's a ginger) is striped and looks a bit like bamboo. It is an excellent foliage plant even when there are no flowers.

The garden of a landscaper

Joanne de Gannes is a well respected and successful landscaper. She has an impeccable eye for detail and an ability to turn her hand at anything. I was fortunate enough to be able to take these pictures in her garden. These topiaries give an Italian feel to this back yard. Despite the fact that there is no grass, the area is green and lush.
Contrasting shapes, textures and shades of green are particularly effective with this tightly clipped miniature duranta hedge.
In this magical bromeliad walkway, filtered light is turned into an advantage by creating a "forest" walkway of princess palms that tower over the bromeliads and ferns below. Clever placement of coral stone gives the bromeliads something to grow onto and provides different heights for varying perspectives. An unusual ground cover of "baby tears" gives a grass like effect with a more textured finish. This area was also home to several varieties of ferns, calatheas and philodendrons.
A sunken copper is the perfect accent piece for this backyard area and leads into the trellissed walkway. Ceramic geese help complete this picture and are a delightful folly.
Variegated miniature orange. Both the fruit and the foliage of this plant are beautiful and carry the mediterranean theme.

The complicated world of plants

The seeds of the heliconia are what ensures life. These brightly coloured pods that emerge from the flower bracts are irresistible to tanagers and hummingbirds. All heliconias have some sort of pod often in different colours depending on the type of heliconia. Usually they are a contrasting colour to the flower bract. My sexy orange bracts give forth an indigo seed. Like the bromeliads, the bracts often serve as breeding spots for mosquito colonies and it is a good idea to check for larvae every now and then.
I thought that this plant was a philodendron. However, on researching it, I'm pretty sure that it belongs to the genus Monstera (Monstera Deliciosa) which was, for a long time, considered part of the philodendron family. It is commonly known as "swiss cheese plant" . This is the first year that I have seen it produce this inflorescence. I'm not sure if this will develop into a leaf or a fruit. The leaves of the Monstera plant after an evening shower.
The lavender blooms of this lime green coleus are so beautiful that I can't beat to pinch them off. With coleus, I've always been told to remove the flowers to allow for longer life of the plant. Usually I do but with butterflies everywhere at this time of year, I can't bear to remove flowers from anything.

War in the Garden

This is my enemy. Mr Bachac.


Now that I know that the worker ant has big powerful jaws.

My poor vandas never stood a chance.