All the Tropical finery

Red Ginger should be a staple in every Caribbean garden. Its bright red bracts actually conceal the tiny white, "real" flower. Ginger also come in pink and white forms and there are several hybrid varities on the market. If you squeeze the flowers gently, they actually do give off a "gingery" smell. Lovely.
The King of Flower and the Queen of Flower trees, who is who? In a gender assumption reversal, the larger tree is listed in most tropical garden books as the Queen of Flower and the smaller, shrubbish crepe (or crape) myrtle is known locally as the King of Flowers. Both belong to the Lythraceae family, sometimes known as "Pride of India" The flowers are actually not very similar apart from colour and certainly the smaller crapemyrtle is much, much smaller than its larger sibling which can reach heights of 60 feet under ideal conditions.
Now while I say this, many people throughout the islands refer to the larger tree as the King and the smaller as the Queen. The Crapemyrtle seldom gets larger that 8-10 feet and is quite manageable in the garden. If anyone can shed some more light on the geneology of these two royals, please put your two cents in.

Here is a new iris. I already have the blue, which is large, blowsy and scented; the yellow which is VERY prolific and looks like a ground orchid and now, the salmon, which is more delicate than the yellow but not as over the top as the blue. If anyone can identify the name of this iris, please help. Thanks :) Edited: Nicole says that she thinks it's a Leopard Lily (Belamcanda chinensis) . Sounds authentic to me. Thanks Nicole.

I'm using my St Kitts photos again. It's not often that we see such a splendid display of Bismarckia nobilis or Bismark Palm. They grow quite slowly and show off their large fan-like bluey-silvery leaves. Leaf colours can vary with the most sought after being a beautiful blue-grey. It does best in full sun and I saw many of them in St Kitts. They tend to be not as common here in Trinidad, I suspect because we have far less bright sunshine.This naturally occurring lily pond popped up on Nevis much to my surprise. We had rounded a corner on the coast road and there it was in a river that fed out to the beach. When I investigated, the terrain was so similar to Mayaro with the same marshy ground under the coconut trees. I'm not sure if it is an ecosystem that develops around the coconut trees or vice versa but it was so like our river and swampland in Manzanilla and Mayaro. There were even loads of crab holes to ensure a running of the crabs at full moon. Even more remarkably, there were very attractive ducks that flew away when we arrived. So much diversity on such a tiny piece of island.
If you're like me, you never tire of the flamboyant or poinciana with its umbrella like shape. Its generous knobbly branches will sometimes reach to the ground waving their delicate feathery leaves. Before flowering, flamboyant will shed almost all leaves and take on quite a despondent appearance before bursting into bloom.

Down the Islands

We spent the day down the islands today with our neighbours Nicky and Brucie. We are so lucky that we have these little islands off the North coast that have beach homes. This is just one of them (and, no, this is not where I was!)

t is a real reminder that we were part of the South American mainland as these little islands dot their way towards Venezeula. Gasparee island is the largest and has impressive caves that have become a great tourist attraction. We have a boat and go down quite often to the family's house but in rainy season, we are sometimes no match for the sandflies.
The last mountain ridge in the background is Venezuela. Very close. Isn't it beautiful?

This is Hayley and I coming home in the boat. We soaked in the sea for ages with all the children and just enjoyed cooling off. Our water is not the blue of the rest of the Caribbean as the Orinocco river feeds into our waters and the tannin from the leaves turns the water browny-greeny. The plus is that our water is so rich with nutrients that the fishing is very good, the negative is, of course, that we don't have the postcard image water that is meant to be the Caribbean sea. The marinas are all full of yachts at the moment because many sailors come South to wait out the hurricane season and a healthy service industry has developed around this phenomenon. The marine workmanship is respected throughout the region and many come to have their boats refitted during the season.

Colours of the Caribbean

I stopped by the side of the road on Friday to take these shots because I think our roadside fruit merchandising is unique to Trinidad. All fruit vendors take pride in displaying their wares.
Okay I must interrupt this blog because it's now 9.34pm on Sunday night and we've just had a pretty strong earthquake. I suppose we'll hear what strength it was tomorrow. It was quite impressive and it reminds me always that here in the Caribbean we live on fault lines and Trinidad was once part of South America (Venezeula is just 7 miles away). Unlike hurricanes, these give no warning. A distant rumbling and the ground begins to shake.
So then, back to the fruit, excitement over! The chennette or guineppe (spelling?) is in the foreground. These little fruit have a sweet, jelly like pulp that clings tenaciously to the round, hard seed in the centre. The fruit is delicious but takes some work to get off the seed. You split the skin with your teeth, pop the seed into your mouth and roll around until you've got it all. The problem with chennette is that it's a favourite of school children and it is the easiest thing to choke on. The hard seed is the perfect size to slip down the back of the throat and lodge in the airway. It was actually banned on the paediatric ward in the hospitals here as parents used to bring to the bedridden children as a treat and this was the last thing that the poor overworked doctors and nurses needed. So no more chennette. Surprisingly, it stains quite badly. I love it and eat lots of it because as we say in Trinidad, it's very more-ish!
Once again I'm mixing up my posts, these shots are from St Kitts. I think windows and doors are some of the most interesting architectural details of Caribbean buildings. There are the ubiquitous demerara (will have to check that spelling!) windows, the recessed windows of the cut stone Georgian houses, shuttered windows and the louvred doors that are found throughout the area. Some of the most beautiful buildings that I have seen were in Guyana. Wear and tear and the fact that many of the structures built in the 1800s were wooden meant that many have been lost to fire and weather. Luckily in many of the smaller islands, the Georgian style stone houses have been well preserved and give an excellent idea of the architecture of the era.
Just another lovely product of the soil. This is the calabaza or West Indian pumpkin. It forms the basis of most of our soups. And it's usually one of the first thing that we feed to our babies once they start taking solid food. It's so versatile that it can fit into almost every meal. I grew lots of it last year on an empty plot of land behind my house and we had quite a bumper crop. But I want to try something new this year, I just haven't decided what yet. Maybe peas? Or sorrel for Christmas?

Flowers everywhere

Heliconias at the Horticultural Society's Flower Market. These are just one of the varieties available.Rows of anthuriums are a welcome sight as they had become very scarce during dry season. We get lots of different colours now and they run from salmons and pinks to scarlets and whites. When I was a child, the only anthuriums available were the local pink ones and I still get nostalgic when I see them. My grandmother grew anthuriums in a shaded arbour and I always remember the thrill of going into the darkened nursery with the coconut husks on the ground. There was always the risk of seeing something dangerous like a snake or a scorpion and this memory of fear/excitement has stayed with me.


The heart of the Queen of Flowers. A delicate, exquisite centre.These lovely trees are in full bloom now and they come in both pink and mauve. Native to India and Asia, these stately trees can now be found throughout South and Central America and the Caribbean and belong to the botanical family Lythraceae. They have done particularly well in Jamaica and Trinidad because of the high rainfall and humidity of these islands. According to my "Flowering Trees of the Caribbean"- The six-petalled corolla is between two and three inches in diameter, blooming somewhat larger than crape myrtle...

Day of the Pigs (and goats and cows)

We are walking down to a secluded beach on the southern peninsula of St Kitts. It was HOT! Hot sun and HOT sand, absolutely stunning. Driving back through the peninsula we came upon herds of cows and goats all sheltering under the shrubby trees from the sun. Of course, we stopped and realized that their water coppers and troughs were empty.

He looks remarkably calm for a goat stuck in a copper. We had to help him out and then give everyone some water.


Here is Hans moonlighting as the waterman while conducting his island tour. We were a bit concerned as it's not often that we deal with swarming livestock.
All is well and the day is saved.

We stopped at Turtle Bar to have lunch and to visit a celebrity who did not even open his eyes when Frannie gingerly sat on him. Apparently Wilbur does move around and may on occasion be seen cavorting on the beach (all 500plus lbs of him). Clearly he had had his daily exercise by time we got there. Turtle Bar looks across the bay at Nevis . The atmosphere is casual and comfortable with excellent food.
Wilbur's birth certificateJust another day in paradise. Jump off the jetty, splash and yell, swim to shore and do all over again. Repeat 20 times. Eat lunch. Start all over.
This is what holidays are all about.

Speaking of cavorting animals, these twins had their mother giddy.I'm cheating here as this was another day and place. We were having tea at Montpelier in Nevis and this little bird was so persistent that we had to put some sugar out for him. I don't recognize him as one from Trinidad. He looks almost semp like. Can anyone identify him?

Reminder that it is Hurricane season

No, this is not a current satellite picture. This is Ivan from September 2005. This is him as a baby and we all know what a monster he turned out to be. Trinidad and Tobago were spared but it was a close call and Grenada was the first island to be decimated by this powerful storm. Let's hope we don't see an image like this in 2007. Just to give an idea, Trinidad is located at 10degrees North . It is really unusual for a hurricane to form this South and be this organized.

All over St Kitts

This dried leaf is not simply ornamental. In the good old days, the silvery underside was a warning to native Amerindians that bad weather was approaching. With winds picking up, the tall forest tree could be spotted from the villages below and with each gust, the leaves would bend back to expose their shining underbellies. Once off the tree, the green surface of the leaf dries into a brittle brown but the silver colour remains a striking contrast to the veins of the leaf. Imagine, one of nature's earliest weathervanes.
Nevis as spotted from Basseterre on a sunny morning.

When was the last time you went to a party and there wasn't an ipod in sight?Shiggedy Shak is one of the hippest spots on the island. When I arrived from Trinidad, huffing and puffing from our bustling pace of life, I was gasping for a cold beer and some good food. There are not many places left in the world that you can sit out under the stars (and a fat full moon that night), drink a cold beer and have lobster straight off the barbie. On Saturday night the place is a mix of students (from the Ross Veterinary school), locals of all ages and just about any one who happens to be passing by. Thursday and Saturday are Karaoke nights and once dinner has been cleared, the crooners flock to the mike.
The Caribbean is a small place. The connections are really amazing. My Kittitian friend Shoba; an ex-colleague that I never see in Trinidad and an old friend of my father's, were just a few of the people that I saw that night.

Shiggedy Shak is owned and operated by Sylvester Phipps aka Mr. X. Its success is a real tribute to his entrepreneurial skills as Shiggedy began as an ice cream trailer and water sport centre. It has grown to be one of the more popular watering holes on the island and offers ribs, chicken, fish, lobster, burgers and shrimp. Mr X also runs a taxi service between Nevis and St Kitts with a small fleet of red and black speed boats that offer an excellent option to the ferry service. With fireworks to celebrate 4th of July, word soon spread around the island that this was the place to be!

No one can resist the universal appeal of a bonfire on the beach and fireworks.
I'm back home and working on getting into some sense of routine. I feel as if I have just touched the tip of the iceberg with St Kitts. I could have stayed for at least another week and found something to do every day. And I didn't even swim. No time, can you believe?

The Graveyard Shift

This is the flower of the Baobab tree which is located in the main square in Basseterre. The Boabob has an incredibly rich history and I think it's easier to provide the Wikipedia link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baobab. I have never seen the Baobab flower and the blooming production is really quite something. There are green fruit-like looking pods; beautiful, very large white flowers that begin white before ageing to cream then brown and finally fall on the ground in a beautiful dried formation. I was lucky to see a truly spectacular baobab on neighbouring Nevis. That was a very interesting day so I will tallk about that in another post.
My friend Frances and I visited this historic Anglican church in Basseterre on afternoon and spent a lot of time just browsing through the tombstones. This was on my second day and I think that it was only about this time that the true historic significance of St Kitts really began to sink in. The headstones go back to the early 1800s and even an occasional late 1700s and many carry interesting tales. Unfortunately the chruch was closed so we could not get in but the thickly cut walls are still standing strong and proud.

I would want to spend eternity under such beauty.
Frannnie has to get the prize for being the most agile pregnant Mama. Here she is after our tombstone jaunt, climbing the fence after we realized that the gates had been locked for the night and we were, GASP, locked in the churchyard. Spooky. Not a problem for Frannie. I have to save this picture to show the baby what prenatal antics his mother had him up to!