All the things that make me happy today

These are the things that make me happy today. It is quite a motley crew and if I had to do an essay linking them all together, I'm not sure it would be possible. But I do have a desperate need right now to find things that feed my soul. Sounds like bad poetry, I know, but I've been running on empty for a little while.

My rostrata are in bloom and they are spectacular today, and the hummingbirds love them.This is my blue ginger which is actually not a ginger at all but a member of the spiderwort family, I believe.
The patterns on a croton are all different and all so beautiful.

The view up into my saman tree. The hanging plants are not parasitic but rather epiphytic and produce a berry that the saffron finches adore. So in addition to having its whole ecosystem of epiphytic orchids, bromeliads and ferns, we also get to enjoy the iguanas, manicous (possums), squirrels and birds. When the saman flowers in April/May, it is swarmed by hummingbirds .Another lovely croton leaf. This one with the dots brings back some dim childhood excitement. Possibly a balloon with a similar pattern. Who knows?


I love this lady from Paramin.
I wish our children would see in her the iconic proportions that they attribute to Brittney Spears and Nicole Ritchie. Grrr.Reds or Senor Rojo who competed in yesterdays Dressage competition. If I could I would, have a horse in my garden.
One of my orchids that has just popped into bloom.
The National flower of Trinidad- it eats a lot of fertilizer so I am very happy to see my Double Chaconia flowering again.

Paramin Seasoning

What is it in the soil of these lush mountains that feeds the crops like nothing else? Could it be that the plants spend their growing days feeling the cool, mountaintop breeze and looking down on some of the most spectacular views that the country has to offer? If plants do in fact feel, these are happy plants and it shows in the plumpness of the chive and the fatness of the cabbages.
It is at table like this that the seasoning bundles are wrapped and prepared. I thought a chive (or sive as we say) was a chive was a chive. Not so. There are many different types. There is the "Big Blue" which is big anf fat and has that blueygreen tinge that you sometimes get on the head of fresh broccolli. When seen on the hillside, they are beautiful. Then there is the"cobra" which is the most common (I believe) and it's the one that most people know. It has a distinctive flavour that is what gives most of our creole seasoning that recognizable smell and taste.
Cobra and Big Blue
This chive process takes place all over this mountain top. In almost every house that you pass there is this quiet sense of industry and good will. This was so refreshing to see because it's good to remind ourselves that Trinidadians are still good people. Yes, there's crime but what we have here is very special.The view looking down through the Maraval hills and into Port of Spain.

Paramin

I spent the morning up in Paramin with my friend Rosie. This is a fairly isolated community up in the hills of Maraval and it is well known for supplying world class produce (i.e. chive, chadon beni, celery, cabbage and tomatoes). The produce grows on steep slopes and thrives. It is a tight knit community where the older folks still speak patois, parang is much celebrated and their blue blue devils are much respected!This is an example of an old chattel house. These are quite rarely seen these days and i still think that they are so pretty.
The view from Paramin hills
The Northern Range running off into the distance.
A really old fashioned house. Check the attic window. This was probably used to dry coffee or cocoa.

First Blooming of the Curcuma and Shampoo Gingers

I did have an earlier post very similar to this, but somehow lost it. How I don't know!!
Here are my new shampoo gingers. I'm so thrilled with them. When you squeeze them gently, they give off a divine smelling, almost soapy liquid.This is a curcuma which has never bloomed before.

We cut my white frangipani this morning as the trees were in a desperate need of a prune. These are the flowers that I got. They make such a show when they are all clumped together. My gardener was saying today that we haven't had the caterpillars that usually decimate these trees. Hmmm. Wonder where they are?
Marigolds are not indigenous to the region but will grow from seed. If I was a purist, I probably would not have them but every now and them I succumb to the temptation of something temporary. These are my plant one night stands!Isn't it cheerful and lovely?

My first sunflower. Years ago when I was in Spain, I remember seeing sunflowers by the acres. Rows upon rows upon rows of these cheerful heads following the sun along its path through the sky. Amazing!
I think we are too damp and humid for them really to thrive here but we do sometimes succeed with seeds.

Pink begonia which is just as deliciously scented as its yellow and white sibling.
Rangoon creeper. It begins this delicate pink and then moves on to a ruddier colour. The beauty of it is that there are different coloured blooms on the vine all at the same time.


My purple bouganvillea that can feel Christmas in the air. The sun has changed directions and many areas of the garden are now receiving light and direct sun for the first time in many months. Diferent parts of my garden will start to bloom now. These subtle signs are as strong for me as fall is in temperate climates.

Welcome Shooby

This is Shooby. Our new Yorkie puppy . He has been an incredible distraction. A bit like having a baby again. We got him to bring some new life into the house. His other function is to move my 10 year old back into her own room and off the floor of our own. The idea is that a puppy will keep her company, etc . etc. Things are still a little slow on that front and tonight is the first night that they all move out .
This is Dante. He has just seen Shooby. Needless to say, his nose is very out of joint

Flowers for Mummy

Life does not accomodate you, it shatters you. It is meant to, and it couldn't do it better. Every seed destroys its container or else there would be no fruition.

Florida Scott-Maxwell
These are some of the flowers that we received over the last few days. They are so exotic to me because most of them are not native to this region. The tiger lilies are beautiful.
Green chrysanthemums

I love white flowers.

Mummy- 28th May 1941-14th September 2007

Mummy lost her battle with breast cancer at 2.00pm on Friday 14th September 2007. She has been battling since November 1995.
This is May this year and she went down really quickly after this. She loved Daddy, Jennifer and I, and all the animals that people our lives. I can't believe that she is gone. Her funeral is tomorrow and I ask everyone who reads this to say a prayer for her.
Mummy with her cousin Uncle Julien Hobson.

How do you sum up a life in minutes? How do you describe all that now lives in us because of her life?

She was so loved. The complete centre of the family. The hub around which we all revolved. It was inconceivable that cancer could take her away from us. She loved us with a ferocity that knew no bounds and could never bear to consider that she would have to leave us.

She has fought so hard over the last 12 years that this may be her defining legacy, But there was so much more to her.

She loved her husband, children, horses, dogs, cats, and gardening. We learnt tolerance and kindness from her and, for all that know our family, a ridiculous love of animals. A steady stream of kittens, puppies, ducks, macaws and budgies to name a few, paraded through our childhood home. Each with its own distinct song. Mummy loved music. In her last days, her ipod was a source of tremendous comfort. While she never sang to us, and I seriously doubt that she sang to Daddy, she did have an endless repertoire of ditties for each animal that could vary from day to day. She read voraciously and while, deeply spiritual, never accepted dogma on face value. She lived her Christianity and was one of the easiest people to talk to, always striking up conversations with the oddest people in the strangest places.

She loved Mayaro, playing Pada with Uncle Jack and Auntie Shirley, walking on the beach, visiting to fire a few, and enjoying Melvina’s cooking. Our parents were highly social and enjoyed nothing more than having people over for drinks and old talk. She loved the excitement of carnival, sewing for Wayne Berkeley and playing with him for years. Her bags were always packed and she adored traveling with Daddy and they became quite the globetrotters in recent years, truly enjoying their empty nest years. We will all feel her in the garden, in the kitchen, in the orchids that have come down from her grandmother.

She taught us to love life and embrace it with grace and compassion. It was a privilege to have her as a mother.

So goodbye for now, Mummy. You are still so alive in each of us but we will miss you every second of every day until we meet again. I wonder who will choose your earrings for you in heaven? Or remind you to wear lipstick? I hope you make lots of friends there and let them know how lucky they are to have you there.

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.