The angle of the sun is changing and moving. The air is a bit more chilly in the morning and the colour of the sky has drifted to a deeper blue. All of these signal the arrival of Christmas and after that, the dry season. 
Things are generally easier to grow when the humidity is not running in the high 90s. Below is a shot of my basil which is doing very well and has not be chewed to bits like my mint. I grow both spearmint and peppermint but I find mint to be very intolerant of any hint of fungus. I am even trying a small strawberry plant but I suspect we may not be cool enough for it to fruit.
My pink alocasias are still going strong and like many of my begonias I have found that growing them in a basket with a very light mixture of promix and manure has been the secret to keeping them alive in my damp garden.
A close up of "wild tobacco" and the flower. The foliage of this plant is an attractive dark brown.
My miniature pink banana is about to produce a small hand.
The zinnias are still bringing tons of butterflies into the garden but I think it is an island-wide phenomenon as there are butterflies everywhere. My daughter says that they have been flying in and out of the classrooms at school. Which makes me happy because I think that this little daily detail is going to be a precious memory for her later in life.
My vandas are coming back in now and (I don't even want the batchacs to hear me typing this) so far they remain uneaten.
This lovely yellow spotted vanda is just beginning to show some wear and tear.
Late blooms of the flamboyant.....I thought that the tree had packed up for the year but we got a burst of flowers earlier in the week. I have a bumper crop of hibiscus blooms that are about to pop open. But lots of things can happen overnight so I hope that the precious buds don't prove irresistible to the many wandering, nocturnal, hibiscus-bud predators that I never see but who can decimate an entire bush overnight.
Which is both a good and a bad thing because it does not always look as spry in the cold light of day. And since I stopped spraying with insecticides...well let's just say I'm losing the battle with the wilderbeasts. Sometimes after a long season of rain, I can only see the bare spots where I've lost my grass, or the acalypha that have been ravaged by the batchacs. And after weeks of torrential rain, I was on the verge of handing out snorkels and flippers when the Garden Club of Trinidad arrived to visit yesterday morning.
It is always a pleasure to host this club because they are a group of very good gardeners; stalwarts such as Sandy Gibson with his remarkable orchid knowledge;
Peter Moll from San Antonio Farms
and his wife Chancy, who is a very able president amd who makes presenting look like a walk in the park.
You can ask questions about particular problems that you may be having with a difficult plant.
Yes, it did rain but we had brilliant (scorching) sun in the morning before the heavens opened. The showbench theme of the month was pink and people came with their beautiful euphorbias..
.
bromeliads...
heliconias...
and foliage.
And it was lovely to see Joanne de Gannes out looking so lovely. She is one of the most talented landscapers in Trinidad and Tobago and to see her put a garden together is a privilege. She has been ill and I know what an effort it was to make out to the meeting. 
Just one of those fortuitous moments. The Garden Club of Trinidad visited my garden yesterday and I was suitably humbled in the face of some seriously knowledgeable gardeners. The show bench theme was anything pink. But Sandy Gibson, 
one of Trinidad and Tobago's leading orchid experts, arrived with a spray from the Holy Ghost Orchid. Which was not pink but is so beautiful and rare that it trumped all other entrants. The Holy Ghost Orchid or the Dove Orchid as it is sometimes known, is the national flower of Panama. 
And after being passed around, the general consensus was that the smell is distinctly pomerac-like with a delicate rose-tinged perfume.
The distance makes them seem almost pretty and it is possible to romanticise the slash of flame on the horizon. 
The church had fallen into disrepair and many of its original stained-glass panes depicting biblical scenes were in danger of being lost forever. Elton Rostant, Karen de Verteuil, George de Verteuil, Monica Clement, Simone Taylor, Yvonne Rostant, Clares Batholomew, Franklyn Lee Sam, and Joseph Rostant were the dedicated committee members that worked tirelessly to bring this church built by French priest and architect Fr Marie Jules Dupoux back to its former glory. The end result is something of remarkable beauty.
The restoration of the stained-glass panes was begun in 1991. Mike Watson, the talented craftsman who discovered their existence in 1985, began the meticulous process of restoration in an attempt to preserve the panes before they sucuumbed to further damage. The windows originally came from renowned atelier Henri-Louis Victor Gesta.
The overall effect is beautiful. The beautifully rendered images delivered in French reminds of the strong French Creole influence of the French cocoa planters of the 19th century.
