Hawk Squawk

If you'd like a treat, check out my daughter's blog: Following Spirit to track the story of Mort the Hawk whom she and her family fostered after he fell out of his nest. He fledged this week and looks handsome with all his feathers. She posted videos as well as photos from his downy chick stage to now. She lives in Trinidad's rainforest and gets involved in some interesting adventures, including this latest one. Your kids or grandkids will like this series since my two grands, ages 10 and 7, are part of the story. Enjoy.

Leaving Trinidad

Some photos as I end up my visit to Trinidad that I haven't yet shared but are fabulous favorites.

Newly hatched Little Hermit hummingbird (about the size of a raisin):

Taken on a hike:

Poinsettias growing wildly at a neighbors house.

A final portrait with the grands from a dinner by the sea:

Sunset photo with my daughter:

Giving river rock tattoos:

Water vine drink on my birthday hike to a waterfall I had never seen:

Cacao pods of various varieties:

Goodbye Trinidad and Tobago.

I'm in Florida for 10 days now to visit family and attend the wedding of my niece.

Sunset Roost

Sunset Roost

mud ooze
holds mangrove trees,
herons soar, great egrets,
at dusk returning flocks of red-
scarlet ibis



This is inspired by Marian over at Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads who taught us about Cinquains on the weekend and is offered today for Open Link Monday. I visited the Caroni Swamp in Trinidad yesterday to see this remarkable sight.

After Friday 55

Is it too late for Friday flash 55?
Phantasmagoric happenings
kept me from yesterday altogether.
It's carnival in Trinidad next week
and steel pan competition finals
now; swarms of people, loud music,
exotic costumes, dizzying dances, bacchanal
unimaginable to one from cooler climes.
Glitz and glitter, glam and clamor,
calypso, soca, frenetic,
jump up madness.

Besides a day late Friday Flash 55, this is in response to Laurie's prompt word: phantasmagoric over at Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads. The photo is my granddaughter and her best friend in sparkly outfits.

In Praise of Research and Researchers

See those tic tac sized eggs in the incubator? They're Little Hermit Hummingbird eggs and the first photo is one of them candled; the slight red patch is the three day old heart of this soon-to-be hummingbird which I saw beating. The next photo shows the scale to weigh them and the data on the two latest eggs. Two "dummy" eggs replace them in the thimble sized nest so the mother continues to sit on them. Once hatched in 16 days, they will be placed back in the nest and mother will feed them insects and nectar multiple times a day to grow them from a shriveled raisin sized hatchling to a full sized hummingbird in 17 days. It must be fast because they're so vulnerable to predation in their nest close to the ground and attached to the back of a fern frond. They're in the incubator to begin with because they're even more vulnerable as eggs and because Julian, the researcher who lives in a house on my daughters property for four months a year, will swab the inside of the hatched egg for DNA for his research.

This is Julian's seventh year studying these tiny hummingbirds in the rain forest of Trinidad, recording their mating songs and dances, collecting data about these little known and shy birds by watching them, banding them and trying to trace paternity. The Little Hermits live in leks, one lek for their life, and males display for the females by dancing and singing their hearts out in an effort to be chosen by a female for mating. Each lek has its own song and, if a male moves to another lek for some reason, he learns the song of the new lek. Imagine. No one knew this before. As for what more this research will teach us about these hummingbirds, birds in general or the world around us remains to be seen but already it has increased the sense of awe in those who talk to Julian, including me and my grandson pictured below helping make the bands for the hummingbirds. Perhaps it's enough.

Won't You Celebrate With Me - Lucile Clifton

won't you celebrate with me

BY LUCILLE CLIFTON

won't you celebrate with me

what i have shaped into

a kind of life? i had no model.

born in babylon

both nonwhite and woman

what did i see to be except myself?

i made it up

here on this bridge between

starshine and clay,

my one hand holding tight

my other hand; come celebrate

with me that everyday

something has tried to kill me

and has failed.

I offer this wonderful poem by Lucile Clifton on my birthday and invite you to celebrate with me. With obvious differences we, nonetheless, also make up our life here between starshine and clay. We are shaping a kind of life with no model as the largest cohort of women elders yet. I was born in the first month of the first year of the baby boomers and we'll be a force to be reckoned with if we choose. Let's choose well and wisely. I'm excited about this prospect of building with you an elder culture; how fortunate we are. I'm grateful for life. 

Three Boys at a Beach

Earth shines their image
caught by water, sand and sun,

holds it just a moment
before they move on,

as they must, striding
into their lives, full

of themselves, their families,
their friendships, yet

oblivious to all that too,
aware of just this moment,

the feel of wet sand, the sound
of waves breaking,

a friend's voice.


This is offered for Open Link Monday at Imaginary Garden With Real Toads. The photo is mine of my grandson and his two friends in Trinidad.

Happy Sixth Birthday

My granddaughter just turned six which got me searching through the photos of our recent time together. They illustrate diverse aspects of her personality and the reasons I'm so utterly in love with her.

Six of my favorite things about this lovely, dear child:

1. She confidently walks her own path in her own way. She reminds me of her mother in that way which makes my heart happy.

2. She's always up for grand adventures.

3. She likes going to the beach, likes to run and likes to swim after diving wholeheartedly into whatever water is available. It's how she lives her life, too, come to think about it.

4. She likes to play with dolls (and wear aprons and make a pretty tote bag) and lets me play with her.

5. She likes art- drawing, using pencil crayons and painting with vibrant colors. Her creativity extends to  clothes designing and we have such fun doing this together. My mother, her great grandmother, loved clothes and fabric, designed and made clothes for me throughout my childhood, and had a keen eye for color and design. It brings me great pleasure to see this sense burgeoning in my granddaughter.

6. She picked my birthday bouquet while we were on one of our adventures. She's surprisingly thoughtful that way.

It's hard to stop since there's also her zany sense of fun, like wearing a butterfly crown in the belief that she's really a princess, or putting stickers everywhere including on her grandfather's iPhone, or wearing tattoos wherever anyone will draw them on her, or leaving little love notes where I can find them and have my heart warmed…

If the child is mother of the woman, she's on a good path. She brings a unique mixture of her ancestors expressed in a sassy but sweet self.  May her journey contain all that she needs to grow into her full,  beautiful self and offer her the ways to share her gifts with the sweet face of mother earth. Earth needs her gifts.

A Hike to The Sea

From my daughter's home in the Rain Forest to the sea at Paria Bay is a sixteen mile round trip hike through primary forest. One morning my daughter invited me to hike this trail to take advantage of an up to then rare sunny day and an even rarer opportunity for time alone together. I was in so off we set.

This is the secluded beach we reached 3 1/2 hours of beautiful sights and good conversation later. 

The only way to reach Paria Bay is by hiking or by boat, no roads for cars, so we were the only people there for the first two hours. If you think of paradise, this is the beach you would think of.

My daughter, a great swimmer, went out beyond the waves to take a luxurious swim after her walk.

An interesting rock formation, seen above also, called Church Rock located at the southern end of the beach. The tide was high so we had to rock hop to get there. The surf was vigorous and swirled around the statue as it broke on the rocks. The sounds of nothing else but nature was indeed spiritual and made me realize how well named it is. A walk up and down the length of the beach refreshed my soul.

Leatherback turtles use Paria Bay Beach as one of their nesting sites. They lumber up onto the beach (next month) at night, dig a hole about four feet deep, lay some 80 eggs and cover up by flipping sand around so that the nest is no longer identifiable. Then off they swim leaving their offspring to make their hazardous journey over open stretches of sand back to the sea 60 days later. Not many make it.

On the way back we stopped at Paria Falls where the abundance of recent rain made the falls so full that the mist spray coming off it kept us from being able to get much closer and still see the falls. It was a beautiful diversion nonetheless and shows a bit of what the forest we hiked through looks like.

It felt good to be out in nature, to challenge my body and enjoy the company of someone I love. 

Sweet, as my grandson would say.

Time Out For Travel

I'm traveling to Trinidad with my Honey to be with our daughter, her husband and our two grandchildren for Christmas. Internet access is dial up in her Rain Forest village so my postings will be curtailed. My Honey is there for a month and I'll be there for two months training to run a half marathon in Florida before returning home. I hope to start some kind of writing project with my grands while there and I'm eager to see what ideas they may have about this. They're ages 9 and 5 and I'd like to hear any suggestions you may have.
I'm excited for it all.

One of the surprises about friends made in the blogosphere is the importance you now have in my life. I couldn't have imagined this BB (before blogging), but I cherish it now. My life is rich and full with the combination of wonderful adventures in Italy/ Europe and via my blog. I'm grateful.
Please accept my best wishes for a holiday season full of joy for you and your families.

Rain Forest Flowers

Here are just a few of the flowers I've met along the way in Trinidad, some on hikes in the rain forest, some in my daughter's yard and some in a friend's garden (thank you Bunty and Rory). 

It's a beautiful time of year in the Caribbean. 

Please enjoy...

Croton

Another color of Croton

Clerodendron:

Butterfly lilly:

French kiss:

Locally known as the Snake plant:

 Red ginger:

Oxalis:

Agouma:

No one knew the name for this:

Costus sp., known locally as the penis plant:

Chaconia, Trinidad's national flower:

Poinsettia:

Heliconia; known locally as Sexy pink:

Aphelandra sinclairiana:

Angel's trumpet:

Orchid (they grow wild all through the rain forest):

Anthurium:

Ixora:

Crown of thorns:

Hibiscus:

Having my camera always with me this trip has kept my eyes open in a new way to this environment. 

It's been a visual feast for me. What's catching your eye these days?