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.

Rainforest Reconnaissance

The forest floor of our love holds
forty years of scattered leavings as loam
for yet more growth, riotous and jungly,
our understory thick as old growth mahogany.

Love, now moistly deciduous from our equatorial
heat or the chafing of our years' burdens, but so
sprinkled with caches of color, like strong- beaked toucans,
as to be in all our seasons' memories, suffused in beauty.

Now our uppermost branches expand
umbrellalike, held over the lives of loved ones
who come to sit awhile in the cool of this canopy. Some
become taller than those surrounding, a grand emergent

occurring unexpectedly, perhaps groomed by others,
like howler monkeys, in this fertile layer of our love.
Together we howl our loud lusty call down the rainforest strata
and stand awed by the swarming life sprung forth.

This is in response to Victoria Slotto over at dVerse Poets Pub who talked of Voice in poetry and urged us to speak of something we're passionate about and reveal our personal attitude in the process. Long- term love of my Honey is my passion and I seek to find new ways to express it. Meanwhile, Hannah, over at Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads, asked us to write about the tropical rainforest, so I used this as my inspiration for a love metaphor. Photo is taken in the rainforest of Trinidad where my daughter and her family live.

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?

Unhand The Bananas

The list of all I didn't know and am now learning continues to grow. For example, that the best way to ripen bananas is to cut the whole stem off the tree just before they're totally ripe. Then unhand (that's what they call it) the individual bunches (hands). My daughter is doing that above. Then put them in a box and put newspaper around them until they ripen a couple to a few days later. They are then succulently sweet, fully ripe and elegantly flavorful. 

Of course, many ripen at the same time, but I've got to say that isn't a problem as far as I'm concerned! Especially with these small, extra sweet ones, called chiquitos. Any over ripe left overs? Then it's banana nut bread and banana punch. Oh my!  Life is good and I'm swooning!

Something New for My Birthday

My daughter gave me an amazing present for my birthday; she took me to a remote, beautiful, 100 foot waterfall in the rainforest after our run on the 26th. I did something I've never done before to celebrate- I swam naked in the (cold!) waterfall pool.

Yes, I did it! I felt exhilarated! I embrace this life stage and look for ways to expand my horizons, push my limits and just try something new. It was fun (although I did yell a lot). Crones rule!

Gratitude galore to my blogger friends for your wonderful birthday greetings. You warm my heart.

Birthday Reflections

Oropendula, black birds with neon yellow tails and beaks, swish in and out of the immortelle tree in the yard. The tree's bright orange flowers seem more vivid against morning's blue sky. The oripendula have a distinctive deep, clucking sound unlike the chirps and trills of the other birds in the surrounding trees. When they fly off three or four at a time, their beating wings sound like softened helicopter whirls.

The sun is out and illuminates the wide, light green blades around the sugar cane growing next to the outside kitchen where I sit at the picnic table and write. Clouds and some of the left over morning mist gather at the top of the densely forested hills to my right. They cast shadows adjacent to the sunny patches making a quilt of light and dark on the ridge.The water tank to my left sprouts a mossy growth on its otherwise stark cement base. I drink sorrel punch made from the red sorrel flower. It's magical to me to drink flowers like some giant bee.

The birds have flown now, driven to cooler shaded spots by the tropical sun. Their songs are replaced by a flock of wild parrots flying oerhead with their harsh, remarkably loud cries. Have they no predators that they can be so loud and colorful?

Today is my birthday. I'm 65. It feels like a momentous age. Unlike the creatures around me, I'm aware of this life stage shift and I take stock of where I am and where I'm going. For years I've kept a self-discovery art journal inspired by my good friend, Annee. I take a few blank pages of this journal and pick out whatever magazine pictures or words that catch my eye and put them in a current moment snapshot collage. Or as Annee would say, whatever calls to me. I do this two or three times a year to visually represent what's up for me. It's always a meaningful process for me and I love to review these pages and see how they portend or document personal shifts and changes in my life. After my quiet time today, I did one and then arranged it on the picnic table in the outside kitchen since I don't have my journal with me. I like doing this. I'm not an artist but this fulfills my yearning to find other ways into myself through art.

The clouds on the hill have spilled down to me. I can hear the rain in the distance as it moves closer. In minutes the day has gone from blue, sunny skies to pouring down, drenching rain. The sound went from lovely to deafening as it pounds the corregated metal roof that keeps me dry. Minutes later, the sky clears and the sun reappears as if the rain never happened.

This peaceful day has taught me once again to show up, pay close attention and tell my truth. I trust all answers for this life stage will emerge from this.

Coffee and Cocoa From the Source

Ripe coffee beans growing along a hiking path in the rainforest. This area of the rainforest has hundreds of trees from abandoned coffee plantations which were plentiful decades ago when Trinidad coffee was prized.

When they're red, they're ripe.

Then they're picked and put to dry in the sun. In two weeks the fruit is shelled to expose the coffee bean inside. Beans are then roasted in small batches and ground to make the morning cup of joe. My daughter's husband does this for their coffee regularly and has a secret roasting process for the best flavor!

Ripe cocoa pods on the tree. Trinidad was known world wide for its cocoa back in the early part of the 1900's. Abandoned cocoa trees still grow wild to the delight of young and old.

When they're yellow they're ripe.

When the pod is split open the beans are covered with a sweet, delicious white substance that can be sucked off one by one. It's a favorite treat on a hike. (This is my granddaughter who didn't want to be photographed but who loves cocoa pulp!)

If the pulp isn't sucked off it is put in a cedar box to sweat for five days as bacteria eats away the pulp leaving just the cocoa beans. The beans are then put dry in the sun for about a week. Great care is taken to keep them from getting wet in the inevitable rain. (They're more sensitive than coffee beans that can get wet, and dry and wet and dry again!) The cocoa beans are then roasted, shelled and broken into nibs which are  eaten plain and bitter and considered a health food in this neck of the woods! Or they're ground into powder for baking or making hot cocoa. They can also be sold to fine chocolate makers here or abroad since Trinidadian cocoa is rated very highly internationally. 

There's a growing movement among some Trini's to revive this old, potentially profitable industry.

It's all amazing to this girl from Boston who never knew any of these processes and now sees them right in her daughter's yard. I even helped spread the cocoa beans in the sun and pull them in quickly when it rained. They're done as of yesterday and bagged up for the next step on their way to chocolate.

I't a hands on, slower paced way of life that puts me in touch with the "behind the scenes" work of what we eat and drink.

Hummingbirds

These amazing photos are courtesy of my freind, Jennifer. The rainforest of Trinidad has 16 different species of hummingbirds alone and this is merely one of them. Its body is an irradescent green blue color. Beautiful!

 

This is a rare shot of the hummingbird with its wings forward. She caught it at just the right moment of time for all of us to enjoy. Nature in all its glory.

What's amazing you these days?

Simple Pleasures

Celebrating simple pleasures because they matter and foster gratitude:

1. A stroll with the one you love and even a quick snuggle.

2. Butterflies and flowers open to the sun.

3. Butterflies that wear their name on their wings (yup, the 89 butterfly)

and enjoy the salt on a friends arm in order to be admired.

4. Walking to school together at 8:25 knowing you'll be on time for an 8:30 start.

5. Knowing just how you want your hair braided

and wearing red ribbons to put some zip in your uniform.

What simple pleasures are you enjoying lately?

Rainforest Environment

On a recent drive when we crested the highest part of the hill, this vista opened up between the dense trees. It's a view of the sea in the distance with part of the rainforest visible as well. Trinidad's Rainforest is in the Northern Range of the Island, in the cuff of the short boot which is the shape of Trinidad. About four miles from this spot is where my daughter, her husband and two children live (for more info click here).

Double River Falls is one of the waterfalls in the rainforest I've seen this visit. It's an easy hike and climb to reach this lovely spot. The brave hearts swim in the cold (really!) water pool at the base. The falls are full with all the rain we've experienced recently and the thunderous sound is both powerful and strangely meditative at the same time. The breeze off the falling water is nature's own air conditioning and had my grandson shivering.

On another longer hike, when we reached our river destination, we walked down the river and up a ravine to discover this little beauty. This time the brave hearts swam through the narrow opening between the rocks in front of the pool to have the falls pound down on them and scream with the chill of it.

A friend blissed out in the tamer river flow by the bank where we stopped to just enjoy the unique sights and sounds of this beautiful rainforest environment.

Taking time to be in nature brings me back to my center, the best part of me, connected to all that is. 

Makes me grateful for this gift of life and abundance.