Coconut (Cocos nucifera)

Everybody knows what a coconut tree looks like as we see them on TV all the time, but not everyone has seen one as it starts out in life. The first photo shown here is of a coconut that has fallen onto the ground, dried out over a period of months and is now sprouting to become a coconut tree. Being that the coconut can float, it can travel great distances on the water before coming to rest on dry land and then sprouting to become a new tree. Nature is pretty amazing, isn’t it.

The second photo shows a bunch of coconuts still on the tree, some of which are ready to be picked. As you can see, not all “water coconuts” (as we call them when they are ready) are green in colour as these yellow/golden varieties are also quite common on the island. At this stage, the coconut contains coconut water and usually some coconut jelly, though the amount varies significantly from tree to tree. So after the water has been drained out of the nut, it can be cut open and the jelly scooped out for consumption straight from the nut. Depending on the ripeness of the coconut, the jelly can vary from very soft to relatively firm, and it tends to have quite a strong coconut flavour. Coconut that has been grated and used in cooking comes from a coconut that has dried sufficiently that the outer shell is completely brown, and most of the water has been absorbed to become dry coconut suitable for grating.

The third photo is self explanatory - a lovely coconut tree framing part of the south coast of Barbados at sunrise. So really coconuts are pleasing on the eye and the palate. Enjoy!

Butterflies Everywhere

This year again we have had a multitude of wonderful butterflies of all colours and sizes. This is just one of the many shown in these photos. I was lucky enough to snap this as it settled on a Silver Dollar bush in the east of the island, but there were so many others that I was just not quick enough to get.

Some are just tiny, with a wing span of about 5/8” with pale yellow wings or pale lavendar wings and even darker brown wings. They seemed to come out of the ground cover in clouds as I walked through various “weeds”. 

We’ve also had lots of the slightly larger almost white butterflies, pale yellow, a magnificent buttery yellow and even golden yellow, but these seem to be slightly less abundant. I have a white sage plant in a pot on my deck where I can sit and watch them come and go as they feed on the nectar of these flowers. I’ve also seen them in abundance on yellow sage, pink sage and just about any colour sage shrub.

My garlic chive that is flowering profusely also seems to be very appealing to some of the butterflies, particularly the ones shown here. If you really want to see our local butterflies, you will need to take a drive past areas that are not quite as developed and built up and therefore with more “bush” and uncultivated spaces.

Creeping Jenny

Most people think of Creeping Jenny as a weed and work assiduously to remove all signs of it from their garden, however, it is perfect for areas where there is little or no soil, and it is hardy enough to grow in more windswept and salty conditions.

The flowers are actually quite small, about five eighths of an inch in diameter, but a carpet of bright yellow flowers and verdant green leaves is quite spectacular. It can’t be seen in these photos, but Creeping Jenny will even grow over solid rock where there are only tiny little pockets of soil, and it thrives.

Being so hardy, it requires no care at all other than, perhaps, to cut it back a bit if it spreads too far. In the dry season, it thins out, but as soon as the rains come, it spreads and flowers and is really quite delightful. An added bonus is that it is particularly attractive to a variety of butterflies and bees too.

Creeping Jenny can be found growing in abundance on and near the cliffs of the east and northern parts of the island.