a gift from above

 

okay do me a quick favor...

think of something that when you are out and about that you can not resist buying.

shoes?

chocolate?

tools?

art?

earrings?

books?

music?

well for me it is plants

i wrote earlier about being a potential plant thief actually

but yes i do buy them too

in canada my favorite thing to do was to go to nursery at the end of the season

i would buy tons and tons of plants half price and nurse them back to life

and in the spring i would have a colorful, messy, perennial flower bed.

yup flowers that is it for me

i am a complete sucker for anything that blooms and brings color into my world

so on monday when brandi called and asked if i wanted to go with her

to get some plants from her friend

of course i didn't hesitate one minute.

there are certain plants that are common on the island:

hibiscus, heliconia, gingers galore, bird of paradise

but when i walked into this ladies yard my jaw dropped

(not literally of course)

she had soo many different varieties

like this beautiful water hyacinth

oh my goodness.. isn't that remarkable!   she has it growing in a large basin in her yard!!

and look at this trumpet flower!!!!

   unfortunately you can't transplant it from a cutting and the seeds are 'bad' right now.  not sure what that means, but later i wandered back (yes in stealth mode) to check out the 'bad' seeds and sure enough when i opened the large walnut sized seed pod it was total mush inside.

so needless to say i am waiting for some "good" seeds to come my way!
i think there is too much rain so the seed pods are rather water logged!

anyways we meandered around her yard, she was armed with her machete and a shovel

and she began wacking away large pieces of the most exotic plants
amazing!

what a blessing!  what a gift!

we were totally overwhelmed!

i wish you could have seen our car.. it was literally loaded to the brim 

(bet you didn't know cars had brims!)

with flowers!!

i kept looking in my rear view mirror and grinned as i saw

so much green and red and burgundy!

there is brandi walking home with her bags of 'treasures!'

it is hard to tell from these photos...
but we got soaked!!!!
i mean literally soaked but it was soo worth it!