Kindness and another plant nursery visit

It's amazing the kindness that still exists in this world of chaos and hatred towards humankind.
As you know I would give the last shirt on my back to anyone who needed it, and I think nothing of it. However, when the shoe is on the other foot, and I am the recipient of some kind deed, I am ever so grateful and sometimes as my friends put it "don't know how to say thanks and move on because I am always doing for others but find it hard to accept when they do a kind deed for me."

Recently I "inherited" another digital camera but no accessories.  Not knowing whether the camera was still operational and not wanting to just purchase the accessories, I needed to figure out if it was worth my while to even bother with the camera. Thinking to myself that it would be nice to just be able to borrow a charger to check the battery, I headed over to Freecycle Barbados (Facebook group) to state my plight.
Wouldn't you know it, no sooner had I posted about needing assistance with a charger , another member (Carla) posted that she had one and would love to charge my battery for me.
In another post I read of another member (Leslie) with a dish cover she no longer needed...it was the exact cover for my white French dinnerware...how lucky was that?

Yesterday I decided to take the drive out to the south of the island where both items could be picked up.
Leslie had left the dish cover to be collected at one of my favourite plant nurseries (before they moved so far away from my beaten path.)
It was nice to be able to visit once again.

I saw quite a few plants that I used to have in the older days.

 

Plants that I should consider replacing.....

 

The orchids were in bloom.

 

 

More plants I used to have.

 

 

 

These miniature baby pink kalanchoe caught my eye.

 

 

 

 

 

Pots galore!!!!

 

 

Heavens to Mercury Troy!!!  I actually came away without purchasing any new plants....that deserves a hundred pats on my back.

Leaving this oasis of loveliness behind, I headed onwards to meet Carla, who turned out to be one of the nicest young people I have ever met.

Instead of allowing her to charge my battery, I asked her to test her battery in my camera, and voila it sprung to life.  Thanking her for her time and generous spirit, I ventured over to the supermarket across the street and left her with a mid morning snack as my thank you.

Stopping by to visit another girlfriend along the way, I was gifted with these.

 Thanks Susan!!!

Kindness, kindness, kindness all around.

Thank you everyone for everything.

 

A quick visit

Recently I paid a quick visit to my friend Joyce....didn't stay long at all....but look at the beauty I discovered in my five minute visit.

Cardwell Lily

Amaryllis

White Crown of Thorns

More Amaryllis lilies

Curcuma hidden Ginger

All this loveliness without even stepping one foot into her garden....just incredibly beautiful.

My navel string is buried here

Today on my jaunt, I found myself in my childhood neighbourhood....the place where I was born, the place where I was brought into this world in the early morning hours by a no-nonsense midwife...the place where I drew my first breath....the place where my navel string is buried....the place that will always be "home."
In a child's eyes, everything looks really big, and you feel quite tiny compared to everything around you.....today with my older eyes everything looked a normal size.
I've visited my old neighbourhood a couple of times over the years, but today's visit was an eye opener.
I stared in disbelief at how much my old neighbourhood had changed...lots of changes too.....but I still felt compelled to be there.

A long rugged road leads to the old house.....

 ...which is no longer old, but has been renovated to a newer style.

As I sat there briefly, I was transported back to a bygone era.....I could hear my parents calling my brother and I in for dinner, could smell the chickens as they ran around freely in the yard, and I could see my father's Austin Cambridge parked out front.
It would have been nice to get out and ring the bell and tell the occupants who I was, and I would have loved a walk through the house for old times sake, but as it was, I kept my nostalgia to myself.
Instead I sat and let the memories enfold me....I remembered the time when my mum wanted to spank me and I jumped through the front bedroom window only to land in a pile of nettles below....I got my spanking and felt the wrath of the nettles as well.

 

Turning around and going back down the rugged road, I took note of all the new houses that were being built on the pasture that the neighbourhood children would play on, where we would fly our kites and race each other...oh the fun days.

More construction

We would go climbing up to our friend's house who lived along the upper ridge.

A new road was being cut across the golf course.

 

 I presume that more condos and villas will be built along the edge of the golf course.

 

Driving onwards, I  saw a familiar sight, this house was still there....

....and so was the big tree that stands at the bottom of the road...the same tree I fell out of while climbing one day.

My friends were so afraid, since I'd taken a terrible tumble, but I was fine....but then again maybe that's why I'm so crazy.

More new condos amidst the former houses of yesteryear.

Some are abandoned and forlorn.

Some are up for sale....

.....while others continue to be a haven providing respite from the crazy world outside.

This home is now a bakery making the most scrumptious cakes and pastries.

My visit to the old neighbourhood was overwhelming, so many memories were engulfing me....it was time to go....but not before I had a glimpse of us kids riding our bikes and trikes racing home for dinner.

Yes, I feel spiritually grounded here....no matter where I may roam, I will always find my way back to here...my "home"......my navel string is buried here.

(Traditionally navel strings (umbilical cords) were buried under special trees or plants or buried with a new tree...as the tree grew along with the child, it became a special spiritual bond...their tree.)

Drat and double drat!!

My veggie garden suffered terribly while I was working on the upstairs kitchen renovations.
I tried valiantly to take care of my regular chores like watering, harvesting, trimming etc in between but alas the bugs won....they took advantage of my absence.
The first to go was the mizuna Japanese salad leaves, then the bok choy, kale, romaine lettuce and the arugula.

What a sad sight.....at least the rosemary, chives, thyme, marjoram and dill are still alive.

The bok choy is no more and the romaine lettuce decided to bolt after being attacked with such vengeance.

I lost two okra plants as well.

The poor blue vervain herb never had a fighting chance....the fuzzy black caterpillars of the buckeye butterfly loved it....thank goodness I had trimmed off lots of leaves to dry for future use when cold and flu season comes around.

The kale suffered a similar fate.

Mama butterfly sure chose wisely where she laid her eggs, on the exact type of leaf that her caterpillars will eat when they hatched.

After the eggs hatch the larva caterpillars get to work eating the leaves they were born on.
Caterpillars of various butterflies had the party of a lifetime on my salad greens.
The Cabbage White caterpillars LOVED the mizuna and they ate the entire plants....didn't even leave me a stem....what cheek!

 

  Intricately eaten designs in the leaves

Eat....eat.....grow...grow.....

 

Here a pupa (Chrysalis) on the kale leaf

In the Chrysalis a remarkable transformation (metamorphosis) takes place.

Afterwards a beautiful butterfly emerges to start its life in the world.

Look at them terrorising my poor kale leaves....if only a plant could get up and walk away from being attacked.

Oh my goodness, more eggs have been laid!

 

 Yet another pupa....

.......and yet another on my dill.....sigh.

If we look carefully we can find some of the culprits.

Do you see them?

It's not a butterfly garden winged creatures!!

Yes, there they are, two more butterflies laying more eggs on my lemongrass.
 Drat!!!  No make that Double Drat!!!!
I will be planting new seedlings, but this time I will be placing a growing net over my veggies and herbs....this can't happen again.