This week’s Friendly Friday challenge theme is ‘Mood.’ See more responses here. For me, mood elevation often comes in the form of interactions with nature. Anything from bugs to birds, fish to flowers, can leave me in a better mood.
I had been watching Japanese white-eyes visiting Japanese aloe flowers on a daily basis. But I was really happy to capture one, perching on a stem, with purple bougainvilleas in the background.
This group of cattle was crowded together beneath a small shrub on the side of Pu’u Wa’awa’a. They were making the most of the scant shade on offer and weren’t about to give it up because of my presence.
Spathiphyllum ‘Power Petite’ is one of the spathiphyllums better known as peace lilies. These aren’t true lilies. Instead, they’re members of the Araceae family.
Peace lilies are popular houseplants because they’re easy to grow and they’re great air cleaners, filtering out a number of pollutants from the air.
Near the entrance to Upolu Airport there is a clump of bird of paradise plants. When the plants are in bloom I make a point of checking out the flowers as they are a favorite of the geckos. I’ll often see geckos on the flowers, especially if they have not yet begun to fade.
In this case, I saw this smaller gold dust day gecko licking nectar off a flower. The gecko noticed me after a few moments and fixed me with its gaze. It never took its eyes off me, but neither did it stop feasting on the nectar.
Crimson Medinilla (Medinilla miniata) hails from the Philippines. The red flowers, hanging like ornaments, make it look perfect for Christmas.
This one was at Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden. For more information about Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, go to htbg.com.
A gold dust day gecko looks up from the strappy leaves of a spider lily. Geckos are often seen on these plants. I think the leaves offer protection and shade, as well as a source of water collected at the bottom, and when it’s in bloom there’s nectar to be had too.
The northern mockingbird arrived in Hawaii in 1928 and is quite common now. It is most easily seen when it perches at the top of a tree and sings, as in the photo to the left. Later, this one descended into the heart of a kiawe tree where it looked out from the tangle of branches and thorns.
Yesterday, I posted about a visit to Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden with Terri, from Second Wind Leisure Perspectives. These photos are of one very interesting plant we saw toward the end of our tour. The spectacular pink bloom sprouted from the end of a single stem. This was definitely something I hadn’t seen before. I took several photos, including these two.
A few steps farther up the path, was a shaving brush tree (thanks for ID Terri) and on the ground around it were numerous pink blooms, remarkably similar to those of this mystery plant. Across from the shaving brush tree, a different shrub altogether sported the same bloom.
Someone had been having an entertaining visit, placing shaving brush blooms on an assortment of plants, but it had been well done and I thought it appropriate for today’s post.
Graham's Island 