Category Archives: Plants

Fallen

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Fallen.’ (See more responses here.) Usually I respond to these challenges with a single subject, but this month I’m taking a different approach, so here are some ‘fallen’ images.

The top photo, taken earlier this week, is of a bus shelter that had fallen off its base. It got that way thanks to some strong westerly winds that blew here for a couple of days.

The second photo also owes its origins to those winds. The mango tree in the yard has another batch of fruit and the wind dislodged a fair number. Pigs and chickens got some of the fallen fruit, but I was still able to gather a considerable number in good condition. However, as the photo shows, there are still more on the tree.

The third photo shows fallen coconuts at Kiholo. While a lot of coconuts are harvested, there are also many that simply fall off the tree and either rot, or sprout to start another palm. Coconuts were brought to Hawaii by the ancient Polynesians, but they might also have arrived naturally as they’re capable of drifting large distances across the ocean, and then sprouting on making landfall.

Astelia Menziesiana

Astelia Menziesiana is an endemic plant that can grow as an epiphyte, as in this photo, or in the ground. It does best in cool temperatures, which is where these plants were found at around 6,000 feet in the area between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, but can also grow in warmer temperatures. Plants are either male or female and both have flowers, but only the female produce berries.

Upolu landscape

  • A small plane taxis at the airport.
  • There are dairy cows and beef cattle here. Some are bigger than others.
  • I often see sheep or cows on the road. These were trotting past the wind farm.
  • A sleepy orange butterfly on the flower of a native Jacquemontia sandwicensis vine.
  • A pair of nenes walk along the road outside the airport fence.
  • The newest addition to the landscape is this alien-looking sugar cane harvester.
  • Horse riders on the road along the coast.
  • Upolu is a good place to watch the sunset.
  • The view from Mo’okini Heiau towards a cloud-covered Maui.
  • A view of Maui from the top of the road to Upolu Airport.

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Your Favorite Landscape.’ See more responses here.

When I think of the landscape at Upolu, it includes both the ocean that borders it and the skies above. They are, in my mind, integral to the place. But here, I’ve focussed on the land, a relatively small area of a few square miles where I walk most days. It’s rural, agricultural, and coastal. It’s historic and modern. It’s also a place I never return from feeling disappointed. There’s always something of note that I see or that happens when I’m there.

Also posted in response to Becky’s January Squares challenge theme of ‘Up.’ See more responses here.

To be turned into corruption

I’m a big fan of movie director Peter Weir and I’m a big fan of his 2003 movie Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (and I’m not just saying that so Russell Crowe doesn’t lash out at me on Twitter).

In the movie, there’s a scene of burials at sea where a standard prayer for the times is used. It features the words, “We therefore commit his body to the deep, to be turned into corruption.” These days, we think of corruption as being about perfidious politicians, crooked cops, bent businessmen. But another definition is that used in the prayer: the process by which dead organic matter separates into simpler substances.

But how to illustrate that? A photo of a compost bin is an obvious option, but I don’t currently have one. Then I saw this scene when I went down to Kiholo last week and thought it fit the bill. An array of downed coconuts, palm fronds, and other organic matter, which in due course will break down and return to the earth.

Posted in response to Becky’s January Squares challenge theme of ‘Up.’ See more responses here.