It really looks like spring has arrived on St. John.

Orchid

almost equinox st john sunrise

I awoke before sunrise to the loud bang of a transformer blowing out, knocking out the electricity in the neighborhood. Just as well. I took advantage of the change in daily routine and went for a walk outside. I noticed that the nearby mampoo trees, turpentine trees and poor man’s orchids, which had lost their leaves and were looking straggly and sparse of late, were full of bright light-green buds and mango flowers and tiny mangoes hung from the mango tree; all sure signs of spring.

I also noticed that one of our favorite orchids had burst into flower motivating me to get my camera and take a picture. Camera in hand, I was then able to catch the morning’s sunrise. The seas were just about dead calm and the sky was quite hazy, possibly African dust or maybe ash from Montserrat. Hazy skies are not usually so great for photography, but in the case of of sunrises and sunsets they actually can add color and complexity as it was this morning  making for a particularly beautiful sunrise.

mampoo in spring

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 22nd, 2009 at 8:03 pm and is filed under Life on St. John USVI. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.