A Green Winter

For the first time in my life I am living in a place where I am surrounded by plants and bushes that are still green and blooming in January! The hibiscus bushes continually produce flowers in exquisitely delicate shades of red, pink, yellow, and white. Deep blue-purple morning glories climb up everything and our rose bush is soldiering on. The wild philodendrons are HUGE: nothing like the modest, pot-bound ones I'm used to! If these feral philodendrons were part of an Evil Plant Empire, I picture them massing and taking over Bermuda's capitol city of Hamilton. Castor oil bean plants also grow wild here. Ironically, my grandfather used to delight in growing these semi-tropical plants in Maine. The beans, I was often told, are poisonous, so as a child, I was always leary of this potentially deadly vegetation. Now I am surrounded by these plants on my walks with our dogs. Odd, isn't it, how sometimes things come 'round again.