Bright colors by Siwa

Shark infested waters at Sea Life Park. I love the colors that water takes on.  Photos never seem to be able to do them justice.

A Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis) at the nursery. These lizards change colors from green to brown like chameleons. The purple thing is called a dewlap. These lizards use them to impress mates and to challenge others when fighting over territory.

A Seven Spotted Lady Beetle (Coccinella septempunctata) on a Metal Leaf plant (Hemigraphis alternata).

Croton (Codiaeum variegatum) leaves, the green ones are new while the pink one is older. They always start out bright green and yellow but as they age they gain reds, oranges and pinks.

The nursery where I work is full of these colorful Day Geckos.  They are curious and love sweet fruit.

The Sun by Siwa

 

Today's post is all about the sun.

I love the translucence of  certain objects held up to the sun.
 Glass looks brighter and the colors show up better. When you look through leaves or petals,
you can see the tiny cells and veins glowing in the light.

On one of our hikes we ended up taking much longer than planned, waiting for the stragglers to catch up.
By the time everyone finished the hike, the sun had started to set behind the trees. 

Sunrise over Molokai. Just under the sun is the faint outline of Molokai, and below that is a surfer.

The other colors of leaves by Siwa

 Walking around the nursery this week, 

I kept finding plants with leaves other than green,

 like oranges, pinks, reds, and purples. 

These leaves have really drawn my attention lately. 

Here are a few examples that I wanted to share.

The purple plant in the back is called Eldorado (Pseuderanthemum carruthersii), 

I'm still working on the name of the yellow one in front.  The picture above is also Eldorado, 

showing some of the different possible colors.

I have never actually seen red leaves on this particular plant before. It is called Natal Plum (Carissa macrocarpa). It has small fragrant flowers that resemble Plumerias, 

and red fruit a little larger than gum balls.

This plant is called either Copper leaf, Beefsteak or by its genus name Acalypha (Acalypha wilkesiana).  There are many varieties of this plant, but at our nursery this green, variegated form 

and the red form are the most common.

 A Gold Dust Day Gecko (Phelsuma laticauda). They range anywhere from about two inches to around six. These are beautiful, shy, little geckos that live all over the nursery. He is resting on our biggest Bromeliad.  Bromeliads come in a huge range of colors and sizes. They catch water in their leaves, so are unfortunately, a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes. Luckily, we have plenty of spiders and repellant 

to help take care of the problem.

A young Money tree (Dracaena marginata). This one is a pink variegated variety of the more common green form.

A Red Ti Leaf plant (Cordyline fruticosa) with flower buds.

The pink heart shaped leaves of Caladium (Caladium bicolor).

Beach walk with Jesse by Siwa

 A little while back Jesse and I went for a walk on the beach. Our walks are not exclusive to the sand, we walk on the reefs and in the water as well. We found a small flock of shore birds on the reef and I followed them from one patch of reef to the next trying to take pictures. Here are some of the pictures from that afternoon.

The flock of shore birds I was stalking.  Ruddy Turnstones (Arenaria interpres) poking  and splashing around in the tide-pools.

 One of the times I got too close and scared them away, though they never flew very far off.

Green seaweed on some rocks with Ironwood trees,coconuts and Naupaka bushes in the background.

An Ironwood tree, someone hung an old knotted rope from it, and now all the local kids swing on it.

A crab hole in the olivine sand. There are also a lot of flecks of black lava rock in it.

A popular swimming spot.  A small trickle of water coming over the reef makes a little waterfall.

Happy saint patrick's by Siwa

 To celebrate Saint Patrick's Day I decided to do a post of all green things.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

In the Nursery by Siwa

 A few months ago I got my first regular job. I now work in a nursery taking care of plants. Here are some of my favorites from the nursery.

This plant is called either Leadwort or Plumbago (Plumbago auriculata). It is a native of South Africa. On the sepals (the green part attached to the base of the flowers) there are tiny sticky hairs that will attach themselves to anything that gets brushed against them.

An Orb Weaver spider (Neoscona theisi). The nursery is full of these and almost all of them have slightly different colors and patterns. I've found white ones, orange ones, even some rust colored ones. They spin their webs between the rows of plants.

A Green Anole Lizard (Anolis carolinensis) on a variegated form of Fragrant Dracaena (Dracaena fragrans). When a plant is variegated it has more white or yellow in some part of it than the normal plant would have. I think this particular one is referred to as having lemon lime leaves.

A Croton moth caterpillar (Achaea janata) on a crown of thorns leaf (Euphorbia milii). This caterpillar feeds on a variety of poisonous plants.

Another Orb Weaver spider showing one of the different patterns.

Two Grainy planthopper nymphs (Kallitaxila granulata) on a young  Beefsteak (Acalypha wilkesiana) leaf.

Raindrops on a spider's web.

I'm not really sure yet what kind of caterpillar this is; it was feeding on a Chinese banyan leaf (Ficus microcarpa). The caterpillar on the dead eaten part of the leaf makes it look like a butterfly.

Clouds by Siwa

I love clouds. None are ever the same twice. I love the purples, pinks, oranges and grays, especially around sunset or sunrise. Here are some clouds.

Storm out at sea.