ST. JOHN, USVI EPISODE 4
we stayed at a small house on st. john, "ridgetop," which had a lovely little garden. it didn't take me long to discover huge tetrio sphinx caterpillars, fat as my thumb, on the plumeria bushes.
here is the front gate, necessitated by the island's many roaming donkeys and goats. more on the animals in a later post...
the garden path, cleverly built to withstand the traffic of anoles, hermit crabs and people! all of the flower photos below are from this little garden.
i think this is euphorbia milii... wow, i struggle to grow tropical plants indoors, here they thrive with little care...
plumeria... there were two bushes, one had flowers, the other had caterpillars!
i don't know what this little delicate flower is.
striped anole on the path...
spotted anole... this one sunning upside-down on the deck...
i think this is perhaps a columnea...?
gardenia...
i don't know what this is either, but it reminds me of the novel the crimson petal and the white.
and another sphinx moth caterpillar... they really decimated the plumeria, but i think it will survive.
here is the front gate, necessitated by the island's many roaming donkeys and goats. more on the animals in a later post...
the garden path, cleverly built to withstand the traffic of anoles, hermit crabs and people! all of the flower photos below are from this little garden.
i think this is euphorbia milii... wow, i struggle to grow tropical plants indoors, here they thrive with little care...
plumeria... there were two bushes, one had flowers, the other had caterpillars!
i don't know what this little delicate flower is.
striped anole on the path...
spotted anole... this one sunning upside-down on the deck...
i think this is perhaps a columnea...?
gardenia...
i don't know what this is either, but it reminds me of the novel the crimson petal and the white.
and another sphinx moth caterpillar... they really decimated the plumeria, but i think it will survive.
Wow, I can't help but fixate on the beauty of your pix, em ! I'm a sucker for caterpillars and the tetrio sphinx is just amazing ! Your spotted anole has NG or GEO written all over it ! The flowers are gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteLove the gate, path and garden. Can't wait to hear about the goats & donkeys !
I love the sphinx moth caterpillar. Is the moth beautiful too?
ReplyDeleteWow, that caterpillar! At first I thought it had snails on it, but I guess those are legs? Mom
ReplyDeletemiss m, thanks... i did work hard on the caterpillar photos... got up every morning to see what they were up to. i didn't see any of the moths. what's NC or GEO? it was a cute garden. thanks for the comments!
ReplyDeletesusan, the moth is nice, but i've only seen photos of it on the internet. thanks for the comment!
mom, yup those are legs. reminds me of those kooky toy bugs you could add legs to. thanks for the comment.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteWe are thinking of renting Ridgetop villa for a visit to St. John in April, and I came across your blog while I was searching for info on it. Great photos!
I was wondering, did you like Ridgetop, and would you recommend it?
Bob Morse (Bmorse@aol.com)
hi morse family,
ReplyDeleteyes, i do recommend ridge top. it's a nice little house with lots of privacy. the only negative is that the driveway requires 4 wheel drive and is a bit of a pain. the realtor was friendly and helpful.
Thanks for the info!
ReplyDelete