A QUICK SURVEY OF THE WHOLE BLOG (on its 10 year anniversary, 2018)
If you quickly read through this posting it may help you find the parts of the blog you’re most interested in. Read beyond that to widen your horizons.
This is the whole blog in a nutshell, page by page from beginning to end, with a few comments. To roam through the blog itself simply scroll to the bottom of any page and click on the next page number. Keep doing it till you come to the end.
Upcoming postings will provide plant ID photos and more about SAVING Cayman Brac habitat. Rampant exploitation by government and private parties has worsened. The word environment was not mentioned in the 2018 New Year’s speech of any leader. We need bottom-up politics here on the Brac because top-down isn’t working. One positive governmental initiative has just been cancelled, only a year after its inauguration. Calls for our land to be protected, not blasted and quarried for shipment to Grand Cayman, have been ignored. This blog will be on the warpath! But the beauty of Brac nature will still shine through. We saved some land in 2017 through a selfless donation and dedicated volunteers.
TITLE OF BLOG POSTING
A HIDDEN TREASURE IN STAKE BAY TOWN – Take a walk in the woods. Take a walk in a rare “Buttonwood Swamp” which was not rare two hundred years ago. This beautiful area could be a nature park for all who love Mother Nature.
OUR COMPLETE AND UTTER DISRESPECT FOR NATURE (but it’s biting back) – What’s wrong with us? World leaders have faced down other existential crises – treaties with inspection rights to tame the threat of nuclear war for example (an ongoing process…). But what are governments doing about the scorching sunburn we’re giving Earth, our favorite home, out of all the planets? What are WE doing about it? (Me too.) This tirade about our callous abuse of earth adds a useful, personal check-list. Yes, there ARE things we can do as individuals, groups, churches. Government policy and action is absolutely essential but we can’t wait for THAT, nor can we simply grieve over every stupid setback.
NATIVE TREES AND PLANTS OF CAYMAN BRAC – A virtual collection of two hundred of our plant species in photographs, each with an informative caption. Browse to identify trees and flowers you’ve always wondered about. Scientific names, common too where available.
THE NATURAL WORLD – This article uses a prior thinking about the state of the world. Two poems help out, stating problem and solution “We Need to Re-Green” and “Can We Restore our Earthly Home?”
I LOVE TO WALK THE HERRMAN BEACH – A poem and five photos celebrate the 11 acres, beach through wetland to bluff-base, recently donated to the National Trust — three types of habitat being preserved forever. Already, turtle patrollers are praising a beachfront with no dangerous lights, no housing, no hotels to disturb the ancient cycle of our valued sea creatures. A cave has been discovered and rare trees plants are present — also Manchineel so we use caution!
FULL MOON RISING OUT OF THE WAVES – This beauty will never fade. Please enjoy the photo from the Brac’s east end lighthouse (or light beacon); enjoy the accompanying poem and then click on the music to a related piece called In The Tropic Moonlight, composed by your blogger and played with wonderful touch by Vancouver’s Ms. Stella Hui, currently pursuing her Master’s degree in music.
FRUGALITY (Like a Scot) – Text, doggerel, cottage photo and even a piece of music (“Murray Harbour Hornpipe”). This blog item is all about living lightly on the earth.
MICROCOSM – How Cayman Brac could become an exemplar of re-wilding of man-modified areas, and of protection of the remaining unspoiled forest and precious “bush”
THE CAYMAN BRAC LIGHTHOUSE AND TRAIL – The trail, kept in the public domain by year-round hiking, still runs through otherwise private properties! Yet this is our number one natural attraction
SUGGESTED INACTIVITIES for next Earth Day – Check out the little poems. Enjoy Earth Day and just do less. On living lightly
AND THE TIME OF THIS IGNORANCE GOD WINKED AT – Still true, sadly. Photos of plants that have been STOLEN! Some carried abroad. Very rare photos because of subsequent theft
MY VINE-INFESTED NUMBER ELEVEN FAVOURITE MANGO TREE – A little poem. Any backyard gardener can relate to this one. This article is about the mango variety called Number Eleven (the number on the box on The Bounty)
YES TO CRUISE SHIPS … NO TO MEGA CRUISE SHIPS – The government seems hell-bent on bringing more visitors than could have a nice time — Grand Cayman ruination
DAILY LIFE: WHAT SHOULD WE DO NOW? – More ideas on how we small people can live more simply, have more fun, and save the world!
YOU’LL LOVE CAYMAN BRAC — IF YOU LOVE THESE THINGS – It’s a prose poem and an abracadabary
A NEW TREE FOR THE CAYMAN ISLANDS HAS BEEN FOUND – First found on the Brac? More showing up, on roadside gravel and broken ground
KNOWN BUT NOT SHOWN – This list is unique — the result of a lot of amateur “botanising” by about seven of us living on the Brac. But some of the plants have been destroyed already
URGENT: SETBACK LAW FOR CB BLUFF DEVELOPMENT – Nobody has done a darn thing since Mrs. Bradley first proposed a set-back regulation for bluff top development in the 1990s. Accidents have occurred, and habitat taken away
BRAC BREAKER— ULTRA-MARATHON ROUTE ON THE BRAC – No takers
SHALL WE GATHER FOR THE SEED BANK – No. We can use our time on more important projects — protecting habitat in particular. We have plant thieves so we mustn’t show plant coordinates
SO THEY WANT TO CUT A HOLE IN THE DIKE? – A tribute to some brave people who withstood pressure. So far (some years hence) a monument stands in testimony to foiled folly
WALKING TRAILS ON CAYMAN BRAC – We try to walk all of them every year. That keeps them open and natural. Love our trails
UPGRADED AIRSTRIP — OR DOWNGRADED ISLAND – Little Cayman is still the most unspoiled island. But private owners now hold more of it. Beware of gentrification! And restriction!
SMALL ISLAND, BIG AIRPORT? – Airports require vast areas of modification of adjacent land, virtually destroying all the natural features. Examples given. Don’t do it, Little Cayman!
LIKE A GLOBE-SIZED H-BOMB, BUT SLOWER – The poisoning effect of human invasion of every aspect of natural life. (Assuming we’re “natural”.) New info since this posting shows it’s rapidly getting worse
A YEAR OF FIRSTS – Treasures of nature, all experienced right here on Cayman Brac, this most blessed land — placed in our care. Enjoy these phenomena. One photo may be incorrectly labelled. Phyllanthus caymanensis?
AIRPORT BIRDING CHART – The result of a year’s monitoring of birds around CB Airport, by dedicated volunteers. We helped the authority and honed our skills
THE DREAM – This land was made the best. It could be the best still. Florence, at 20,000 people, led the world. CB at 2000 could lead Caribbean islands. Read it!
SNORKELING CAYMAN BRAC — AND ELSEWHERE – How do our corals and schools of fishes compare with snorkel spots around the world, and how can we get better. (Enhanced Marine Parks, duh.) Underwater photos, poems, inspiration — it’s joyous, so let’s keep it that way and even make it better. The trend line isn’t great
THE NATURAL HOUSE on a natural island – Is air conditioning necessary? Or all the other frills. How did our old-timers manage? Did they enjoy cleaner air? Were they tougher?
TROPICAL NATURE, a book review – Reading about the tropics, comparing with our sub-tropical clime. Photos from Papua New Guinea.
NATURAL SCIENCE ACTIVITY, SPRING 2011 – “… to be discovered simply by walking into “the bush” with an open mind, a notebook and a digital camera”. About friends and “Botanizers”
HISTORY, STATUS AND FUTURE FOR ROCK IGUANA – Well, the amazing species is still here, much loved, and wearing beads. A sinister invader has arrived and is in contention. It will kill other life if we let it
POLLARD BAY – “Sea grape, broadleaf, buttonwood// Ipomoea vine // Huddled cockspur with yellow seeds // A few of them now mine”. Poem
“QUICK-SAVE” LIST — NATURE PROPERTIES, CB – Five properties were recommended for permanent protection for their extreme natural value, in 2011. Two have been so protected!
FIELD GUIDES FOR THE CAYMAN ISLANDS – Book reviews and web reviews of over ten references to help us know and appreciate our plants and critters. We are blessed with references
INVESTIGATION OF THE 17 ACRE PARCEL – This odd-shaped National Trust holding bounds the west side of Bight Road South, to the high bluff edge. It is highly significant if little known.
BOOK REVIEW: “HOT, FLAT AND CROWDED” – The author is a 3-times Pulitzer Prize winner, aware that the environment is in total crisis. Published 2009, but 10 years later US policy is backsliding
LIFE EVER AFTER – Sub-titled “a nature ethic to guide our daily lives” this puts the author’s heart on the line — the natural environment is our home. Gotta keep it
PARROT RESERVE SOUTHWEST – Photos: It’s a companion to “Investigation of the 17 acre parcel”. Not shown is “biodiversity heaven” found by the two explorers. Gotta go back
SCENES OF THE SISTER ISLANDS – Photo essay: The inclusion of a few scenes from Little Cayman demonstrates how these two islands must be proud to be sisters
THE CANDLEWOOD SONG – Just add music! Fifty-four species: do you know them all? “These are the trees that sustained us of old// These are the trees that lift our souls”
SOME NATIVE CREATURES – Thirteen photos, some of them published in other references (Butterflies of the Cayman Islands). A good primer for would-be visitors
SOME NATURE HIKES AND SPECIAL PLACES – Thirty-five places to be preserved. “The Mountain; Hayman’s Pond; The Spilts”. More have been added: Nani Cave, Nurse Smith Pond and more
DEFORESTATION – This is a poem. The hero is Candlewood — a tree that played such a strong role in our society that it competes with Silver Thatch in significance
THE OLD LIGHTHOUSE, CAYMAN BRAC – A poem. It’s dated 1998 and bears re-reading in these stressful times.
KARST LIMESTONE FORMATION – A geology walk across the island. We’re founded on the same limestone that we’re blasting and shipping away! Learn about our foundation
LIVING LIGHTLY ON THE EARTH – A priori thinking: we try to reflect on our situation, derive the basic principles involved, then apply them to questions. There’s a table
SEA AND SEASHORE PHOTOS – Photos, no text. The reader will have to agree: this is a most beautiful place
AN INTRODUCTION TO “WEST END WOODS” – This is a plant survey of the rich forest called Buffer Zone (from the huge quarry). We tried, but nobody is stopping the ongoing destruction. It’s half gone
written Jan. 12, 2018 by the blogger