Well, I did say I’d come back and share some photos of our time in beautiful Northwest Cameroon. It was wonderful to get out of the big city for 10 days.
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| This photo was taken in the area we visited in Northwest Cameroon... |
In some ways it reminded me of where we used to live in the highlands region of Papua New Guinea – similar climate (cool!), similar views.
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| ...and this one in the area where we used to live in PNG. |
So many of the plants and flowers we saw were the same ones we used to see frequently in PNG too.
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| This is a "cherry pie" or lantana |
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| Geraniums...I don't remember having these in PNG, but I was surprised to see them in Africa. According to HONS, though, they are native to South Africa. Who knew? |
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| Dahlia |
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| Bottlebrush Tree |
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| Here is a close-up on the bottlebrush flower. I think you can see why it has that name. |
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| Hibiscus, although these aren't unique to the highlands. They're kind of ubiquitous in any place remotely tropical I think. :) |
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| Bananas - again ubiquitous, but I thought I'd throw it in for those who've only ever gotten bananas at the supermarket. If you look carefully you can see a stalk of ripening bananas on this tree. |
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Poinsettias. I've always associated them with Christmas, so I was so surprised to find them growing in the tropics (at least in highland areas of the tropics.)
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Not pictured: the coffee plants. J Yes, it was lovely to be back in coffee-growing country.
I also didn’t manage to get any pictures of our friends’ garden and chickens. Michelle loved helping their kids feed the chickens every morning and evening while we were there. She already asked me if we could get a chick! I don’t think I’m ready for chickens, but I’m thinking about the garden. At least a little patch of herbs. Maybe peas too – we grew them once when we lived in PNG and even my black-thumb couldn’t mess that up. J
Anyone else have any good nature study opportunities in the course of your summer travels?
Fun seeing our Aussie bottlebrush in Cameroon! ! We call that orange and yellow Lantana 'bacon and eggs' for obvious reasons!
ReplyDeletePS I visited the Wisconsin and Minnesota prairies this 'summer'. The wildflowers were wonderful!
ReplyDeleteI didn't manage to get a picture, but we saw gum trees up there too. :) I guess we got a little taste of Australia as well as the PNG Highlands.
ReplyDeleteI bet those wildflowers were gorgeous! I've actually not spent much time in that part of the States - most of our friends and relatives are on one coast or the other. (I did get smiles over your Southern California pictures on FB and your blog...that's where I was born and raised.)
wow! you saw lots of the things we see regularly! i take it these are different from what you see regularly now? we live on the bottom of the slope between highlands and amazon basin so we see a big mix. but i bet it's probably very similar!!
ReplyDeleteWe are living in the capital now, which is at a much lower elevation. Hibiscus and bananas we have down here, but the rest of these things seem to be more "highland" types of plants - I've not seen them here, but have at the higher-elevation tropical places we've lived or visited. :)
ReplyDeleteDo you have the bottlebrush trees, Amy? That would just make me smile if you did...to think that you and Jeanne and I have them, despite the fact that we are on three totally different continents. :)
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