James Taylor sings a song called Summer’s Here, which is a nice tune, but not exactly the same Summer experience that we typically go through in the islands.


Hurricane Season has begun: We keep constant vigil with the Weather Channel for the first sign of those swirling tempests heading our way.


It’s getting really hot and humid in the Bahamas: Can’t go outside without sweating like Marion Barry at a “Just Say No To Drugs” rally.


The finely tuned organization we call Bahamas Electricity Corporation cuts off power across the island several times a day: Can’t stay in your house without sweating like Marion Barry at a “Just Say No To Drugs” rally.


Facing these seemingly insurmountable obstacles to peaceful living, you might think it would be easy to sink into a psychological bottomless pit of despair and desperation. However, all is not lost. Nature gracefully provides a visual respite for those tormented souls, in the delicate form of one small thing: Flowers.

The Bahamas has an abundance of flowering trees and bushes that love the heat (Miami and otherwise), love the rain, and love the weather at this time of year. After months of sitting dormant covered only in the green of their leaves and the rough brown of their bark, flowering trees and bushes soak up and store every drop of rain that begins to fall from April onward. They then combine this wetness with each heat-filled shaft of sunshine they can catch.

When this combination finally reaches critical mass, the trees and bushes across the islands literally explode with color. It’s impossible to ignore, and beautiful to look at.


Nature’s way of getting attention, I guess.