The Isle of Man in a quirky place. We have our Manx Fairies who live under Fairy Bridge. We have words you can't say like, rats - we say longtails, because it's bad luck. We have a language called Manx, which derived from gutteral Irish/Celtic, with the odd Viking word thrown in. We have our own currency. We are part of the British Isles, a Crown Dependency, but not part of the UK. I could go on. One of the strangest sights of all though are the palm trees.I mentioned to Laurie GLIMPSES OFSOUTH PASADENA that we have palm trees on this funny little island sat in the middle of the Irish Sea after viewing hers. Now in a warm climate you'd obviously expect them, but here? It's cold, damp, we even had snow this week. Hot sunny days are few, very few, yet these palms above thrive, mainly tree lined walkway though the park, but these above are adjacent to the harbour inlet. I snapped just the palm tops and kept the chimney pots and telephone wires in so you can place the palms in context of the island setting, which is certainly not South Pasadena. Obviously this was also on one of our brighter days.
Thanks for all the suggestions for online photo printing. Home printing as suggested by GABRIOLA, SNAPPER would be ideal, but logistically it's getting the right quality paper on the island as online ordering also has it's pitfalls on a small island. Delivery charges astronomical, or even getting companies to deliver in the first place. I'm sure I'll sort something it's just I was very happy with my last company withrange of products, price, turnaround and paper until they ahem, improved things. No you didn't Photobox, that's why you've losing your professional clients.
35 comments:
Must be a unique experience living in a beautiful place like this!
Your palm tree looks a lot like our antipodean native to New Zealand, the cabbage tree or Ti.
Check the info here:
http://www.virtualoceania.net/newzealand/photos/flora/cabbagetrees/
The English imported this plant in to the British isles last century I believe. They are hardy little devils!
This is odd,I never would have expected to find these there! Nice shot!
LB,
Palm trees? Lb, you just slay me. You survived blog of note being awarded to ya. Deserved, but heck who were those guys.
Oh I was going to say it looks like our cabbage tree too!
http://lisasarsfield.wordpress.com/2008/10/17/cabbage-tree-tauranga-dp12/
Small world.
I love all the bird photos too.
Thanks for the picture and also for the accompanying write-up which is very educating!
Cheers
Rakesh
I think I have had too much JD. That could NOT be a palm tree in IOM!!!! NO WAY! I will have another look in the a.m. and see if it's still there. BTW, Knox says I owe that bottle of black label JD to HER not YOU. How are we going to work this out. Maybe a group trip together??? Now that would be a blast!
Stunning photography!
Palms do seem slightly out of place that far north. Obviously they do know what they are doing, though, as this specimen looks quite healthy. Far more believable than fairies under bridges :)
Pal tree in island of Man ? I'm surprising...
Good explain, today...
Pretty neat, Babooshka! Looks like some kind of desert plant alright, but then you have the three-legged symbol too. :)
Looks like the South Pacific! What is going on?
Hello, I like the blog.
It is beautiful.
Sorry not write more, but my English is bad writing.
A hug from Portugal
Now you make me want to post my photo of a snow-covered palm tree in Co Donegal. We have a lot of palms round here. Mad!
The Isle of Man is lucky enough to benefit from the Gulf Stream, which brings warm waters up from the Gulf of Mexico. This allows such plants to thrive in latitudes that would normally be way to extreme. If we look across the Atlantic to the same latitudes in Canada they suffer far harsher winters because they do not have this warm current bathing their shores. The worrying thing is that one consequence of Global Warming for the British Isles is thought to be the shutting down of the Gulf Stream and so much harsher winters for us here too.
A competition is close.
There is the competition between Colin and me tomorrow!! I have wait this chance for nearly 1 year. I bought a new CGB from golforderonline specially in order to win him. Wow~~ God blesses me.
Back to reality or not?
Thank you Gary(Barkerbitesback) for you excellent explanation. Now get back to drawing this week's explosive Cartoon.
Love the palm trees, very warming on this chilly morning!
You do live in a very interesting place!
Unexpected but true...
We had them in Brittany too where I grew up..We do need that Gulf Stream to stay around...
It must be interesting to be a little bit special, out of order...It is always "charming spice" of each original thing/person/country/island....but the prediction of cold winters in future is not very optimistic...
Oh my! Nice shot! These palm trees are very familiar here in the Philippiness! It's nice to know that you have these confusing trees also there! Have you seen its flowers? Their like Baby bottle cleaners. Branches just sprout everywhere it can. But it is beautiful I must say!
Babooshka, I have something of you, please visit my blog right away after you read this. I hope you'd like it! God bless you and Mabuhay!
Steven^^
there's no reason why you cant have palm trees if they survive in your weather conditions!
Babooshka, those are not palmtrees, but Dracaenas of some kind (there are lots of them). They are much more resistent than most palmtress, but even so, it's weird and nice at the same time, to see them over there :-)
When I saw the picture of the palm trees my first thought was that you were somewhere on holiday. They've certainly adapted to your climate. I'd love to have a palm tree here, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't like our -20C winter temperature. :)
Your photographs are lovely!
Regards from Spain
xxx
Think LL karen is right. Here is a wiki on the NZ cabbage tree.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordyline_australis
And wiki must be right. So you had snow too huh.
JM- Thanks for the info regarding the trees. We all learn something new when blogging.
First, I was amazed at your report that palm trees could grow in your part of subtropical world. But then, when I took a closer look at the photograph, I don't think it's a kind of palm tree at all, Babooshka. Forgive me for saying this, but looking at its physiological characteristics, that tree is more likely PANDANUS UTILIS (pandan) or a family of it - a kind of tree that grows mostly on tropical beaches.
It is quite possible that the fruit and seeds of that tree have travelled with the gulf stream from the warmer Gulf of Mexico to the Isle of Man. It is a tough plant that can grow on harsh (tropical) climates and conditions. What I didn't know was that it could also grow in colder places like the Isle of Man.
I'm not a botanist, so I could be wrong although I'm pretty sure it's not of a palm family. You could probably check with a local botanist ...
Palm trees? Really! Hmmmm. I never would have guessed.
I'd be grateful if one of our American friends would please explain to all of us non-Americans why it is only the stupid mindless right wing Republican supporters who spam blogs with their disgusting smears and lies? Thanks.
You're welcome, Babooshka! :-)
Eki, it's not a Pandanus. It would never thrive with that climate, I'm sure it's a Dracaena. :-)
I thought I was back in Florida again! Great shot, Babooshka!
Is this not in Hawaii? =D
A very calm image, I like blue a lot thats why.
They have palm trees in County Wexford just a short hop over the pond from you and they are thriving!
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