Getting to Know Nature! This is an actual contest! 😮

Taking pictures on our farm is one of my favorite activities, so when I saw @phoenixwren's Getting to Know Your Nature Photo Contest I decided that I should participate, fulfulilling an obsession I have with stacking functions.

We went out yesterday and this morning and took 7 photographs (plus many more that didn't make the cut). I have a few megabytes of data plan left until 11am, so this is also a steem post stress test on my thumbs ;p

_{1. Celcropia Peltata}

This species of tree is infamous around the tropics as one of the top 100 most invasive species in the world: celcropia peltata! Its native here, but this tall and fast growing pioneer tree has great uses as both posts and firewood. Why is it so hated? Ants live in it.

So my stiff arm is just how hugs look with a tree literally crawling with ants!

_{2. Ceiba pentandra}

So rough bark was a lot harder to find than I thought. Instead of taking a serious walk to find some old timers in the lower section, I cheated. Here is a spiky bark tree, we call it ceiba bonga!

This tree was planted about three years ago and as you can tell, despite being smooth, the bark is quite 'rough', all covered in spikes.

_{3 Fungi}

We have taken some epic fungi pics over the years. The best and most interesting fungis, weird shapes and colors, can be found in the forest, but even up here fungus seems to sprout out of anything left out too long. This is a piece of coffee wood that we thought might be useful for some project or another.

_{4 Big leafed Bore}

I feed these leaves to my chickens, and the starch build up in the trunks is used for all animal feeds, and for humans in times of scarcity. This bore plant is one of the top local plant species for transforming carbs to protein in the tropics.

_{5 A Cloudy Sunrise}

The sun sets behind us on the mountain (we face east), so it's sunrise or bust! Unfortunately for the photograph, its a bit overcast today. I won't sweat nearly as much though.

_{6 Hibiscus Collection}

We have four orange types of flowers on the farm. This one that I chose is from our Hibiscus Collection, I personally collect different colors of hibiscus, they are very easy to propagate with cuttings and grow really well here, so when I see a bush of a new color I am always eager to rip a limb off.

_{7 Rocks}

One day I will tell the story of how we filled our french drain with these white rocks without even having a road to the propery!

I hope you all enjoyed this photo scavenger hunt, I tried to add in some interesting flavor text to give you all more of a glimpse into our lives.

Give @phoenixwren some love and jump on in with your very own photos! Lets get to know our Mother Nature!