There are three tall coconut palms in the garden and often, when I am sitting on the balcony or at my desk looking out to sea, I hear a great thud and then see a coconut on the ground beneath the tree.
I did wonder to myself how many people must die each year from being hit on the head by coconuts. Some of them are well over one kilogram. Today I heard thud, thud, thud and when I went to investigate, I saw a small group of men.
They had been engaged to shimmy up the palms and cut down the coconuts for the sake of safety. The young thin guy was tasked with the difficult job of scaling the trunk in nothing but his trousers and a piece of rag binding his feet. It was impressive. he made it look pretty easy and climbed around, high up in the branches cutting down dead branches and coconuts.
I have been using several of the bigger ones in my shark tank, my mosquito-proof balcony. They are very good at anchoring the net to the ground when the wind picks up.
Coconuts are often sold from barrows on street corners but they are the familiar small brown hairy type. The ones from our trees are smooth and massive.