Sunset in my Farm

It was a hot day but it had a beautiful sunset. 
I climbed up to the top of the hill, the boundary of my farm, at 6.45pm, and watched the sunset. Simply amazing!

Wild Tropical Vines

The woody vines started from the ground, circled around the tress and finally covered most of the trees. The forest appeared dark.  
I cut at the ground level all these vines, stopping the water and food supplies to the top.
It took six months before the entangled vines finally fell down on the floor, bring sunshine into the forest again. 
It is a long battle between an amateur farmer and the forest.

Little white egret and Patience

Patience is an important value for any living thing to survive. The bird can stand there for hour patiently, and the moment it finds its prey, it just dives down and the poor fish will be in its stomach! A meal is done, it can relax and makes more egrets. This is called life.

Leopard Lacewing Butterfly

It flew underneath the tree shed in my farm with its orangey red on top of the wings standing out. Then it rested on a plant until it was disturbed by another butterfly or by my moving steps. Look like butterfly season is coming, many butterflies are seen in the farm.

Cassandra Pungens

The only plant in the garden is now blooming fully. It took more than two weeks for the flowers to grow from few bracts to the present status. It is so yellow among the green and hence outstanding.

Copperleaf Flowers

They are tiny and have almost the same colour as the leaves, you won't notice if you don't go near!

Nice Pink Hibiscus Rosa Senensis

Although the leaves are ugly and the stamen is short, the flower itself is beautiful. Good morning and thank you for opening up every morning in the Friendship Park.

Green Praying Mantis

You want to fight? I am ready!  The praying Mantis poses like a kungfu fighter. 
When I was young, I liked to watch all the kungfu shows. One type of kungfu imitated the praying mantis and came out with many aggressive steps. I liked this dance and fighting, even imitating it.
As I grew older, I found this rubbish. In this modern time if you have a gun, whatever kungfu cannot be faster than a bullet. 
I found many film shows ridiculous, the heroes have the upper hand in the gun battle, but chose to drop the gun and fist fought with the villains until they themselves were half dead too! In any battle, time and energy conservation are the essences, enemies are everywhere, no time to stop and fist fight!
But those were the young days, idealistic and naive, believing whatever being shown!

Unknown Caterpillar

It happily crawled on my terrace floor, with its body swinging left and right. It is so small, yet every person seems avoiding it, for fear being stung! 
Look at the legs, they look scary with mini hairs or thorns coming out of the main legs. 
How many legs are there on this creature? I counted  thirty pairs visible!

Whose Heart is this?

If you have lost your heart, you better let me know, this heart may be yours. 
Just hope that every human heart is as beautiful as this, not the black heart which terrorises the world.

Ugly Brown and light brown Grasshopper

It seems having skin disease, something like the leprosy, making it one of the most ugliest creature in my farm! It also makes a lot of holes on the leaves.

The leaf of Parasitic Creeper

The leaf of this creeper is unusually large like a Big foot suddenly popped out from the small anchored node. So the creeper is not totally parasitic, it also makes its own food from the green leaf. Another leaf is coming out from the same node too.

Moon Shape

Why the moon is so round? I measure the lateral and vertical diameters of the photograph, they are exactly the same. 
According to the present acceptable theory, the moon was formed from once a ball of molten lava from Earth collision with another planet, the gravity of itself & Earth and self spinning caused the this molten lava to become round in the vacuum. A faster spin would result bulging diameter and a slower spin would probably result standing egg shape?
How did it know the right spin of 455km per hour to form this current perfect round shape?

Ugly Creeper Flowers

The parasitic plant also has flowers, but ugly. You won't like it. It is like irregular white fungi growing on a stalk, an ugly magic wand.

Going Home Across Sarawak River

The happiest moment during the sunset for kampung dweller is to see this boat coming. 
Going Home! 
The same feeling applies to those working and study outstations, going home has become one of the happiest moments of their pressurised environment!

Pink Wishbone Flower and the Bee

So that is where the nectar to be found! 
The flower is too small for studying the interior. This small bee helps me to locate the nectar and the stamen!

Cotton Game

Used to play with the white cotton bandage by tearing into small and loose pieces, then press together to form cotton lump again. Just give pieces of cotton to young children, they will just do this cotton game out of fun and curiosity.

These thin clouds are very similar to the cotton, but of totally different ingredients, water vapour. When they are pressed together, rain and thunder! God must be like children, playing the sky cotton game, causing rain and thunder, bringing joy and suffering to the earth creatures.

Burning and Smoking

Burning is part of the local culture. It is one way to get rid of the rubbish especially grass and leaves. Besides, the smoke also helps to drive away mosquitoes. Who cares about the global warming which is the problem of the rich but not the poor! They live for today only. Tomorrow is too far away.

Lazy Fat red Sunbird

Aren't you suppose to suck nectar from the flower? You are resting on the branch, very un-typical of you! Tired?
Well, I see your problem, you are too fat to fly in the air in order to obtain nectar! How many flaps of wings you need per second  in order to stay in the air?
In actual fact, sun-birds  do not stay in the air to extract nectar, they stand on the nearest branch to the targeted flower and then jump to another branch for another flower. They seldom stay more than 15 seconds on each flower, perhaps a way to protect themselves being targeted by predators.

My Ugly Dog Passport Photo

He is growing old and with one eye, seems even uglier. But he is still our lovely dog!

How creepers suck the nutrients out of the tree

This creeper is just like alien monster, firmly grips the host with roots penetrating into the branch (Just imagine you are being grabbed by this monster with all the hookers penetrating into your blood stream). It does not kill the host instantly but uses the nutrients to allow itself growing further up the branch. After crawling some distance, new nodes are formed and again firmly anchor into the tree branch.

How wild creepers hinder the growth of a tree?

They grow fast and in abundance on the ground and soon climb around the trunk and each branch of the tree. They cannot strangle the branches but the leaves are huge and soon cover the whole tree, blocking the sunlight from reaching the leaves of the tree. Soon the leaves of the tree die, stopping further growth of the tree. 
But some of the trees are strong, they remain dormant there for tens of years until somebody remove the creepers and they start growing again.
My farm used to have a lot of these monster trees, not huge but more than 40 years old. I cut the bases of these creepers, they slowly crumbled down as they died. But new ones tried to invade the trees again, hard and long battles with them in tropical climate!

Papaya

The fruits are already quite big, just wait for another month, they will turn yellow/orange and will be ready to be eaten. 
Meanwhile, just take note that according to some press report recently, the leaves can be used to treat dengue fever. There are thousands of cases now around the country and these leaves may become life saving recipe.

Allamanda carthartica

It is grown on the slightly higher ground in Hui Sing Park and does not seem to apply any fertiliser, yet the yellow trumpet plant blossoms so well. Well drained seems to be the trick.

Graptophyllum pictum

This caricature plant is the only one left in the garden. 
At one time there were plenty of them because of the eye-catching foliage. 
The main attraction is the yellow or white colouring along the central veins of the otherwise ordinary green leaves. Each leaf does not has an exact central white/yellow pattern, some thin and some fatter.

White Bougainvillea flower bracts

Seeing too many pink, red and orange coloured Bougainvillea flower bracts/leaves, a change to white colour is feeling good. 

Angel wing begonia

Even the insect also likes these little beautiful heart bags, what more girls or women! 
They are likely emitting nice scent too.

Hibiscus rosa sienensis

I just realise that this double layer rose-like flower has two stamens, better survival tactic or just branches of into two at top? 
Look like a lot of research if really want to study the details, have to dissect it and not just appreciate it far away! 

Herbal Plant with Red Fruit

I still have not found the name of this shrub plant which bears a lot of near round fruits. It is a traditional herbal plant. 
My third uncle said by boiling the fruits and drank it, it would help to reduce high blood pressure and cooled the body. He planted it many years ago. He and my auntie have no blood pressure problem even though my auntie is quite big size. She could not walk properly due to ankle problem. My uncle is 73 years old and is very fit, living in the countryside 5km from my farm. He asked me to plant it. Why not?

Red Powderpuff (Calliandra haematocephala)

Look like the flower just "exploded" from the round buds, fresh and red with numerous stamens. Haven't counted  the number of stamens per flower or how many stamens each of this round bud produces and how many buds per flower. Some seem to have more buds than other.

Flowers of Cordyline terminalis

Not only the leaves are colourful, the long inflorescences of flowers on the stalk terminal are also beautiful. The only problem is when the plant is fully grown to about 3m, the flowers are too high to be closely watched!

Cannonball Tree ( Couroupita guianensis)

The last time I saw this tree was at Penang Botanical Garden. This South American native tree is the first one I saw in Sarawak, at Kuching Hui Sing Park. It looks old but not as big as the Penang Cannonball trees. It also does not flower as many. You would not notice the tree if there is no flower.

Ugly Cannonball Flower

The flower looks primitive, thick six petals and with rings of stamens at the centre. The flower is likely smelly or strong scented with many insects on the petals. The buds are like cannon balls, some are ready to flower. 

Caladium

The veins and nearby areas of the leaf are pink in colour, the edge perimeter is green and in between is spotty white. This variety near Hui Sing Park is slightly different from my garden which is generally green with pinkish veins.
But there is one leaf which is mainly green with pink veins and small areas of spotty white. Is it mutation or is it young, not ready to change to spotty white towards the edge?

U-trunk Tree

Normally, a tree will grow with single trunk upwards to the sky with branches coming  out from the sides of the main trunk or the trunk branches out in Y-shape . This tree has a U-shape junction making it looks so unique. What caused the tree to grow like this ?  It is at least thirty years old.

Simple Red Hibiscus

The  flowers are simple with five bending petals and a long stigma each, pointing downwards, yet eye catching. Each flower has a long green stalk extending from the stem.

Cordyline Terminalis (Hawaiian Good luck Plant)

This non-woody shrub grows best under a few palm trees, bright violet and reddish. 
But after a few years, the leaves at the lower region will drop, leading to bare bottom, just like in my garden. I have to plant Acalypha wilkesiana (Copperfield) around these plants to cover up the ugly bare bottom.

Light Violet Philippine Violets

Then, why these plant flourishes well in the garden? No fertiliser too, I have not seen so many flowers opening at one time for this plant, almost every day for the last two weeks. Sometimes, just wonder how these chemical factories work!

Pink Periwinkle Flowers

Only this variety is left in my garden, where are the white ones ? The pink flowers also seem to lose some sunshine, perhaps insufficient minerals as I do not use artificial fertilisers.

The Red Sunbird

This red bird is seen every day in my garden busily collecting nectar. 
Well, getting comfortable with me and make a nice pose,  thank you and good morning! 

Yellow Holy rose

In the morning, it looks so fresh and beautiful. Morning dew also condenses on the flower. There are now plenty of them opening up in my backyard. Soon, the bumpy bees will be coming to collect the nectar.

Pink Wishbone Flower

"Ah ha-ha-ha" the comical flower laughs! 
You can see the white teeth, the yellow tongue and brown throat too!

Kuching Hui Sing Park

Hui Sing Park is another place I like to walk in the morning. It has no lake, no fantastic buildings and structures compared to the Friendship Park. The Park is probably one third the size, nearer to the highway but it has more trees and well maintained too. 
Just to have different environment and atmosphere, I sometimes travel six kilometres for the morning walk!

Water Apple Tree

After sixteen years, the fruit tree in my backyard is 10m high, but produces few fruits. The magnificent snowing scene of the flowers has become history. 
Perhaps, it is time to cut down the tree as the branches encroach onto the roof, dropping a lot of leaves and twigs on the gutter and roof, blocking the rainwater discharge.

The Secret Underground Dweller

As I broke the white structure into pieces, I saw many small orange and white crawling occupants, the termites. Termites can build different types of structure for their home in according to the environments. Just wonder how they get this Architect's instinct!

Secret Tunnel and the White Structure

As I excavated about 300mm into the ground at my backyard, I discovered this secret tunnel and the white delicate structure. Is this animal remain? Certainly not, bones would mingle with the soil. This one is nicely constructed with sufficient headroom!