The pretty Fish

"I see you, can you see me?

The lake varies from shallow at the lake bank to about 1.2m at deepest, but the bank is the favourite place for these fish during the hot day. Why?

Tests done on water samples on a pond showed that dissolved oxygen content varied from highest at the surface to almost nil at 600mm below the water surface. That is why the fish likes to rest like that because the lake bank is less than 300mm depth and there is plenty of oxygen to breathe.

Beauty and the Beast

The Bamboo Orchid is a beautiful flower but the plant bug is an ugly beast (actually not that ugly). 
But what is it doing, taking the morning dew from the flower or sucking the juice ?

Light Yellow Coconuts

Normally, we have green and yellow coconuts on a coconut tree. But this tree at the Petaling Jaya near Kuala Lumpur produces only light yellow fruits.
Perhaps the tree is on a public place, nobody or monkey climbs up and plucks the fruits away. 
It is surprising that with so many foreign workers and poor people around, the fruits can still remain there.

Bamboo Orchids

The flowers are flourishing again along the hilly sides of the Borneo trunk roads, but not in my farm. It would not grow well at the slightest change of its environment.

Ugly Greenish Starlings

Most of the birds are pleasant to watch, except few types. 
These greenish starlings are obviously not my favourites. Red eyes, high pitch voices and ugly look are some of the characteristics.

My Ugly Dog

"Go back to the Kennel!" I screamed.
He grumbled, "No, I don't want! I want to be free!"
This fellow never learned from the lesson, still wanting to go out of the house.

The other day, he was blinded by an infection after having an outdoor stint. His only eye turned red at first. He then fell into the large drain outside the gate and it took me great effort to pull him out of the deep drain. The next day his eyes turned white and could not see anything at all, losing its sense of direction, colliding everywhere.  I thought his nose sense should be able to guide him, but no, he seemed to be lack of scent.

I applied some antibiotics paste on his eye for three days and luckily the white stuff went away and he managed to see again. He was happily jumping up and down, and has forgotten the painful and fearful experience. 

Some humans were like that too, never learned from the painful histories.

One stormy afternoon on the Borneo Island

From sunny day, the sky suddenly turned cloudy. These low clouds were rather uniform in level, changing the mountains into flat plateaus visually.
Rain started to fall after a while bringing fresh feeling to me in the long distance drive.

The magic stick insect

The stick insect is whitish green when it is resting on the whitish green stems, but it become green when rests on the green stem. Like magic, the insect can trick our eyes. 
What will happen if humans also can change colours in accordance to the environment, for example, if we can turn white when we are in Britain, turn black when we are in Africa or turn brown when we are in China, less racial discrimination will occur in this world!

Tongkat Ali Plant

The plant in my farm is re-growing well many branches and leaves. The root must be deep and big, probably 1.5-2.0 long, to be able to sustain so many branches of leaves. It probably costs more than US500 on the market.

Dark Brown Grasshopper

This is definitely a grasshopper, short antennae and strong hind legs, but look ugly. The thorax seems to be longer than other varieties.

Here come the Green Grasshopper with dark Wings

On your mark, get ready, JUMP!

But am I really grasshopper, my antennae are too long and fine!

Zephyr Flowers

Are there much in common of the two flowers who belong to the same family? Six petals, six anthers and one white flower within the flower, but the shapes vary and the pink flower looks healthier and bigger than the yellow one. 

A Tree of Birds

What are they looking, towards the same direction?
The sun bird with the yellow belly is looking attentively while the sparrow seems to be nervous but does not find other bird threatening, otherwise it would have fly away.

Wait, there is another bird down there, the swallow, it is looking at the other direction.

Goat's feet Plant (Emilia Sonchifolia)

Do they really look like goat's feet?
Flowers and fruits of different stages are there, certainly look unique.
If you have mouth ulcers or throat pain, then just take a few plants of this species  and boil with water and drink in accordance to the Chinese traditional Medicine menu, you may get yourself recovered!

Well, no scientific proof, but remember this year Nobel prize in Medicine went to Mdm Tu YouYou who researched on certain herbal plant and found artemisinin which could kill malaria parasites!

Ants and Aphids

Homo-sapiens are not the only beings domesticating animals and milk them. Ants also look after the aphids and milk the honeydew out of the insects. Such instincts are found in many of the success-ful living things, co-operating to survive in this competitive world. 
Unfortunately, there are many stupid and dump beings who think that they are the only ones having the rights to live on this land, ridding off any being not like them and even exterminate them. These beings' mentality are lower than the ants, and eventually these selfish beings will become extinct due to lack of survival instincts and making too many enemies.

Golden Grasshopper

We have seen a lot of green, brown and other coloured grasshoppers, gold plated grasshopper is not often encountered. It laid still on the butterfly plant leaf at Miri.

Ugly Peeping Sparrow

Oh, little ugly sparrow, what are you peeping at ?

Chocolate Pansy (Jumonia hedonia ida)

It rests on the ground at my Kuching house backyard just to have sun-bath. Maintenance of the wings is important for butterfly to fly efficiently.

Peacock Pansy (Jumonia almana javana)

This colourful butterfly busily extracted juice from the green berries plant in Miri house backyard. 
This wild plant has many small white flowers and attracts many types of butterflies. I have not found its name yet. It is also found in my Sarikei old home.

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Blue Branded King Crow Butterfly (Euploea eunica coelestis)

Towards the end of the year, butterflies seem to be aplenty flying around, some of them possibly migrated from somewhere afar. This King Crow flew around the camp in the farm and liked to rest on the plastic cover. 

A stormy Day

As the rain raged the farm, there wasn't much I could do except to take cover in the shed, watching the rain falling. I could not see far, not even the ponds 200m away. The wind blew, the leaves rumbled and the rain drops turned into music and everything darkened. The whole place looked so deserted, not even birds, animals and insects were seen. It lasted for more than an hour and cleaned off all the dirts created by humans.

Serenity

I always like to sit on the wood bench and look through the forest window in my farm, watching the ponds of still water, whenever I am tired. 
Serenity is the word probably suits this view.  I wonder where else can I find peace after all in this world, full of self-interested people.

Car Accident

Every time I travelled along the Borneo Highway, I often saw car accident along the road like this one. This one seemed to be not that serious but many were fatal. Malaysia was the 17th most dangerous country for road users according a study by University of Michigan in 2014, 30 fatalities per 100,000 individuals. World average is 18.
As I am a frequent traveller, I wonder when is my turn!
Why accidents happened?
Negligent, Fell asleep, drunkard, Speeding, not following traffic rules, mechanical failures, tyre punctures, animals or humans suddenly cross the road,weather or road design/maintenance defects?

The point is even you are driving very carefully, someone may just bang into you!

Pink Bougainvillea

Normally there are three small white flowers surrounded by three beautiful bracts in each group. But here there is one group with four flowers. It seem oddity is quite common in nature. We need mutation to move forwards especially on environmental change.
Oh, tiny wasp, are you looking for honey?

Illusion of the Cresent Moon

Look like the moon being eaten up by a hairy Monster!

Giant African Snail (Achatina fulica)

Am I in trouble to have these snails in the house compound in Miri? I saw them on the ground hiding in the previous cut grass pile.
Actually, these snails are quite commonly found in Sarawak.
They are invasive species mainly fed on the leaves and perhaps the grass. These wild snails often have parasitic nematode which causes meningitis to humans even by just handling. So watch out!! 
In some countries, these snails are cooked as special dishes,oh gosh, look disgusting.

Black and White Munia

At first I thought this bird was the Asian House Martin. But its beak is tough like chestnut munia's beak. 
The colour of the chestnut munia I had encountered was black head and brown body. So I did a little search and it was found to be Black and White Munia.
The feather looks well groomed, neat and tidy.

Expensive Restaurant Food

The other day we had a feast and these two dishes were bought from the restaurant by my family to celebrate my birthday.
They looked nice and but did not taste nice. The cost was RM400 (US$90), one of the most expensive dishes I had eaten.

The most expensive food is not necessarily the best food. But a lot of thanks to my family for providing the big feast and made the occasion memorable.

Original Caladium Plant

While the pattern and structure of veins of the leaves are quite similar, the white and pink spots on the leaves are different for each leaf, as if somebody splashes the two colours randomly on the leaves. Wonderful, isn't it!

Red Turtle Leaf

The leaf is so red and the shape is like turtle back. But it seems to having disease as some surfaces are peeled off. Nevertheless, the leaf still looks appealing. 
This small tree produces red berries too and the wood is hard. It has been there at the Miri house's backyard for many years.

White Morning Glory

The creeping plant climbs along the fence under a tree. In order to obtain more light, the stem extends more than twice the size of the flower.There is only one flower among the green leaves and green grass, making the flower unique and outstanding at the fence of the Miri House.

Lemon Fruit

After planting into the soil for six months, this lemon plant finally bears a single fruit ready to be plucked.  But why this one? I had planted at least forty plants in the farm and some were older, but I did not see any fruit?

I like lemons because the juice is nice and pungent. It can quench thirst almost instantly. The leaves also produce nice smell.

Brown Fish Pond

Whoop! What happens to the pond water ? Can the fish survive like this? Most of the fish reared locally are Tilapia and Carps. I can see the workers using chicken wastes or some chemicals to feed the fish daily. The smell can be unbearable to even in my farm. I do not know how these people can stand.
I never like to eat reared fish, stagnant water, unknown food being given and taste of earth are the excuses. I prefer deep sea fish, but are expensive. When you are poor, you have not much choice.

The hostile Cat

Obviously I am not a friendly animal. This cat's reaction on seeing me reveals my my dangerous look. Don't worry, I do not eat cat. 
But do not leave parts of the rat you ate on my house compound!

Stick Insect (phasmatodea)

You won't notice it unless you are observant and unless it moves. The light green colour perfectly matches into the creeping plant stems, natural camouflage. This is one of the 300+ species found on the Borneo Island and it is in my Farm.
The body is like a stick and its limps are disproportionately long.