Good Morning Rose

The whitish pink rose still opens up occasionally, it is not that fantastically beautiful, but is the only surviving rose plant in my garden.

You do not need to be handsome or beautiful, most importantly is how to survive long in this competitive world.

The Sucker

Far away, it looks like a grey bent gravel. But actually it is a wet slimy living thing wriggling straight on the wet floor. When disturbs, it just pretends to be dead gravel and bent, motionless.

When it was turned over, it appeared that it had sucker like the lizard's foot, except that the middle was slimy, helping it to move steadily on the floor and the wall. Perhaps,the slime helps the fellow to glide on the floor! It is like a worm, I cannot see other features.  

Fireball Flower

Two spherical flowers, made up of hundreds of threads, opened up again last week  at the darker side of the garden under the tree. This plant does not like too much sunlight, but when it opens up it it like a fireball sun. What drives the plant to produce this shape of flower?

Full Moon

It is hard to believe after raining incessantly for the whole last week causing floods in many areas around Kuching, tonight the sky can be so clear with full moon.

Tonight is the last night of the Chinese Lunar Year, and after that everything will be back to normal for the Chinese. No more celebration and feasts.

"Bombing" started again after this last dinner, the last effort to drive away the evils and the bad lucks.

Wishing the Monkey Year NOT to be that mischievous but PEACE and PROSPEROUS!

Flamingo Flower (Anthurium andraeanum)

While Hawaii Anthurium spathes are occasionally used as wedding flower bouquets, in this land, these light glossy red heart-shaped spathes are often standing upright among the long dark green leathery leaves in the gardens, waiting for nature's game-over.

My Ugly Dog

What did he see that made him so Delighted?

(a)  Beautiful and sexy female dog ?
(b)  Delicious food ?
(c)  gaming and hunting?
(d)  treasure?
(e)  friends?

The answer is (c), he saw a rat moving around the plants.

Zephyr Lily

The two types of lilies can still be occasionally noticed sprawling in the garden, pink and white. I like both varieties, but pink is somehow more outstanding.

The White Caterpillar

It wriggled on the water hose. I did not see it initially, I would have got stung and screaming round with pain as caterpillar's sting is quite poisonous, often initiating allergy like swollen hand or face.

But it is a beautiful creature, it has a long black "eye" across the otherwise hairy body. How did it come down to the car park from the plants and crossed the drain, it was still a mystery. 
What is this insect then? Butterfly or the Moth? 
Moth is likely the answer.

Dawn Sky Can be beautiful Too

As the sun sinks beyond the horizon, the bright reddish, pink, orange and yellow colours are gone, but the remnant of the dissipated blue is still there, brightening up the blue sky minutes before night fall. It can be beautiful especially with various types of clouds playing around. Do you see those Goblins sleeping or lying there together?

Defiant Behaviour of Tongkat Ali Plant

After cutting down the single trunk tree at the ground level, the plant responded by growing with multi branches. Such defiance instinct is seen in most of the living things of this Earth. It complies with the Newton's Law, every action will have reaction, but I find this, multiple reactions.

In dictatorial countries, leaders always thought that by suppressing the people with draconian laws, putting people to jail, sealing their mouths and even killing them, in order to cover their wrong doings, such actions ALWAYS responded with defiance, growth of hatred and finally violence, until such leaders ended in tragic. 
Therefore, it is best that leaders should learn from history, set up good examples on honesty, integrity, hard working and with good moral, so that all the people can follow them and are proud of them, having single strong trunk rather than multiple weak branches, only then the country will become strong and wealthy.

Young Pineapple

When it is young, the skin is beautiful with many colours, reddish being the theme. Violet flowers are also seen at the upper part of the fruit. 
When it is older, the red colour will disappear, so do the flowers. First, it will be green, then yellow and finally orange when ripe. It is ready to be eaten.
The crown can be used to propagate the plant although suckers and tills are commonly use to plant commercially. In fact, I cut the crown into few pieces and planted, surprisingly, they all grew.

The Water-hen and the Monitor Lizard.

The water-hen finally decided to leave the ugly scene, but she still stopped a while and looked back. What was she thinking about, that I did not know. 
She could be thinking what I thought, our brain sizes are totally different! My brain size is 1500cc but this bird's brain size seems to be less than 10cc. Are they emotional?
I was told that Swans seemed to have one partner throughout their life and grassland hawk committed suicide when their partners died. Are they that emotional?

The Colourful Moth

The external wings are quite badly damaged, but the inner wings are colourful due to to bright yellow.
It flew into my house a few nights ago, but the next day it could not fly already, resting on the floor. When I picked it  up, it sprayed a lot of powder on my hand, trying to protect itself. It looks like every living thing on this Earth tries to attack potential enemies by attacking when threatened.
I do not what is the content of the white powder, no laboratory facility to analyse the compound. Old people said it could blind your eyes. Want to try by rubbing your eyes?

Water Apple Tree

The tree is now 15 years old, it does not produce many fruits as before, but there are always some around especially at this time, raining season. Most of the time, I just left them dropped to floor due to the height or to be eaten by birds.

I like these fruits too. It costs US$2 to 3 in the market depending what varieties. Some are big and some of small. Some are sweet, others may be ordinary.

Pomolo Tree

It has been producing at least 30 fruits per year for the last ten years, supplying fresh Vitamin C and fibres to my family. Most of the fruits were taken by me as I like this type of fruit more than others.
Just spend a little time and planted into the garden, you will get the fruits after a few years and continued on for at least 15 yeas. It does not required much maintenance and attention.

The Tree Is Not blind

I was worry about that this Pomolo tree might knock off the wall lamp as it grew into giant size with a branch extending towards the lamp.
But it seems that the tree had feeling, it split into many smaller branches and by-passed the lamp not only sideways, and also in up direction. 

We might have under-estimated the thoughts and ability of plants!

Quiz- What is the White-breasted Waterhen thinking?

1. What happens to you? Why are you lying on the road?
2.  You silly fellow, why you crossed the road without looking left and right? 
3. Umm--, food! can it be eaten? It is a rare delicacy!  
4. Alien! Let me carry back and carry out experiments and research on it.

My Ugly Dog - Dog Dance

"What is so great about Lion Dance?  Our Dog Dance is much Better!
Start the Drum, I show you people what is Dancing about!"

"Don-don-don, don-don-don-chia, don-don-don-chia --------"

Our one-eyed dog starts his Dog Dance! It is free. 

For Lion Dance, you have to pay at least RM100 to come for a short Dance. For complicated high skilled Dance such as reaching a height of 4-6m, you may have to pay more than RM400(US$100).

The downfall of My Water Lily 

What happens to my Water lily? The leaves are almost all gone and the tadpoles have insufficient shades to hide!

For the past two weeks, raining had been too frequent and the water level was continuously full in the pond about 1.5 feet above normal level. I did not bother to drain, thinking that the plant is a water plant, submergence would not be a problem. But when I went to check a few days ago, poor water lily, half dead already! I drained away the water hoping it would survive again. 
It appears that the plant can only grow well in constant low water level or muddy soil environment.

The Dying Monitor Lizard - Revolting Sight

I did not know what it was thinking, its eyes were still wide open and clear, having the last few breaths. Was it cursing or self pitying? 

The creature is ugly but compare to those creatures or monsters who are greedy and corrupted, it is much more acceptable.

To prevent it to be squashed into pieces or pancake in the middle of the road, I stopped my car and used a stick to put him to the road side. 

Dust to dust, I said good bye to my this young neighbour, as I could not do anything more.

My Neighbour - Young Monitor Lizard

It has one of the most primitive digestive systems by swallowing any food straight into its stomach.

But now. its digestive organ is squeezed out from the mouth after a vehicle, probably intentionally, ran over him near my house. It is unlikely to survive even though it is still conscious and struggle to move. 
If you are a surgeon, do you think it can be saved as the pinkish organ is not ruptured?

The tail is about one and half time longer than the body, what is the function of such long tail?

Run and Hide! Dinasour is coming!

That was how the Chinese New Year started off when people sighted a Monster few thousand years ago. But don't worry, they found a solution, setting off firecrackers and hitting the drums, the monster ran away and never appeared again.

The western legends were slightly different, they also sighted the monsters (dragons which could sprayed fire) and needed a hero or Prince to kill the monster and saved the beautiful princess. And thereafter they lived happily together. But there was no yearly celebration, only stories and legends.

Actually, it was a small monitor lizard on the road, ran over by a vehicle, having his last breathe.

My Ugly Dog - Sprint Coach

"You know why Usain Bolt cannot run faster than 8.15 second in 100m (12.27m per second)? Because, his sprinting technique is wrong!"
"Let me tell you our dog's sprinting technique, I guarantee that he can reach 16m per second, as fast as the leopard. That is how we hunting dog, get them!"

This is the way, it is called rocket thrust. My two hind legs are like rocket fuel. The moment "Go" is set, the two legs will back-fire and my tail rotate like a rotor. There you go, 16m per second,  6.25s for 100m!

Chinese New Year 2016 (2)

Today is probably the last day for people to visit friends and relatives. Tomorrow, everyone will be busy for their routine life, working and worrying about the future.
It was a wet and gloomy Chinese New Year, other than the evening noisy fire crackers. It rained continuously almost every alternate day causing serious flooding in many low regions of Kuching. Many people have to celebrate the festival at make-shift places. It was however not as bad as a few years ago, when most of Kuching was flooded. 

For almost one and half month already, weather had been gloomy, but sunshine could be very hot and burning. 

Is it a sign of poor economic showing of the coming year?

Gravitational Waves

It took 100 years to be able to detect ripples of the fabric of time and space following a violent event (collision of two black holes) in space after Einstein predicted through his theory of general relativity in 1915. Unfortunately, he did not live extra long enough to see this, he died in 1955. He is really a Science legendary figure which nobody can surpass. Just look at E=mc2, it took about 110 years for French supercomputer to confirm the accuracy of the formula. Nobel committee simply was or is not qualified to judge him!
Despite his brilliant mind, he could not complete this theory of Grand unification of the Big and Small by thought, it was a pity!
Let us patiently wait for the next genius to come by, perhaps through AI hybrid or GM human to continue his work!

Inspiration From Sky- Monster Character

If you are short of the ideas how your imagined monsters shall look like, do spend some time looking at the sky, you may find some inspiration up there. This elephant nose Monster is blowing smoke in the evening sky!

Orange Crossandra Pungens

This plant has prospered very well near the ground in my garden, outshining periwinkle, roses, perennials,Ctenanthe Oppeheimiana, Caladium bicolor, etc. They grow well under the shed, unlike others which require a lot of sunlight.
There is another yellow variety, it does not grow as well. I shifted it to my farm.
The orange colour is brighter but I prefer yellow.

The Faces of Death

Like all living things, this is the final moment we have to face in our destiny, the faces of death. While they are left to be disintegrated,  we have the honour to be buried properly and degraded in the specified and confined place. But we are like them, every atom of us to be disintegrated and ready for recycling to form other matters. Some atoms of us may form new insects and some atoms of the insects may form new us.

Chinese New Year

Today is the first day of the Chinese New Year, wishing everyone in this world happy and at peace (even though I know is impossible).
Last midnight, it was just like war zone in Kuching as tons of firecrackers were set off, which could be heard far away. Look like Kuching people are still rich enough to burn money even though it is illegal. Belief and fun probably were the themes. People believed that the thunderous noise could drive away the evil spirits and misfortunes, just like centuries ago. Children, even adults liked fun.
Customs sometimes supersede the laws which are far away. When the tiger is not around, the monkey is the king. 
Yes, this is a monkey year, it is expecting to have a lot of mischievous things happening in the coming new year. Let see what they are. As long as you treat those events as monkey business, no need to be too emotional, everything will look al right.

Kong-Si-Fatt-Choy!!!!!

The Logic of Such Evolution

It is a white trumpet flower, but it is not attractive. It is closer to squarish rather than round. The boundaries of the five petals are distinct but they had fused together to form a trumpet. The anthers and stigma are short, hardly noticeable.  I did not see any insects around. How then this plant pollinates?
The plant does not seem to require pollination. It is very invasive species and grows rapidly to any hostile environment by continuously extending its stems. Just cut a short stem and throw on the ground, roots will come out and soon the stems are everywhere. Flowers are hardly necessary. 
Of course, without change of gene structure, the chance of survival is less when undergoes a harsh environmental change.
Furthermore, facing upward trumpet flowers will not survive during raining as the trumpet is filled up with water, too heavy to be held by a small stalk.

Why Sunset is reddish ?

This is the question often asked by my friends or young relatives who have no science background. Many professional people would not be able to answer this too as they had returned their scientific knowledge to their high school teachers. Can you answer me?

To me, colours of light appear to be an illusion. It you look right angle into this photo, it is mainly reddish and yellowish orange. But if you look from bottom up, it is almost totally red. If you look from top down, the colour appears to be bluish. So, it must be something to do with our angle of sight.
In fact, light comprise a mixture of visible electromagnetic wavelengths to our eyes (to other animals, the perception may be different). These colours are red, orange, yellow, green, light blue, deep blue and violet. Our atmosphere contains a lot of molecules of gases and dusts. Light scatters as it passes through such particles. But blue light scatters the most as these particles are generally smaller than its wavelength (this is called Rayleigh Scattering). During the mid-day, the atmosphere above us is thinner directly towards the sun, we see yellow sun, while towards other area of the sky, the blue light is scattered, we see blue sky. At evening, our line of sight is at an angle to the horizontal, the atmosphere is thicker, when most of the blue light is scattered, leaving the red,orange and yellow colour waves approaching us from the sun.

The False Eyes of the Butterfly

Look like the false eyes are functioning as intended; three damaged regions of the wings are near the false eyes. The damage to the tail is the worst, which apparently resembling a face with two eyes and  a nose (actually two small false eyes). These eyes are sparkling. The butterfly really knows how to deceive predators just to survive for another few weeks or days.

No matter what, if we can live as longer, the impression or contribution or continuation or opportunities in or to this world is better.

The surface Scum in the Pond

It has been a while that the second pond is covered with a layer of scum on the surface. Without direct contact and turmoil by wind, fresh oxygen is unlikely going to dissolve into the water. 
I wonder how long the fish inside the pond can last. Why thick scum forms in the second pond while the first pond is relatively clear?

An Art Piece 

What would you add in if you are asked to draw a painting out of this image?

A bird or birds or butterflies or an aeroplane?

Colonising New Area

This plant extends the stems into the new area before leaves start to grow out of the stems and form a healthy plant.
The stems seem to be the exploratory tool/supply bases, prior to colonisation of new area. The chance of survival is high due to ability to get food and water supply from established area.
This method reminds me, in order to colonise other planets or stars effectively, humans have to establish bases of adequate supplies, whether food or water or other supports.
Can we establish bases/stations in empty space which can last thousands of years?
Perhaps we can, if we save money out of arm race and wastage of unnecessary resources!

The Water Apple Flowers and the Wasp

"I thought you want me to help in your fertilization,why you make yourself so complicated until I could not enter your vital parts!"
The wasp seems to be annoyed by the difficulty to reach the flower centre.

Flowers are still coming out for my 15 years old water apple tree, but fruits are few.

Rubbish River

Just look at the amount of rubbish floating on this Undup River at Sri Aman, you will understand how much Sarawak people like to dump their rubbish into the river. 
Of course, nature also plays a part by sweeping the timber debris into the river, but most of them are the results of human activities.

Water Lily Plant

The newly planted water lily is growing well with many floating leaves in my former waging pool. Hopefully it will flower soon but I have no idea what kind of flowers will come out! The leaves are different from the varieties I saw in Sarikei Semankoi pond and other gardens.

Typical Wet Paddy Field in Sarawak

From the green green field a month ago, it is now changed to slightly golden field. Next month, the paddy will be ready to harvest. 
Wet paddy is grown on the lowland, often on peat swamp near the river. I used to plant when I was young, following my mother. From clearing to harvest, it took about four to five months, really hard and muddy work.