Mushrooms climb up a tree

I do not know why I have this odd feeling.

What do you see in the above picture? They are of course orange fruits atop a tropical tree. I am fully agree with you.

But I am a mushroom addict.

When these mushrooms took the effort to climb uphill while I was inside the jungle just now, I cannot help but have to think that these orange fruits are also climbing up a tree. It is crazy to get everybody with me in a hiking mood. But if going back to both pictures, am I wrong to say so?

Are the orange fruits the mushrooms in disguise? They accompany me all the way from the jungle to this undergrowth.

So, this is a mushroom, I insist, at Cerok Tokun.

A different Cycad Blue

A monkey at Cerok Tokun still looks the same monkey no matter how much I move around, but not a butterfly. A butterfly can change its appearance within a second and I was always confused that this was then another new species.

I had taken many shots of a Cycad Blue in my garden; that is to say, I must have known this little critter very well.

I found a new couple of thumbnail-sized butterflies fluttering about at Cerok Tokun this morning. I was of course not able to capture those butterflies in flight, so I went after them and waited for them to perch on the grasses. I bet they would do that, and in fact they did.

It was a plain silvery blue one without any complicated design. This looked nothing attractive in the wild.

When one of them put its wings together, it magically changed itself into a Cycad Blue. At the same time, it did also clear my doubt on why there is a Blue in its name. This has aroused my interest to go after butterflies, one after another in the near future.

A butterfly looks differently at different times, we are alike. It flaps to change, we put on clothes in order to change ourselves dramatically, and to look better.

If You Are Reluctant To Tell Stories

It is fun to see a bird on the jungle floor. It is even more excited to walk along with it.

We walked for about twenty feet, just like old friends do. And it went foraging occasionally while I was a mere spectator.

I did not talk for all the time, but this Puff-throated Babbler seemed to lean its head in such a way wanted to listen from me.

"I am too shy to tell stories outside my blog; sorry for that, my friend."

" No, no, not again. My stories always stuck when coming face-to-face with somebody. You will not succeed with your trick. "

"OK, I fully agree. You have a good voice to sing me a sweet song, and you are a brave bird."

(And somehow I know by now those were your songs that I used to listen in the jungle).

A Sleepy Cycad Blue

Can you tell whether it is a sleepy butterfly? I can't tell by its eyes. Do the low lying antennae hint anything? It is seven o'clock in the evening right now. No, I am not at Cerok Tokun. I have just reached home from work, and found this little Cycad Blue in my garden.

It is seven o'clock right now. Is a butterfly feeling sleepy at seven o'clock?

It is not dancing around or nectar-feeding on end on the colourful flowers. It moves its body frequently for a good sleeping position like we do.

"There are 2 species of Cycad Blue found in peninsular Malaysia - pandava and lajus. The latter has no tails, and is more heavily spotted on the underside." This Cycad Blue is then a pandava.

It is very big in the picture, it is actually as big as my thumbnail.

But most importantly, it seems so tired and would never want to fly anymore. It certainly wants a good rest after a long day of flying.

It must be very sleepy by now.

Stripe-throated Bulbul

I love ferns, and I love the moment they start to unfold, this is when secrets start to reveal. I saw a white spider last time.

I see a fast flying object leaving the coil of fortune this time.

A Stripe-throated Bulbul has been freed. A new life starts.

I do not have any idea how long it has been held inside, but this bulbul does require a few stops for muscle relaxation before really making a strong flight.

It seems to clear its throat by making some "za za za" sound, and then sings a short note whereby I am its first fan.

After the third stop, it is now fully ready to head towards the darkness where it will orientate itself before rejoin this new bright world.

When another fern unfolds, what can I expect? I am eager to find out.

Hanging Webs

Circumstances do not make the webs, but they reveals the later and only when we have our passion.

I have experimented my first shooting on a web during April last year, since then I was hooked by the beauty of this architecture. I have stumbled upon a web with a pair of hollow eyes staring at me later in December. A spider was “harassed” and ran away while I was enjoying very much at one time, two of them greeted me in my wonderland at another time, and I saw one sailing on a blue sea not too long ago.

I came across another two that stayed higher than me for the advantage of being showered by the morning sunshine. They did know more than me that how life should be.

I am a lone hiker. The nature always wants to talk to a lone hiker since I do not and cannot talk to other, but to listen whole-heartedly.

And to collect some of the jewels of the morning along the way.

High and Low

Shh... , please keep your voice down. It is as curious as me and does not want to be disturbed.

I see macro shots of flowers with my camera, but how does it interpret this flower with its bare eyes ?

My curiosity flies higher than its, as least by the height of a tree. I zoom in on a butterfly that never really look like a butterfly.

It may be confused since thing looks very different from the actual under a close-up look or the other way round if its curiosity rises higher.

A Piece of Long leg

I have been thinking of how to shape these creeping plants in my photograph every time I pass by them. I could not wait to grab the opportunity for being alone enough to try it out this morning. I was very happy with the above picture and the result.

The experiment was completed, but I was still overjoy like a child.

When I turned around for my next journey, the joy was overcome by a creepy feeling. That's nothing to do with Indiana Jones, but who else had left this long leg hanging down from a Pulai tree just above of me?

It was as black as coal, as thin as a stick, and the silk stocking had worn out over time.

Indiana Jones and his team had a big fight with a dragon a long time ago, but the scene had been cleared right immediate after the movie shooting was done. Steven Spielberg, hadn't you?

I took a deep breath. I remembered Ann talking about "the communists think you are a soldier, the soldiers think you are a communist. You get shot front and back" in the jungle, but this was something that happened since 1930 and ended in 1989.

I took a deep breath and moved away quickly.

On the way going downhill, I met this creepy long-legged spider.

I thought of something. I did not know whether I was right.

Walk With Ants

I am lucky to have found another paradise at Cerok Tokun.

And I find ants that start working very early in the morning, much earlier than me, without any secretary and computer.

They go back and forth, up and down.

They never bother about the spotlight that shines on them. They are focusing on only one mission: serious at work and just do it. There is no tidbit, cigarette and make-up during work.

They go wherever is required, easy or difficult, bright or dark, and I have never heard about any complaint for two consecutive weeks.

I have been squatting at the same place trying to study them whenever I have my hiking at Cerok Tokun. I once imagined I was a director sitting on a director's chair, and they were my superstars.

They never talk about air conditioner and automation. They do it the same way for centuries and they are happy. Internet, television, car and so on have never come into their mind.

They do it in their own way.

And in a humorous way, just because I think I am a director. I have managed a waltz dance by one of them before I call it a day.

Anonymous

It did not intend to disclose its existence, I had only accidentally seen it after emerging from the jungle. It perched on the thick undegrowth. We did not exchange dialogue. And the best I could but yet failed to do so since it prefer not to tell its identity in the Internet.

It remained anonymous to me, though I may then remember that once upon a time there was someone who did come into my life.

Anyhow it was best to keep a distance between each other; it looked so suspiciously at me while I was maneuvering around. It was so small to be visible again in the lush green after taking off.

It remains anonymous to me, but it will not last too long in my world. Nobody will remain anonymous under the advance search machines.

Life is not much of a secret after all.

Gunung Lang, Ipoh, Perak

It has been a tired weekend. Me and my wife have driven back and forth for nine hundred kilometers sending my son to Bangi, a small town nearby Kuala Lumpur, where he will spend his next three years in the university over here.

Slept late at twelve midnight after watching the match between Argentina and Germany and woke up at three o'clock in the next morning had torn me apart.

On the way home, we dropped by at Gunung Lang, Ipoh, for a brief visit. I found these cat fish were not much better than me. They were squeezed inside a sandglass, whereby time was a total jam.

I felt easier only after moving away and had this pond view.

We took a short boat ride under the two o'clock burning sun. F/9 and 1/250 sec exposure time may show the other way, though the tree that stays atop has surrendered itself for a long time.

There is a stony face trying to put on a forest as its shelter. It must be too comfort over there so much so it has not make any movement for a few hundred years. I leave it to another blogger for his story another hundred years to come.

I shall not read this, same as this mushroom.

You? I do not think you are any better than us.

Ephemeral

Everyone and every instance is ephemeral, but when both are connected, we can see an eternity. Both may be ordinary, but when they meet each other, it is the moment the clock started to strike one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven and twelve, and the legend of Cinderella had become eternity.

Mushrooms keep popping up at Cerok Tokun, from every now and then, and at every here and there. The relay will never end.

These mushrooms are waiting for the right twelve midnight. But before that, me and you will not have any intense feeling about them. They just fade away either naturally or are smashed under our feet.

And now, it is ephemeral.

We are ephemeral.

You are beautiful!!

I may think it was ridiculous but yet fun to dance with a bat, to stand in its way, to flash and to murmur my discomfort repeatedly. The bat might not have the same opinion. I might have disturbed its routine, hurt its feeling or confused its echolocation. I hope that there won't be any ill feeling, and it is not a Vampire Bat. We are friends. Aren't we?

Anyhow, as long as I emerged from the jungle, I had to start with a new journey, and a new episode of story.

The sun was blazing down. This Chocolate Grass Yellow seemed to seek asylum in the flower embassy, but for its head only, like an ostrich.

I always have my own thought: I should have as many shots as I wished since it could not see me. I took numerous shots, and I inched closer and closer.

Out of a sudden, the butterfly turned to me. "Hey, though I can't see you, I am able to feel you." And again, we made friends.

I went ahead with my shooting. It continued with what was supposed to be done. The sun was blazing down, it brightened up my day.

If you ask what is grass yellow, I shall tell you it is a transparent yellow.