It is 2013

Hang on, although that seems to be my last breath, I enjoy very  much. It is on my left side, my heart is so right to refresh and always suddenly give me a new perspective. All these only happen when hiking to full capacity.

Hang on. I keep reminding myself that I shall not be short of next breath.

I tell a falling leaf to hang on too, and to wait for my trembling hands.  

It playfully dances in the wind. 

This is a turning point. How beautiful and lovely the pictures and life will be after this. 

And in 2013.

Merry Christmas

Nothing seemed to happen. 

I went out to hike again last Sunday, looking to hunt something left behind by that 21st day of December, these can serve as good Christmas gifts.  

Trying to collect something unusual and rare must be very interesting. Let's say, how about an evil aliens hanging in the air?

or that crawling on the ground like a giant octopus?

Of course, nothing comes easy for which I need the help of my hero. But are you ready?

Do you have your stockings big enough to hold these?

Something seem to take place silently,and actually.

Beauty Electrifies

It takes 45 minutes of adjustment for us to see almost as well as an owl, but it takes less when trees appear at the frequency of light.

And once electrify, it flows through an illuminated serpentine line, we are then connected. 

In a Sunday morning. At not an extra-ordinary place. Beauty and a hiker.

A Myth of Fallen Moons

Committee of sleep was great: We, me and the members of the jungle, feel fresh after a cold raining night.

But an exhausted moon was overlooked; she held on no more, and submerged in the dense of Cerok Tokun, as a mushroom, pale and dull.

A myth is so potent when this place grows a field of mushrooms, but  mushrooms aren't mushrooms.

And we are fresh, while the moons continue to exercise at full capacity, which open all kinds of doors. One of them leads to a myth.

A Spider Story

Although spiders are my favorites in photography, I have however overlooked one of these arthropods in the jungle last Sunday morning.

That spider would never compromise. 

He gripped firm onto the car door, swung his body from side to side whenever I made sharp turns, squeezed his body flat to the surface, and his face was highly distorted against a wind speed of 90km/hr, but fluttering hairs no. He is bald.  

He managed finally to follow me home safely, so a full attention of my camera was honored.

And this is a golden moment for him who persisted and had the vision to grab it as such.

What can I say? Every simple life is always silly after all, and is so simple silly.

Not A Simple Joy of A Simple Life

It is the joy of spiders when cobwebs overwhelm the jungle.

While most people believe a spider is so creepy, being able to make it looks the other way round is surely the joy of an old man.

If it happens to turn into a handsome celebrity like a frog into a prince, this is then beyond the simple joy and the simple life of a simple old man.

However, a spider that was seen in last week was still a spider today when I went hiking this morning.

It has somehow spent a week to weave an X. What was then its intention?

It might not be as simple as it could be. Could it mean for Adults Only? A Kiss? X-man....

Grow Wiser In Wet Days

Mushrooms have never looked so whimsical before, and not in the day they watched me slip and fall. Oh what an embarrassment in a wet weather.

"Stop giggling right the way, please."

"We grow wiser every time we fall, that you should have heard before."

As being a bit wiser, I was able to notice a glittering mushroom hiding in a narrow corner. A single shot was manageable before people started to stuck in a jam behind a shy me. 

So good to be wiser, but not shyer.

Isn't it? 

One after one I shall find more and more funny mushrooms. As rain keeps falling down, I shall get wiser, wiser, and wiser.

In such a hard way.

Link to Your Sunday Best.

Mushrooms Are Funny

It is a day where mushrooms are so funny. You see.

A bunches of mushrooms would like to be of a different class and brand themselves as "Coral Inside". That sounds familiar enough. Do I have to pay royalty for writing and showing this over here?

At the same time, another one of them has apparently looked for ways to outshine others by staging at a hanging twig, and high up in the air. It too has plagued with excessive thought, which to my experience helps little.

Because I can also see the picture of a mother mushroom perching low on the ground with her little kid, enjoying the cool morning wind. It looks simple and ordinary. That maybe a strategy to go back to the basic.

Everyone is overwhelmed by thoughts, and drama flares around them,

thus makes my day seems so funny, as though a life lesson inside a jungle.

Link to Your Sunday Best.

Something Good in Everything I See

I went biking a few evenings back, but was disappointed by an unkempt hawk that seemed weary and not as gorgeous as I could have imagined.

A paddy field, in the other way round, looked prettier even after a long hard day, 

either in back-lighting or the opposite.

Everything may not be good, but there is something good in everything I see. "So why on earth should I moan?" murmured The Beatles.

Colours of sunset had the weeds gone crazy and their body curled and twisted, thinking of slowing down the adrenaline rush.

And I had to race with the sun before it disappeared in seconds, I could have not imagined that too. 

No wonder people says time sinks very fast. 

It sank, from east to west, and has become yours. 

Take it now.

Cheese to a Lizard

The happiest girls are the prettiest. I may not be wrong saying this lizard as a happy one by then, but I miss a broad smile.

Just cannot imagine how it looks like if it brings me a smile.

Say cheese. Yes, say cheese. 

It is regrettably not a mouse. Mice like cheese. You too? Yes, you, who are now reading. Mice and you are alike.

I should probably show this lizard a piece of cheese when I come back  another Sunday. 

"This is a cheese."

"Say cheese."

And say cheese to Your Sunday Best.

A Hiker and A Frog

Do I have to "hop off the straight and narrow whenever I can and take the winding paths, in order to experience the exhilaration of the view from the edge?"

So I hop like a frog, but I am really not, thus I settle down to walk like a man again.

Interestingly, I manage to enjoy beauties while staying in the straight and narrow, without taking any winding paths, and without hopping.

The beauties stay straight in front of me, all the time. No tricks, and no hide and seek.

A hiker may not necessary be a frog.

Link to Your Sunday Best.

Love is everywhere

It is so interesting to find traces of time on each of the fibers on a crawling root. It keeps wearing a big broad smile days in and out.

It is overwhelmed with plenty of loves: green loves and brown loves. That is the secret.

And that is a type of treasure that only hikers can find, because it is them who make time visible.

Link to Your Sunday Best.

Leaves for Leontien

It rains, and mushrooms mushroom. 

What if Cerok Tokun is carpeted with flower-like yellow mushrooms?  

A green sprout just cannot resist to turn into a phenomenon too, as if it is a cheerleader, dancing, jumping, and cheering, 

"Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! Leontien, knock melanoma in the knee. Leontien, knock melanoma in the other knee." 

It has been raining for many weeks, and seems like never want to stop, for a good reason that the cheering can continue.

Mushrooms are the happiest in the jungle when it rains . I join in, and am as happy.

Wish Leontien too.

"Click on the block above to go to Nancy's page to see more leaves for our blogging friend, Leontien, who is fighting melanoma for the second time. Please feel free to join in."

Red Mushrooms, and their Cousins

I was not as wet as a fish. Lucky me. I found some pretty red mushrooms the next Sunday I went  hiking; the same Cerok Tokun, at a different time, the dimension in which new wonders  hide.

Their striking color exposed themselves. Lucky them, I am a hiker, not a predator, yet they  survived not a week, but was already the whole life.

Nearby, their neck-stretching cousin got my attention. Yes, being delicate, yet it was dynamic, and proactive. Oops, a little bit of extra stretching would see the mushroom uprooting itself. 

And more of the them are living unnoticed in the forest. 

These mushroom's cousins aren't me. They like as wet as a fish. They mushroom.

They are linked to Your Sunday Best.

I was not a fish

As I moved on, a carpet of flowers had been laid in front of me. That was a welcome sign! My level of adrenaline rose immediately.

Not far away I found a parades of marching ants. I must be one of the celebrities. Was I? Affirmative!

Then I heard a whisper that was intended to be loud enough, at least, for me.

"Sorry man, we are busy moving to a safer place ahead of a thunderstorm. You could be as wet as a fish if you are late."

"And never be imaginative. You aren't a fish. That won't help."

After The Slummy Stop

A deep track after the slummy stop was awaiting me. Life can be simple and still be hard. I kept going.

I greeted everyone here and there with my camera, with a lot of excitement, 

like most of the celebrities, and cicadas do, but one of later was awfully quiet. It turned round and round a tree trunk. And I turned round too trying to synchronize but that proved not helpful. It then lost in sight silently to the top of the tree.

I had then arrived, not very long later.

Yes, I had arrived at a conclusion: it was neither easy to live in the world of a king, nor to adventure into a slum. Both required a lot of sweating.

I moved on, and enjoyed moving on.

Link to Your Sunday Best.

Rugged Track To A Slum

Though failing to be a king marginally, I am still the king of my kingdom of imagination. Conferment and crown aside, my hike that looked rugged continued,

but seeing me enjoying joyful sunlight on behalf of my camera, between some ups and downs, and twists and turns. 

I then stumbled upon a slummy stopover out of nowhere. That would definitely led me not back to a palace.

My thought outran me again. I might find myself entering into a slum after this stop. 

In just a few steps away, can a Slumdog Millionaire be better than a king?

Link to Your Sunday Best.

I Thought I Was A King

A mushroom popped up, and came a question out of a sudden, "Who am I if she is an angel of flower?"

This gave me a great honor to confer "Joker of the day" on this little mushroom. My joyful day continued.

And I was so happy to honor a young plant with "Green Knight" at the same time, as it  brought a dead wood back to life.

I thought it was so fun to get going with this,

but not when a bunch of mushrooms appeared in front me. The conferment was now a burden without the assistance of a private secretary. 

I thought I was a king, but was not in reality.

Link to Your Sunday Best.