New discovery of an old object

This is the murmuring of a little old man, and it is a little complicated. He is hoping you can bear with him.

"I cannot conclude that it was not there just because it was not seen before. It is seen now never means it existed just a while ago. A long existed object is always new and is a surprise if I have never discovered earlier, though it may have already been too ordinary to others. This is the reason why some of us are too weird in their eyes occasionally. We can therefore manage to enjoy and feel happy with what we consider wonder of the day, and we continue to have wonder day after day."

Is it too complicated?

"I have the feeling that this tree was a dog in its previous life; or a dog had reincarnated in the body of a tree. "

You can understand him more if look at the tree in another angle.

"Have you ever noticed the burst out of a chrysalis? Do you think there is a similarity between both of them?"

"I wonder how Indiana Jones will response if he happens to encounter this, and this must form an interesting and mysterious part of his diary, and people will come back, with the map that they have found in the diary........"

An Egret and An Alien

My wife asked whether I wanted to go hiking this morning. This was a tricky question. I must be an "alien" if go hiking at this time while my family is still preoccupied by new year mood. So I'll talk nothing more than what was discovered when we were having some cool moments under a mango tree. It is scorching hot this few days.

An egret was found perching on this mango tree with the same purpose as well. The bare paddy fields in Kangar were simply not the right places to go right now.

The egret might have not seen me, while trying to have a little bit of funny moments.

"I can be as big as a dinosaur!"


"I am a bird, I can fly."


But it never flew at the end because it was not an egret nor a bird.

And I managed to know who were an alien finally. You are certainly not.

This is the Answer

With the help of this macro view, I am able to identify the holes or nests must be owned by the ant colony. Ants can be seen clearly at the right side of the hole.

So the answer is not so right if you think they are belonged to my lovely crabs, crickets or termites. If your answer is Martian or micro rabbit, I cannot help much but to send you back to the Mars.

But then come my new problem. What type of species do they belong to? (Ahhh! Life is really full of problems.)

I have spotted these tiny ants in the neighbourhood. They looked nothing similar to those in the first picture. I shall be right to rule them out.

I saw a giant ant nearby. If you observe carefully, it was on the way back to its home, the hole on top of the picture. Do you think this hole and the earlier one look alike? You can see the back part of an ant inside the hole if you enlarge the picture.

"This giant forest ant or Camponotus gigas is a large species of ant, native to Southeast Asian forests. It is one of the largest ants in existence, measuring in at 20.9 mm for normal workers, and 28.1 mm for the soldiers. Honeydew makes up 90% of their diet, but they will also consume insects and bird droppings." --Wikipedia

Before I end this post, there arise another problem again. Why did the ants need to make a sharp turn and travel in a long way, instead of creating a short cut, just like what we human are used to do?

Does this call discipline or unimaginative?

Frogs, and their story

I learn and become more knowledgeable inch by inch every each time I go hiking, though I shall not grow further inch by inch as age gets older. Sometimes, I learn through hard finding, whereas some come easily; they invite me.

Yes, these frogs tried to make them noticeable by their call, until I got near to the pool. But how stupid I was, I could only see tadpoles, just because common sense told me to look at the water. I did not have difficulty in distinguishing their black body from the sandy base.

Where were the frogs?

They were keeping their silence to play the hide and seek game with me.

After a thorough search, I spotted them at the corner of the pool. I took their picture, felt satisfied, thus I continued with my hike. Not until I reached home, reviewed them under a bigger screen, and surprise again.

Before I continue, and before you go ahead to enlarge the next picture, please guess what I have seen. .. ... ... .... .....

Yes, I have seen two, or 2 frogs. I mean one frog each on top of the frogs you have seen as well. I first thought of the mother monkey who carries her baby and cleverly I thought I was absolutely right.

Why did they carry their baby in this manner? I know surfing Internet for an answer is one of the best way. (The monkeys do not know).

I found out I was wrong, and very wrong. (But why the size of male frogs are so small that lead me to think they are actually baby frogs).

These are what I have found:

"Once at the breeding ground, male frogs call to attract a mate, collectively becoming a chorus of frogs". "The male and female frogs then undergo amplexus. This involves the male mounting the female and gripping her (sometimes with special nuptial pads) tightly".

Then you know, they did not actually call me. They did not have any interest in me. I was too naive to assume the other way.

Monkey Story

Do you need any workout after a forty-five minutes hike?

There is a new playground recently at the second stop where people can build muscles of other parts of body. This must be the theory. Otherwise we shall look very odd if we stress only our leg muscles the whole year long. But then, it must be too early for the rest in this morning. This place was empty.

Except for a lonely monkey, and this triggered my imagination again.

It is well known that monkeys learn, catch up and imitate what they have experienced from human behaviour very fast. What will happen during some quiet moments when there are no visitors around? Will the monkeys flex and stretch their muscles as what human does? I do not have the answer, but there certainly have some funny and interesting hidden stories.

The monkey showed me its suspicion and uneasiness when I tried to approach for some clarification. Its size was so small in comparison to the equipment. They must then look very cute and weird when trying to play around. What if there is a huge group of monkeys, fighting with each other in order to occupy the equipment, how the actual scene should be?

Anyhow, it was only a monkey available and it refused to tell me the interesting part of their story.

It simply walked away as I got myself closer. It did not have the interest in me. What a deadly dull monkey! It preferred to keep their secret. Maybe I shall ask some nearby trees for clues next time.

I do not have the answer, and so you are, yet there is no harm to let your imagination flying wild. Anyhow, those monkeys never bother what we have thought and how we shall tell the story.

They never surf Internet. They have less problems and worries.

Alzheimer's Disease

I am suffering from the old man syndrome. I keep murmuring to myself from day to day on the trivia.

I murmured why there was moon in the morning, thus the night on the other side must be without her. This was not a new encounter to me. I had never been disturbed by this trivia before, but why it was now?

But then I moved to another trivia very quickly when I discovered some ugly mushrooms. You may think I behaved more like a little kid by then. I totally agree with you as when human grow to a certain age, they will behave as "naive" as a three years old kid.

I murmured why these mushrooms looked so unfamiliar ugly. I have no magical hand to turn ugliness into beauty, no matter countless angles I had tried on the pictures taking. I would not kiss them in the way to change a toad into a prince.

I did not move away, yet could not stop myself from murmuring. It must be funny to see, in distant, my lips vibrating as though I was praying. Out in a sudden, I saw some magical changes. Ugliness does not belong to infinity. The mushrooms had turned into some young, fresh and beautiful one.


They danced under my flashlight like a group of ballet dancers on toe. I know little about ballet but Swan Lake is my favourite. Look at their ballet tutus, and the music was playing.

I closed my eyes, I stopped murmuring. I followed the music, I enjoyed the dance.

Not after too long, I opened my eyes. I knew I had to go home before I found myself out of control, and getting lost in the jungle.

I had been day dreaming too much due to the Alzheimer's disease.

Wandering, East-West Highway

My family has the habit to make a last minute decision to visit one place or simply drive around somewhere that is new and seems interested to us. The journey maybe as short as one hour, or it can be a whole day adventure. Although this is an ad hoc plan, it actually started in our mind for quite a long time ago resulted from the information in newspapers, magazines or "hear-say" from friends.

It is excited to listen or read repeatedly about the herds of elephants wandering along the picturesque journey through virgin jungle along the East-West Highway. I had travelled once on this highway to Kelantan about thirty years ago, during which this highway was put under strict security control by Malaysian army whereby it was closed from the evening until the next morning. At that time, Malayan Communist Party (CPM) was still active in most of the jungles in Malaysia.

My whole round trip covered 250km which started from BM, passed through Kulim, de tour Baling, then we witnessed the rolling hills with miles of rugged terrain. After we had reached the other side of Lake Temenggor Bridge nearby Jeli, we made a U-turn for home.

Our car, at most of the time, ran along the tricky curves flanked by wild bushes and big trees. We scoured the bushes by the roadside for any signs of movement. But, alas, there was no sight of the wild beasts throughout the drive along the mountains that form the backbone of the peninsula.

According to on-hand information, "herds of elephants, some numbering 10 to 12, have often been seen crossing the highway at almost the same spots every time. Chances of sighting them are 80 per cent, but almost always at night".

By the way, I have kept something undisclosed and would like to tell you silently now. I might, it turned out to be another disappointment finally, also spot a tiger crossing the highway.

I have not found any road signs to warn motorists of elephants crossing, instead there were a few on deer crossing. Anyhow, none of these animals bothered to say hello to me.

It was an exciting, but dangerous, drive along some narrow and steep roads, especially in the heavy rain. I was sorry to see two car accidents along the way. To penetrate through the dense fog was kind of blind-fold, yet it was simply fun.

Lantana camara

I did not have any idea on Ham 'n Eggs which spells like a Bacon and Eggs kind of thing. When I knew it is a common name for one kind of flower over here, then it really arouses my interest. Further research reveals that it carries other funny names: Spanish Flag and red (yellow, wild) sage. In order to confirm its Chinese name, I need to refer to shrub verbena or lantana.

Actually I have lantanas in my garden for years, I have safely kept the blossoms fresh in my hard disk long enough, unnamed. Having known its name by someone across the ocean was a great present to me in this morning.

Texas Lantana(L. urticoides)

Lantanas can be easily seen in the wild and along footpaths in my neighbourhood. The charming colours had attracted my wife for a long time until one day we found them along our jogging trail, we decided to upgrade them to one of our ornamentals.

No special care or attention was served to these lantanas after the promotion. Their inborn capabilities see the plants grow strong and blossom continuously.

Lantana camara blanca

One thing that I have overlooked, and only got to know by today, is lantanas are mildly toxic.

Anyhow, to have these little plants in my garden is not a bad idea, even the tiny bud looks so unique and funny in the picture.

Observation on An Unknown Creature

I had spent sometimes observing an unknown creature in my little garden.

I thought it was one kind of chrysalis initially, I was wrong by then after a long enough observation. It moved. I could not figure out how a chrysalis moved by my limited knowledge and the pair of helpless spectacles, until with the help of new technology. I previewed and zoomed in using my camera, there was a creature inside the chrysalis or, I assumed, a nest. If you look carefully, it appeared at the top of the nest.

I continued my observation and shooting which made me seemed like attending a high school biology class. Learned from the earlier hints, my focus stayed at the tip of the nest. The creature was camera-shy especially when the flash was on. Though it refused to be on stage, when it emerged, how could I let it go.

It moved inward, slowly, from the tip of the branch, like a acrobat.

Then it finally reached the end of the journey with repeated disturbances from a very busy body. The travel was short to us, yet it might be a tiring long distance to this tiny creature. I better left it alone for not to continue straining this pitiful one. Actually this was part of the reason, there were noises behind me due to my obsession on this part of the garden.

I found my friend staring at a Blackbird, I commented what a stupid idiot he was. I spent my evening bending towards an ugly creature, taking pictures of those unpleasant looks. Who am I???

Grape Tree

You must have known my papaya tree very well. It appeared in my blog for a few times, but I am not going to talk about my papaya tree today, though it still looks so outstanding in the picture. So, please scroll down to see my grape tree.

My wife had shaved the tree to bald earlier because she believed this helped to force those grapes to show up and not to hide anymore. And the leaves returned fast. Between those leaves, I had then detected the first cluster of grapes in my garden.

This cluster of grapes brought some days of joyfulness to my family and I had recorded them in my history book, in pictures. It is so convenient nowadays to keep any memory in pictures and in the blogospehre, where our memory may fade over time but the pictures will be as new as the original.

This was our first experience with the grape tree, we did not know when they were ripen. When we had lost patience on waiting and guessing, we started to pluck one by one day after day. These grapes were not as big as the papayas, they were not as sweet as well.

Until one day, we found out they were actually purple grapes, however, the sour taste never disappeared.

My wife continues to shave the tree to bald when grapes refuse to show up again. It always works.

This is my simple story on grape tree which took months to be ready. It grows together with these grapes.

Host Today, Papaya Tree

I was annoyed by the raucous noise made by some birds out in my garden while I was surfing Internet in the afternoon. It seemed like they were having a fair, enjoying and inviting friends. They were simply too noisy and had aroused my interest. I took a peep through the window.

I could reach and pluck my papaya easily in the early stage. Later on, I needed the help of a ladder. But now, it grows so tall until sometimes I have given up to bring the fruit down.

And incidentally, my papaya tree was the host today, to the Mynah birds. I recognised they were Mynah from the sound that was similar to that of a common Mynah.

I rushed to my reading room at upstairs, walked slowly to the window hoping to get a few close range pictures. They were as alert as a squirrel and flew away immediately once I raised my camera ready to point at them.

From the shape of the papaya, it should not be the day one that these birds have visited my garden. They might have their breakfast and lunch over here after my last visit to my garden over last weekend.

They returned after I have waited besides the window for over ten minutes. But a slight movement drove them away again. I then played this hide-and-seek: I was behind the table, rested the camera on the window grille, and these birds were in the open.

In the end, I managed to get some good shots.


There appeared to be another species that I could not identify. It came together with the Mynah, may it be either a female or the other way round? But that was not important. I had accomplished my task of the day and felt very satisfied.

Fern

I should have taken you to visit Cerok Tokun and had some close-up of fern much earlier, but I hesitated. I thought those were okay yet I turned down at the final minute. I had reconfirmed my feeling after numerous shots from a few trips. And now I am ready.

I have been reading that ferns are very graceful and lush and invoke an image of coolness, calmness and peacefulness. I took these pictures after a raining morning, hopefully you can get the feeling by then.

This humble bowing young frond was unrolling, in not a question mark look, as all the doubts have been cleared by the droplets found in the lush bokeh.

This fern that showed an ET look having a finger on the mouth asking for some silence from me, especially in this peaceful morning. It must be a baby ET.

I was seeing a monkey clinging from one branch to another in the last picture. What a funny green monkey.

The hiking trail is about 3km long, these lush ferns line up all the way, waving in the manner that signifies calmness and peacefulness. Very good morning.

To you, and to me.

Happy Mother's Day # 2

I'll continue with the mothering story in today post as I like the affection shown by the mother monkey, and this applies to all the mothers.

What I want to show today is a working mother monkey. In the modern mankind, we have the so called nursery whereby our kids are well taken care while we are in the office. For this simple monkey kingdom, the baby was being carried around to everywhere the mother would go. And this bring my memory back to the old times during which I could see woman farmers worked in the rice field with their baby at the back.

The little baby looked so cute in the picture staring at something that attracted his attention.

The second picture shown the mother moved down from the top of the pillar to the fence, out of her instinctive behaviour, holding the baby with one of her forearms.

The mother moved so swiftly on top of the fence, the baby just simply held firmly to his mum, showing the greatest trust that he was, and would be, always safe with his mum.

Happy Mother's Day # 1

I have longed to take pictures on mother Monkey that is carrying her baby for a long time. I did see them many times before but failed to snap a presentable few. Going after them thus became one of my itinerary as long as I located them. Of course, this "them" and another "them" might not be the same "them".

My dream was fulfilled this morning. The monkeys appeared in the car park were having some fruits which were served by one local villager. They stayed for quite a long period for their food while I was happily snapping enough pictures for my and your pleasure.

It is Mother's Day tomorrow, the monkeys seemed gentle and quiet. While looking at their eyes which I used to do to all the living creatures, they might look no differently from us. The lady on the right turned to the mother, the later just responded with some pondering look.

These were the same couple but sat at a different place. They continued their sharing whereby the lady seemed to be a senior to the mother who listened obediently. I could never smelled any fierceness nor uneasiness around the corner. Both of them tended to enjoy their topics well.


I saw the gentle mother then rendered her helping hand to pick and remove flea from the lady. So far, the baby monkey hugged her mother so tight without showing any sign of loosen grip.


The next picture showed the mother brought the baby along on the floor for some eating. Interested to see a little monkey came beside them for some share of the maternal love.


In the last picture, this was the monkey family where the mother cared for all her little ones with kindness and affection. This was the sensation of being a mother.

Yes, happy Mother's Day to all the mothers.