In My Kampong

It was Saturday morning and it rained the whole morning until noon. The temperature was cool when I was on my way to a grocery. I heard birds chirping and frogs croaking. Thanked to the rain for this unusual noon. It lured me to get ready my digital camera and cycling around the kampong (village) for a refresher.

I went to the paddy field which I visited last December. The harvest season was over by that time but I was seeing golden rice stalks hanging down in front of me right now. My luck was good enough beacuse it was only a near miss for the pictures. I saw a reaping machine was being unloaded from a trailer on the main road.

Walking around to find some fishes, I found snails in the water instead. It should worth a living to collect these snails as in French cuisine, snail is a much celebrated delicacy.

I made my move to the other side of the paddy field which was behind the row of houses for my next exploration.

Hah! It was a totally different view at all after the gathering process was well over. Guess what you can see from the picture? This is not a puzzle. I found at least three Bitterns were wading on the muddy field nearby the trees and one more was on top of a tree.

You will be able to see them when you enlarge the picture, only the capability of my digital camera does not allow a good view. This similar Bittern bird was spotted later at a riverbank though the picture is yet to be perfect.

MyJourney continued then I discovered a place where squirrels played the hide-and-seek with me. I learned further some photography skills for dummy on squirrels. I'll be back on this.

"When it comes to love, sometimes tree's a crowd"

I read a tall tale in Reader Digest about a girl who married to a quite and polite spouse. He would never answer back nor ran around. And when she divorced him, he was just wooden without any contest.

The girl had actually been told by a fortune teller that only her second marriage would work. It was easy to get divorced from a tree than a human, this was the only reason her parents married her to a nearby oak.

If I am the parents, instead of marrying her to an oak, I can marry her to some other innocent tropical trees that I know better and talk to frequently.

How about the one that cares to look at mirror day and night asking "mirror mirror on water, who is the most handsome of them all" or our thinnest little brother that grows tall among the rugged?

May be the richest in the forest with a chain of glaring jewels hanging down from his neck, or the tree that is actually a lovely Dalmatian in disguise.

Or simply get married to a banana tree that is easily found in the neighbourhood. After all, banana is still delicious and good to eat after the divorce.

Close up look at SJ

I revisited SJ this evening after the last visit one week ago. There is a request from The Retired One for a close up on "Malaysian Cherry". One week to us is a small fraction of time, but it is a life time to these flowers. I saw almost all of them have returned to their origin, some were still fresh, some were rotten over time on the ground.

By the way, some were still waiting for me in order not to disappoint my friend. Although look aged and tired, they managed to pose for some shoots in the wind.

They were as weak as a piece of tissue paper. They were too far up for a good close up using macro view and shaky hand. They have tried their last best before going back to eternity. And they were so kind enough to introduce their neighbour to me.

Hope that you like them as well.

Blossom in SJ

We never have four seasons in a tropical country like Malaysia, however some kinds of flowers do blossom in certain months of the year. These occurrences at different times usually relate to certain sentimental events that happened sometimes ago. Similarly when I heard The Beatles on the air with the song Let It Be, I shall never forget the moment when I was a child my neighbor used to sing it loud while he was having his bath. This is a story of long long time ago that is not in my interest today.

These "Malaysian Cherry" starts to fully blossom on March every year. The gorgeous line up can be seen at many places in the town.

One of my anonymous blogging buddies who I believe should be my ex-colleague commented in last month about the blossom. It was too early that time I saw only a few lonely flowers that emerged from buds.

We have been retrenched from the place that we have served for more than fifteen years at this time three years ago. The blossoms were as beautiful as now. They will continue to bloom and continue to witness lesser people walking out from the same building in the future.

The blossoms were really beautiful and attractive, I saw two young men were taking pictures when I reached there. They were just some other passengers in my day who would not get to know my story, somehow just let it be.

How things will be on the next blossom?

Trekking at Mengkuang Dam

I have made a change on my trekking plan yesterday morning. I went jogging at Mengkuang Dam again after a long break. I like to alternate between hiking and jogging becasue I believe different exercise does stress different muscle.

By its name, I saw most of the time water, images on water and a large crowd of people around this small dam. There was no adventure but looked more like a weekend family outing for most of the people.

Not to be adventurous for at least a little moment was not a good idea to me, I had then continued my jogging to the trek that little people have ever gone to. This decision thus separated me from the outside world, I was alone on a quite muddy track which was surrounded by more trees.

Unlike the usual track that has been shown in the second picture, most parts of this extended path were not visible behind the trees. There must be animals up on the trees! I tried to peep around and to listen carefully, yet it seemed like no sign of animal nearby.

Don't get me wrong, of course, there are plenty of fish inside the water, but they are not my aim. Adventure should be equal to wildness.

May be I shall try another side of the trek on my next visit for some new discoveries.