Ordinary Beauties

I have been spending more time by the dam recently.

There was a farmer in ancient China who found a fainted rabbit after it had bumped against a tree. He returned the next day, staying by the tree day after day, hoping to see another reckless rabbit. At the end, his paddy field was left unattended, and of course, his luck had never returned.

I am not as foolish as the farmer spending the whole day waiting, and my luck seems to be far better than his.

This weed is as ordinary as any little girl who stays next door, but she always pull our attention whenever she shows up.

And if you happen to know, the colour of water over here has changed from muddy brown to forest green after a few days of rainfalls. And it floats this little white flower that had showed its beauty when it bloomed, and continues to decorate and provide a good composition to the picture before return to the eternity finally.

And this green post is dedicated to my friends who are having white snow of the early winter.

And Merry Christmas.

Mushroom Cookies for Christmas

Christmas is around the corner. Everybody is by now overwhelmed with the festive mood, and my hand phone is playing the seasonal songs during my hiking.

Santa Claus is coming to town?

What if I see those flying reindeer pulling the sleigh of Santa Claus, sliding down from the top of Cerok Tokun, Ho Ho Ho Ho Ho while he is laughing, Santa Claus starts to deliver Christmas gifts to us, what can I offer back?

I have these mushroom cookies for him if he is willing to stop by, and if he can stand the bad smell of my sweat-soaked body.

I have cups of wine to cheer with him, but I do not think he likes this idea. Wine would not go well with his thick red and white suit in this humid weather.

Does he drink Chinese tea?

Yet I do believe the mushroom cookies with vanilla icing must be his favourite.

If Santa Claus happens to come by, he will come back the next year again. Otherwise, he will miss the mushroom cookies.

I took one but was gifted with three

I had spent two and a half hours to come back here, but you were here waiting for me. As usual, the only thing that would have attracted me in a distance is that you, the one in red.

Sorry, I had to move away fast in order not to get myself a really deep suntan. I had been looking, waiting and spending too much time on the Dusky Langur and the baby. I was just too excited to have learned a new experience.

I aimed at you, but got three in return. One red and another green dragonflies. Then what was the third?

This is how our life is supposed to be. Just let it be, and surprise will be there waiting for us. It may be a wonder, or a trivial encounter. And it can be a positive or simply a negative surprise.

So what was the third?

The green had left, the red was flying away. The third was statued at the same spot. It was not clear in picture due to the shallow depth of field.

The green had returned now, and you had landed. The third one remained undisturbed. But I really had to leave you all behind due to the intense heat.

(All the three, both dragonflies and the grasshopper continued to enjoy their day. They are born to be stronger than me, at least, when facing the burning hot sun).

The Baby

I have bought a book on photography recently. Since then, I have experimented on some features of my camera which have not been explored before. It certainly brings excitement, the only thing that has annoyed me are the negative excitements.

I have shown you a long-tailed Macaque with her baby during last Mother's day. The baby was cute, and sort of like mother like son.

But thing cannot always be assumed in the same logic. I saw a Dusky baby was born bright orange in contrast with its grey mother or parents. This was a real excitement to an ignorant me. I confirmed later that this orange colour has nothing to do with any illness or disease.

Here come my negative excitement.

I was cleverly manipulating my different settings when the mother came into sight. I pointed and shot immediately without thinking twice. The picture was not clear as expected, but luckily the creature was still identifiable as a Dusky Langur.

There are always second chance, as what we expect in our life. And this is my second chance with the assumed correct setting.

I did not ask for third or forth chance. The mother had carried her baby to behind some dense woods.

I saw the branches shaking left and right, up and down like a cradle. The breeze was singing lullaby. The baby must be sound asleep.

Have a good sleep, my friend.

It Thought It Could Hide itself

I saw a Kingfisher uttering to itself nearby the dam. Its voice was not sweet but dry and rattling. This might be the sound of lonesome. It murmured, stopped, and continued, and repeated. I kept my silence. It might not see me. It was too focus on its ownself.

It looked high and low, like what I always do. I did not know its purpose, though I know mine. This can't help to answer my question.

I did see some insects flying just in front of this kingfisher, but it was never bothered.

We remained the status quo for a few minutes, until I took time to change my camera setting.

The Kingfisher must have noticed me. It turned its back to me thinking this would help to camouflage itself againt the blue sky, or it was to shy to face me further.

It did not intend to fly away. The murmuring continued. It turned its head back occationally to check out whether I was still around. I should have left, but I never, just tried to find out some unknown secrets.

I was then interpreting that it might be waiting for its mate that failed to turn up. That was not proved even I insisted on staying further.

During my next changing on the setting, it flew away. This left me without any clues, and was just busy for nothing, on a bird's affair.