The aerophytic orchids that hang by threads of weathered linen on the peacock tree is blooming in profusion. Meanwhile, the peacock tree, feeling parched, clipped, and facing its own existential threats, is not providing enough to shield and relieve the orchids’ entitled blooms. Sun-damage! The bottom-fishers bloom with abandonement. While seeds fall to the ground…
Nature
Nature
Sunbird on a Peacock Tree
Panasonic GX8 Olympus 275 mm F6.7 1/640 sec September 2023
Nature, Posts
My Singapore Sunbird
The Singapore olive-backed nectar-loving sunbird that visits my garden is bright and chirpy in the morning. That’s why she’s a sunbird. Her effervescent presence permeates the early morning humidity as she announces her presence on the ginger. You can tell it’s a she from her upperpart olive-green plumage and completely yellow underparts. The juvenile sunbird…
Complex & Simple, Nature, Posts
Sundays in July 2023
These July days will be the hottest in 100,000 years. Thankfully, we have the flora, fauna and the occasional thundery showers, to remind us of the eternity of Creation. Singapore Garden. Panasonic Lumix G9. M.Zuiko 75-300mm July 2023.
Complex & Simple, Nature, Places, Posts
Spring is Black – Travels through the Aso-Kuju Highlands
Spring is Black, Summer is Blue, Autumn is Red and Winter is White. Thus read the colours of the seasons in the 1770 book “Kuju-sanki”, which describes the landscape of the Kuju Mountain Range, its people, lifestyle, and the 260-year history of Mt Kuju Hakausuiji-temple Hokkein, which was a site of mountain worship (From the…
Complex & Simple, Nature, Places, Posts
We too, are Sowers
Jesus left the house and sat by the lakeside, but such large crowds gathered round him that he got into a boat and sat there. The people all stood on the beach, and he told them many things in parables. He said, ‘Imagine a sower going out to sow. As he sowed, some seeds fell…
Nature, Persons, Places, Posts
An Unplanned Encounter in Jeju
When we visited Jeju island in the autumn of 2022, we had not expected to experience another Encounter with the Lord. As it were, the allure of old friends reuniting, nature beckoning, and savouring the yet unfamiliar Korean cuisine was enough to assure us of a most fulfilling week of fellowship and experience to come.…
Complex & Simple, Nature, Persons, Places, Posts
How will we be tested in our personal end-times?
Today, I was reminded at Palm Sunday Mass (this post was first drafted on 28th March 2021) that when Jesus Christ was at His weakest physical state as God-Made-Man, the devil struck again to taunt, to try to tempt Jesus to succumb to the order of the world, and to let His material wants take…
Complex & Simple, Nature, Persons, Places, Posts
Life of Saint Paul before and after Damascus*
St Paul denied his original self, in order to replace it with something fundamentally more Precious. His narratives and actions, have been recorded in history through his own prodigious inspired writings and that of his collaborators, and in recent history by the cinematographers. When I first watched Paul, Apostle of Christ the 2018 American biblical drama film, it…
Nature, Posts
Comfort food – Ramen
Comfort food today was a bowl of uma-kara spicy flavored Nissin Instant Ramen, with a local Chew’s Sakura egg, lightly cooked in heated broth, and topped by fried dried shrimps, a local sun-dried garnishing imparting a unique umami taste. Served in a Chinese Jingdezhen dragon motif porcelain bowl. Panasonic Lumix G9, 42.5 mm Lumix lens (iso…