On a mild January morning, the female Brown-throated Sunbird (Anthreptes malacensis) applies herself diligently to the business of collecting nectar as her mate keeps her company with watchful eyes and chirpy delight. Thus runs the kingdom of the tropical garden, a never-ending kaleidoscope of flora and fauna providing sounds, sights and the odd surprises, as…
The male Brown-throated Sunbird (Anthreptes malacensis) is shown here on the Red Button Ginger, with its confident dawn roost and throaty calls while the female is demonstrably more flighty and darts around rapidly whilst feeding on the Heliconia psittacorum. (Lumix GX85; M.Zuiko 40-150mm January 2018)
The bright red flowers of the South American Costaceae species Costus woodsonii (Red Button Ginger), competes with the Heliconias in the garden for the Sunbird, with its nectar-feeding beaks, to pollinate its flowers. In their native America homeland, it is the Hummingbirds that does the work. (Lumix GX85; M.Zuiko 40-150 mm) (Convergence evolution) …
As the uncharacteristic rains continue to pour in mid-January, the plants take on this wonderful water-laden sheen, droplets and moisture, amidst the mildest of a mid-day sun, as nature takes a break from its industry, to savor a retinue from the sky, that has come to pay homage to the Creator’s subtle work of beauty.…
In the stillness of the late afternoon, as rain continues to drizzle relentlessly in the wettest January in recent memory, the flora in our narrow west garden sparkles even as the day dims. Nature bestows her life-giving water, beauty, and continually sustain the earth. I have come that they may have life, and have it…
“Walking through one of the buildings where I hadn’t been before, I came across a reproduction of Hazard Durfee’s beautiful flute player with the text by Henry David Thoreau: ‘Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps…
The island of Pulau Ubin, off the northern coast of Singapore, has been featured here over the past few months – one of the last few refuge for a green and laid-back lung. Relatively inaccessible except by motorized boat (10 mins ride; S$3 each way), we revisited it on an ‘off-day’ in its weekly cycle,…
The Gospel readings across the New Year is full of evocative pinings for the reflective, contemplative believer, to ponder, reflect, and discern deeply. Heb1:1-2 At various times in the past and in various different ways, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets; but in our own time, the last days, he has spoken…
The city of Lijiang in Yunnan, China was reborn out of a 6.6M earthquake that devastated the city in 1996. When we visited the city in 2009, we had witnessed the rebuilding of a city that was perhaps more than ever oriented towards its original past and its future in tourism than to the reconstruction…
There are two passages in the Gospel in which the disciples of Jesus shouted at Him, “Lord / Master, do You Not Care?” Can you recall where these passages are? And what were Jesus’ responses? Mark 5:35-40 With the coming of evening that same day, he said to them, “Let us cross over to…