Blooming Bounties

Giant Russian Sunflower. Not as big as they should be, maybe due to lack of sunshine while growing and not enough fertiliser (lazy gardener!)

Sawi Menang flowering. I read in EjaMaria's blog that she has new seedlings from a sawi plant she let go to seed. So yeay for that.

Turkish Leopard Melon. Now it looks a bit yellowish, I fear it might be a bit sick. I have fertilised it and sprayed some organic pesticide on it. Hoping for the best.

Peria katak flowering and in need of more support! Though some of the newer tendrils have learnt to climb the wooden post by themselves...

Purple bunga telang. I was pretty sure they were single-petaled before.. now they seem double-petaled. On the left behind the grills is Miss Pongkey :-)

Snake/long bean, bush-type. Profusely flowering after addition of blended ikan patin guts as fertiliser. :-)

Sweetcorn Kelvedon Glory F1. These are barely up to my knee and already flowering? Oh nooo. I wonder what to do with them now, shall I leave them be? Or lob the flowering bit off? I was away for several days and did not ask the neighbours to water my plants, thinking that it rains almost everyday. Well, apparently not.

Urban Hornbills/Enggang near Urban Gardens

Hornbill viewing its domain. Saw this during my morning walk around my housing area. It was a rather chilly (for the tropics!) and gloomy morning, excellent time to go and exercise without sweating too much. Sorry for the poor quality of the photo, this was taken using my camera phone, and then enlarged.

Aunty Kan invited me to join her for her morning walk. I was glad I did, it was fun chit-chatting and peeking into other neighbours' gardens (hahaha what busybodies we are!)

Then I spotted the above hornbill on a tree. There were 2 of them. I remembered as a child here I used to see a pair of hornbills often near my school. I guess these majestic looking birds mate for life. As we got closer, its partner flew away, and soon enough, this one flew off too. It has been years since I last saw one. I do wonder whether they can still be found at my old school.

I found an old article from the Star on dwindling numbers of hornbills, due to destruction of swampland and peat forests. There was a swamp not far from my school, and I used to see brightly coloured kingfishers there all the time. There is a reserve forest near my school as well, though the areas bordering it have been replaced by luxurious million-ringgit houses. Sigh.