Kinta Riverfront

It's a long journey for rivers, so useful before the birth of automotive industry and definitely before people knew how to construct tar-roads. Rivers were left abandoned for decades, forgotten, became rubbish dump sites in some places. Then people learn how to look after and care for the old Kinta River.

View from 16th floor of Kinta Riverfront Hotel and Suites Ipoh.
I spent a weekend there for this Water Project .

________bangchik and kakdah________

The wilderness of nature

 Nature has its own tempo, best seen in its wilderness, untouched, unhindered. I was traveling up towards Kelantan when nature in its wilderness attracted my attention. The camera was ever ready to click. It was around Bentong area, just before Petronas R&R.

 weeds in abundance is a beauty

 weeds in abundance is a beauty

 weeds in abundance is a beauty

 weeds in abundance is a beauty

 a close-up

another close-up

 I don't know what the flower was,

it looked wild to me at least where it was blooming, 

definitely not planted by anyone there.


and the following are pictures
taken at Petronas R&R Bentong.

 a dragonfly on concrete

 another view of the dragonfly

 a pigeon and a piece of food

many came to join,

i am not too sure if they really share or fight for it.

bangchik
Tanah Merah, Kelantan MALAYSIA

wallpaper the green way

ulam raja

ulam raja

cekur

roselle

marigolds

bittergourds

pegaga 

I don't grow too many plants in our little vegetable garden . It is more of the limited time than the limited space. Some plants do have beautiful foliage that match with the most exotic flowers. Even though at a glance marigolds and ulam raja look strikingly similar, upon scrutiny they differ that their leaves branch out in a different manner. Marigolds are denser, but ulam raja has leaves flowing elegantly on a breezy day. Cekur on the other hand is a little plant, almost crawling on the ground. It will always stay low and never raise its head and leaves. The leaves are green all the time.
Roselle is lovely with its red stalk to match the eventual red coloured fruits. Bittergourd has delicate leaves, lightweight in look but extremely exotic. Pegaga on the other hand prefer to crawl silently through the grass and suddenly they are all over the place. Pegaga will always make their presence felt by raising their little round green leaves slightly above the rest,


bangchik

The sky, The wind and The green.

How interrelated they are, the sky, the wind and the green. A light breeze takes a portion of the heat away from the air, pushing it somewhere else I guess. It was some decades ago, when a teacher introduced whats logical then about how the existence of low and high pressure induces the movement of air. Things somehow perpetually look for equilibrium. Water looks for its own balanced level and so is air pressure.

The little piece hanging at the porch. 

Whenever there is a strong wind, 

the bamboo knock against one another 

producing a lovely melodic tune.

The sky is the limit to what is earthly. Water turn itself into  a lighter form , vapour to travel high. Talk about hanging out with your own kind, water shows the way. Water vapour rises and assemble on daily basis. When they had enough for the day, they parachute downwards in drizzles and rains. Like us water too has tantrums, its ugly side will emerge as it rampage the whole neighbourhood in a flooding mood to echo whats thundering in the sky, the torrential rain. Its the same sky, that birds play and dive at will, nonchalant at times.

a bird resting 

as the other gliding forward.

in front of my house.

The green is at the mercy of the two, wind and sky. With the right proportion, we call it good weather. The green has been a logical thing, always reacts well with good weather. They too succumb to the anger of the sky and wind, that they allow themselves to be blown over, broken and dead. When the sky opens up its gate, heavy downpour will drown the green.

 My favourite, sawi putih.

This one goes by many names.

Life has always been that way, 

forever correcting itself 

and 

perpetually finding the elusive equilibrium.

~ bangchik

Putrajaya, Malaysia

Serene is wordless and almost forgotten.

Serene is wordless and almost forgotten,

water

river

mangrove

boats

Location: 100 metres away from mother in law's house, Sitiawan, Perak.
Kakdah grew up there.

~bangchik and kakdah

Putrajaya, MALAYSIA

Painting red on green

Land has to be cleared to pave way for development, red replacing what used to be green. I just had a feeling that RED could never blend with GREEN.........

In due time, the developer will put back the green once the construction is completed. The new green will never be like the original green. How can it be?.....

But somehow we move on with all the inconvenience, and make the best out of everything. That has always been the way.

Shots in Kelantan.

Sunset through papaya leaves

Coming back from work is always a rush. That part of the day, an hour or so before dark is so precious for my regular watering, and garden check. After watering, I angled the camera towards the sun and snapped. The two short papayas were in the way ......

The weather was hazy...

Connecting sky, sunset and weather.

I took these photos a lot later than what I normally did. The sun had gone down for quite sometime, and the silvery paint on the sky was getting less..... But still an interesting sight to look at.......

I am not in a position to relate the sky, sunset with the weather. I know there must be some connection. We are living in a different era, so detached with the equations of nature. Older generations can tell a lot by looking at the sky and listening to the whistle of wind.......

The weather now is getting hotter, with lesser rains.

Any weatherman among us blotanists and bloggers?

Finding equilibrium

Nature is very dynamic. The waves have been throwing themselves on this sandy beach over million of years. I worked in Kota Bharu, Kelantan for 2 1/2 years, many many years ago. The recent trip to Kelantan was punctuated by a short breather at Pantai Cinta Berahi (PCB). The shoreline used to be 200 metres into the sea..., but now reduced to the present line due to erosion...

The municipality decided to strengthen the beach with boulders. No more erosion now, but the former natural beauty was forever lost.

the boulders
some hills has to be blown up
to quarry boulders and strengthen the beach.

the beach
and two kids enjoying themselves

the waves

the waves
playing up the tune of nature
searching for equilibrium

We dont normally win the game with nature, in searching for equilibrium.

The man and the sea.

I was in Kota Bharu, Kelantan for a day... We went to visit the most familiar place, Pantai Cinta Berahi (PCB) towards the end of the day. Arief, Din and a few others were amongs us. A man caught my attention. He was anxious looking out for shoal of fish and he already caught some. He put ski-mask to ward off biting sunrays, I think.

I just had a feeling, if Ernest Hemingway was here, he could have written something about this scene, as long and as deep as his last major work of fiction "The old man and the sea" written in 1951 in Cuba.

looking out for shoal of fish

loosening
up his net to release the catch

eyes
always on the lookout

the catch
of Ikan Selar

The net he was using is called Jala locally, like a net parachute with little weights at the bottom. He threw it to the water and waited for the weight to close in and then he pulled slowly with the catch.... It is a technique which need sometime to master. So is gardening. Gardening is very much methodical and procedural, and passion will be a bonus. As the man is always on the lookout, a gardener will do the same, always looking for signs....

CHEERS!!