Orchids delight, kakdah's collection.

We changed the location of orchids to the porch, so that it would be easier for kakdah to look after them.  She still shouted out loud calling me, exclaiming that certain orchids had bloomed.  I am quite used to her happy mood when an orchid she had been waiting finally opened up....  There were quite a number bloomings, but I choose those with shade of purple.....

orchid 1

orchid2

orchid3

orchid4

ORCHID5

kakdah's orchid collection

pasir gudang johor

Saluting them, bidding farewell

Should farewell be all about sadness, hugs and tears? Not necessarily. I went around the garden before sun broke loose it's monsoon anger...... with Nikon D90, to assess how they feel about us leaving. The plants I mean.

~The world of orchids ~

That is Kakdah's world, orchids and orchids. 

They come in all sort of colours, shapes and sizes. 

When they bloom, Kakdah is happiest. I wonder if it should work vice versa.

Pic 1 ~ yellow orchid

Pic 2 ~ yellow orchid

Pic 3 ~ yellow orchid

Pic 4 ~  light purple orchid

Pic 5 ~ another orchid

 

Pic 6 ~ orchid still  in buds, protruding out

Pic 7 ~ colourful orchid, Kakdah's delight.

~ Cardinal Vine ~

An ordinary flowering vine from childhood days, less seen now, but given some prominence in our garden. They are flowering again and again ~ clear bright red little flowers with white filaments in the middle.  When they climb high into the sky, looking so brave and happy, they probably are singing along with Freddie Mercury (Queen) on that heroic number, we are the champions.

Pic 8 ~ cardinal vine flower among pokok daun kesum

 

Pic 9 ~ Cardinal vine, filling up the air.

~ Lantana, the brightest ~

No other flowers can beat lantana on being showy and bright. No scent, just being fashionable . I remember how the late Negeri Sembilan's Tuanku Jaafar went on describing the Malays... "colorful, most flamboyant". Lantana describes that well.

Pic 10 ~ Lantana, bright orange and yellow

Pic 11 ~ Lantana, teaming up.

  

~ Periwinkle; being simple ~

Another simple flowering plants, periwinkle has that soothing healthy looking leaves with non stop flowers . Being so ordinary, not many like to keep periwinkle, that most end up as wild flowers in villages and outskirt of towns. But as I keep reminding Kakdah..., "it is alright to live with the ordinary, because taking off all the dressings of modern life, indeed we really are very ordinary", as humble as a periwinkle.

Pic 12 ~ Periwinkle, light purple

~ Ulam Raja ~

indeed like a forest in the garden. How  many of our lunches had been accompanied with delicious salad of ulam raja. How many times the little boy from the front row of houses came and said "Mak mintak sikit ulam raja" or translated as "Mom ask for ulam raja". And how can I forget the memorable voyage of ulam raja seeds to London (click here: ULAM RAJA against all odds: a story from London).....

Pic 13 ~ Ulam Raja bush with winged beans at the back.

Keeping in tune with Mr Mohamad's wise words, Mr Shab's J factor where every thing has to JIVE in,  in a JIGSAW puzzle, Mr Jalil's worry with golf balls having minds of their own and young Mr Faudzi's grasp on reality of life, I look at the garden and keep wondering if  farewell needs to be teary hugs and kisses........

bangchik and kakdah

Tanah Merah, Kelantan

orchid and wedding.

Kakdah loves her orchids so much. I can almost guarantee which side she will turn first as she opens the front door. It's invariably to the LEFT side, where her orchid house is. Her smile is widest when an orchid let out stalk with buds, and she will run to hold them...

It's second time for this orchid. Kakdah reacted the same as we arrived after long absence. I thought blogging about orchids once in a while should make Kakdah happy. In fact she keeps reminding me to write something about orchid, a subject I am not too familiar with.  But orchids serve many important occasion in life.

Wedding, one of them.

Kakdah's Orchid flowering

A friend Amir had been very busy for weeks, getting everything ready for his daughter's wedding. Huh.., wedding is a memorable window to unknownland.... where understanding and love seem to rule. A journey, where love may unknowingly meander around the main pathway , and fluctuate in a sinusoidal mode. It must be decades since I last used that term sinusoidal describing a sine wave with repetitive oscillations.

Mind is acting funny as we get older, where one minute we can recall clearly what's taught 35 years ago like sinusoidal pattern, the next minute we can't figure out where the car key is . They said as we grow older the short term memory is not doing well. But I would rather compare mental capacity to a water tank.......When it's full, additional water will overflow, not retained. Our children may argue, saying we only use a fraction of memory/brain cells....., the bigger fraction left idle.

The wedding was held at Concorde Hotel Kuala Lumpur Ballroom.......... on the 9th of October. I think the young couple loves that date 9.10.11 so much. Call it magic number or angka keramat, call it feng shui, the number definitely is a sign of life getting better progressively.

the view from 9th floor of Concorde Hotel Kuala Lumpur, using hp camera.

Khair was there with his wife. Yusof was there too..... Two old friends, from previous era, where bachelorhood is a transitional interface, before one decides to shift to a different phase called marriage. Both era completes LIFE. Then we laughed at each other, checking who got more gray hair. Mat and Hajar were as cheerful as ever, Asmara and Sulong turned up in identical dress or sedondon in Malay Language, and somehow Shab and wife could easily be tagged as the youngest couple of our era... judging by the hair.

There we were, enjoying the night, celebrating Liyana and Suhaimi's marriage..., escorting Amir and Cindy (the parents) to real adulthood. To make the festive air more memorable, Dato Sabree played excellent lead  guitar work, creating such nostalgic atmosphere with new and old numbers to the end.......

Life is as beautiful as an orchid 
and 
may God bless Liyana + Suhaimi and their future..

bangchik and kakdah

Garden: other things

dragonfly

dragonfly/pepatung

dragonfly/ pepatung

dragonfly/pepatung

dragonfly/pepatung

ground orchid

 ground orchid

 ground orchid

ground orchid

bangchik and kakdah Tanah Merah, Kelantan

Wordless Wednesday: the second yellow

bangchik

Orchids back home

a

b

c

d

e

f

Oh, when we have space like mother in law, with a full one acre plot, then there are so many things we can do and grow. With all the tall coconut trees, mango, kedondong, nangka  and cempedak creating specific grid layout, Mother In Law as any other lady (kakdah included) manage to allocate area for her orchids. I am not really into orchids, so I cant give names. I can at least give name to one of them ~ Tiger Orchid...
The recent hot spells over in Malaysia which is quite long, is felt by many and orchids too.  Flowers doesn't seem to last long before they wilt and pinched by insects.  Those properly protected by shade fare better, healthier and with richer colour.

bangchik

Oncidium cebolleta orchid, like pop corns

Oncidium cebolleta orchids.

The orchids has been with us for almost two years. They were in 3 pots. Then one of them decides to bloom earlier than the rest. That particular one is placed nearer to the edge of porch, therefore enjoying abundance of sunlight and warmth. The other two which stay further in the porch, remain cool and just watch at the blooming fiesta! The lips and callus are very much irregular in shape, and at a glance, resemble flattened yellow pop corns!!

 .

yellow orchids

 

 yellow orchids

 

 just two weeks ago.

The stalk is long almost 2 feet protruding out towards the sunny area.

bangchik

Wordless Orchids

bangchik

Orchids are here

the orchids

Orchid has never been the central focus in our garden. Having a few of them is adequate to complete the biodiversity theme. Their growth is very slow almost like snails. It is difficult to anticipate when the plant will bloom. After a while we tend to forget about orchids blooming. Then out of a sudden a little stalk starts to protrude. And the anticipation and anxiety begins.

A few flowering orchids to share here. 

ready to bloom.

half bloom.

a close-up

white orchid, almost papery.

white orchid

white orchid

loose and clumsy orchid

the half open bloom resting on the leaf

a close-up

bangchik