Tuesday, December 25, 2007

The colorful leaves....

It is Christmas Day and a holiday out here as well. I took it easy and blogging this today. The scenes you see above is not that of Anasalwa's autumn leaves in Boston during the Fall. I live in Boston some years ago and really enjoy seeing the scene turning from green to that wonderful colors of fall in the New England states. Those leave turning into gold, amber and yellow as fall progresses. And soon you would see those leaves in its multitude of colors scattered on ground. Indeed a sight that you enjoy watching. It is also around this time of the year that we would go for apple picking at some orchards in Boston.

For folks like us who are not used to seeing apples in that quantities, sizes and colors would really enjoy such visit. In Malaysia and countries in the tropic we see apples in boxes in the market places and not on trees. At that orchard you see it on trees like we see all those tropical fruits here when in season. For apples on a tree is similar like our Jambu Air when in season here . The apples fruits are everywhere and this includes scattered on the ground below and no one care to pick it up. I do pick it up for we do not see apples scattered like that but in boxes or containers in the stores or the markets. And you get to eat right from plucking it up from the tree. It taste real juicy and delicious. At one orchard that our family went we pay a fee and could pick as much as you want. And it is not much that we took home and eat at the farm. It is enjoying to be there that's matter most. A rare experience indeed for folks from the tropic. The owner of the orchard had a store that sell things apples, like apple tart, apples cakes, cyder and the like. We sampled some and enjoy before leaving for home in Brighton. Happy that we at last got to visit an apple orchard. The scene of joy especially of the kids that day do etched in my mind. A sweet memory indeed.

Coming back to the subject of the images above, it is the closes to the tree in fall in the New England states. These trees now line the Jalan Kolam Air Lama road that lead to Taman TAR. The Local Council had removed the old trees along this road some year ago and we folks were rather disappointed at that time seeing all those tall trees been cut down one by one. We did not know why they did that until now. After cutting all those trees they planted various new species of tree and this includes that one you see above. I an not sure what the botanical name of this tree but folks here says it is Merak dirimba or Peacock in the jungle. Perhaps Zawi could enlighten us with this and share with us some of his knowledge on the green. He is the expert on such things. Recently the trees that lines the road start to shows its true colors and I am now glad that they planted this kind of trees, that gives color to the area. It is real nice to see the leaves of these tree changes color from the green to that you seen in the images, yellow, amber and gold. What a familiarity with the autumn leave in the New England states. Except that these colorful leaves do not fall and scattered on the ground like what happened in Fall in the New England state. It look like every years come December we would see these trees changes color for us to enjoy and appreciate nature at its best.

I believe our cyberpal U.Lee know this place very well indeed. He told me that this area of Ampang was his playground during his youth in the sixties. To quote him " Yes, Ampang Jaya in the 60's was my fishing grounds too, so many ponds and mining pools. Used to go to the catchment area tangkup ikan haruan, Toman too...and quite often bring my girlfriends there too, ahemm. Ha ha. Yes, Ampang Jaya will always hold memories for me.". It is a place of his youth and his youthful activities. In a way it is still like that today. Young kids still would come to catch small fish in the stream at Taman TAR. It is also a place where hundreds of monkey made their home and playground as well. In the sixties this area was part of the jungle of the Banjaran Titiwangsa [Titiwangsa mountain range] and are forested right to the low lying area what is now Taman TAR, with its exclusive housing and the Darul Ehsan club with its nine holes golf course. Many expatriates live here now. It is a nice place to be, full of greens of all shades.

It is also a place folks around here including me would jog from time in the morning or afternoon. For the information of U.Lee and others there are still clear water streams here but I doubt there are much fish around anymore. Anyway it is still a great place to be, to jog around the three kilometers track around the golf course or play golf or just enjoy a drink at the club. Just to give some idea to folks who visit my blog to know of the whereabouts that I live, my home is just two kilometers away from the club. Well folks, I hope you all had a great time on Christmas day as much as I had enjoyed writing this post. And to U.Lee do come over for a holiday and I would be glad to play host. Have a nice day.[click on the image to enlarge]

4 comments:

Pak Zawi said...

Pak Idrus,
I am sorry I cant identify the trees unless I can get more detailed picture. I can only guess that it was the Teja plants that they felled because teja wood can be used as insect repellent in the mosquito coil. They were harvesting the wood from the matured tree and plant new ones. I wonder who get the proceed from the sale of the wood.
Closer to home we can find apple orchards in Batu, Malang Indonesia. When I was there in 1990, there were lots of apples fruits of various varieties. I love the small apples which the Indons name it as manalagi or manalaki. Apples are prone to attack by fruit flies. Those that have fallen off the trees are more often than not are those that have been infested by the fruit fly larvae and so they must not be eaten as they contain many hungry larvae feeding on the flesh inside the fruit. Anyway these larvae are good protein and not 'haram' to consume.
MARDI in Cameron Highlands did a small plot of apple trees at their research station. They used to bear some fruits as the station used to have cold night temperature which is necessary to initiate flowering.
U Lee did take some beautiful pictures of the trees during the last fall. I am dreaming to go to Ontario for the next fall.

Pak Idrus said...

Nawi, thanks for the visit and sharing your thoughts on apples.

As for the detail images, do click of the image to enlarge. You would be able to see in detail since I took that images using an 8 megapixel camera.

Hope you get to realized your dream and be in Canada next fall. Have a nice day.

Iskandar Syah Ismail aka DR Bubbles said...

Pak idrus,

I am jogging almost everyday around the track.in the morning of course.Around 630 am.Nak reduce weight.

I think that's looks like teja tree. Macam pokok kayu manis.very shady one...along the track I think I can identify some raintrees too...

Pak Idrus said...

drbubbles, thanks for the visit and the additional information on the trees around there. It is indeed a great place to jog especially on a Sunday. Do keep on jogging and have a healthy life. Take care.