That Semalu - a different variety...

The other day while browsing around the neighborhood I found another variety of the Semalu plant. This time it is not the usual one that one see sprawling on the ground but a climbing type. Actually it used another plant to climb up to about one and a half meter high or at an eye level. I then got near to it and took a number of snaps and above is one that I think shows that little flower in all its glory.

You do not get to see the intricacies of the flower and that insect with the naked eyes. It is only through the macro lens that we could see the beauty of this little flower of the Semalu Plant. Malu from Semalu in Malay mean shy, thus the plant leaves shy away when touched. Have a nice day.

Color of the neighborhood....

It rain with thunder and lightning. I love the rain and it always remained me of my childhood living in a Kampong house where the roof always leak when it rain. Unlike now the roof at that time was made of nipah leaves woven together to make the roofing material. It is indeed a wonderful way of creating a roofing material from the leaves of a palm tree which is in abundant along the river. Nipah palm grows well on the watery mud along the river. In those days all along the Kuantan river there are nothing else but this wonderful plants, that sustained the riverside with various living things like the shellfish, the eatable snails and other small animals and insects . I often follow the elders to get a kind of shellfish that live in the mud, we call it Lokan and it is indeed a delicious food when cooked the traditional way.

The rain is continuing and I sat here at the patio and enjoying the sound of the pattering on the roof. At the same time it has turn the patio into a cool place to sit in the afternoon without the fans on. The thunder and an occasional lighting made the scene look gloomy but to me it is just part of the Eco system of our environment and I did enjoy it.

Yesterday while browsing around the neighborhood I snap some glorious flowers that grows on the roadside. Before the macro lens I just took for granted all those flowers and today with the macro lens I began to see more of these flowers.

It is the rain that comes and goes all the year round plus the sunshine that never failed to appear from the early hours of the morning; that brought about the abundant of greens and flowers in the tropic throughout the years. Whether one look or not the greens are always there, so are the flowers that color the landscapes. Only through the lens of the camera that one could capture the colorful scenes of these everyday happening.

Walking around we often just get a glimpse of the color of our day but most of the time we just do not take a second look. But once captured by the camera everything soon became a world by itself, so glorious and beautiful. That morning with the camera and the macro lens brought me into a new dimension of seeing nature at its best at my neighborhood. And folks here what I saw on that beautiful morning at Ampang Jaya; these flowers that blooms all the time throughout the years. Have a nice day.

That insects..

Well folks this time it look like that these insects are having its field day with the flowers. I did enjoy taking the snaps and hope that others would enjoy it as well. Have a nice day.

The Ants and the Orchid...

It is another hazy day. I sat here at the Kopitian table and trying to think as I write this. Fascinating of how the mind works. You must have a good environment for ideas to flow well and I found this place as one of the best place to sit and whilst my time or day dreams or flirt in my mind of all the possibilities and enjoying it. In front of me is my little garden of greens and a small fish pond with miniature waterfall. The sound of the water does take one away to distance places and indeed therapeutic. I am hoping the haze would be gone so that I may visit the newly open Public Park nearby. I think I have to wait for it would not be worth my whilst to be in the park with such an unhealthy environment. As I continue writing I could hear the Garbage truck passes by doing it duty to take away the trash that we folks had put in the trash bins. If it did not come then we all would have problems with the trash and that is not healthy either. It is lucky that our Local Council did a good job of collecting of the rubbish as we call it here, on a regular basis.

Yesterday I took some shots of some activities at the garden at the back of my house. This time I watch the ants through my Macro lens and saw what a fascinating happening that I normally do not notice with the naked eyes. The black ants as seen in the image here are running all over and doing sort of a ritual with the buds of the orchids. I was mesmerized and continue to look and enjoy the activities unfolded before my eyes. I am not sure what the ants were doing since it is just buds and no flowers as yet. In my previous encounter I found that without the ants the buds would not bloom into the Orchids. So here we see two species doing things for it mutual interest. The ants get maybe some food while the buds get some nutrition/booster to get going as it grows into flowers. That is what I thought and I hope those with scientific knowledge could elaborate further of what this ritual is all about. Anyway while the activities are going on I took a numbers of shots and am sharing it here for all to enjoy. Have a nice day.[click the image to enlarge]

Appetizing Eh! ...

I know, I know; I have posted image of Nasi Goreng before but folks this time it is different in that it is the subject of my first try on Macro Photography on food. It does look great isn't it? Sure appetizing eh!

I purposely choose Nasi Goreng as the subject for the simple reason that Nasi Goreng is not only nutritious but loved by all as well. Hope that this posting does made your day.

Have a nice day.

Of Holiday - Time changes...

The grand kids and their parents have just return from a holiday in London and Paris. They look great and happy and do have plenty to tell grandma and grandpa. What a lucky generation they are. During my time as kids there was no such things as going for a holiday. The word holiday mean that it is a School Holiday and nothing else. Anyway we kids at that time do have sort of a holiday of our own. We as Boy Scout would organized ourselves and with haversack on our back would hike to the country side and camp for a week and enjoy our time with our peers group. Fishing, cooking and singing along around the camp fire. Actually care less of the happening to the world. That was my holiday trip whiles our parent work hard to make a living.

And when I became adult and got married and have children of our own, our kids do get the chance to go on a holiday with us but not overseas but locally. We would take them out to places such as Cameron Highland and other towns and seaside to spend their holiday. It was indeed an enjoyable event to have the kids around us during the holiday but then their holiday has always been in the country. The furthest place that one could call overseas that we would go for a holiday is Singapore. And that was considered out of this world at that time. Now look, our grand kids have been taken by their parent to live overseas and then spend their holiday overseas like the Disneyland in Japan, in five star resorts in the country and now in faraway land in Europe.

Well what a change in just three generations. And folks this all could happen because of our investment in education. Our children got a good education, better then us and now with that they live a better quality of life, thus could afford to take the whole family for a holiday overseas. I am indeed happy that things turned out great for them and hope that the next generation would be better.

As for us grandma and grandpa we actually are happy that they had a great time on their holiday this year. We share in their happiness and that folks made living so very wonderful. Have a nice day.

[Images above shows them at The Stonehenge in the UK and The Eiffel Tower in Paris]

Curl...

With many teachers around I kept learning the way of Macro Photography and enjoying doing it. With the Macro Lens I journeyed on and continue to be fascinated with what I saw. Well folks above is another attempt as I go along on this adventurous journey.

Thank you folks for giving great advice and keep it coming. I do appreciate it. Have a nice day.

Of Insect and Flower...

Folks I found out that the best time to get a good image for Macro Photography is during the morning, when the sun is not that bright and the flowers has just started to bloom. It is also during this time that you would find insects busy with their activities interacting with those colorful flowers. Above is a snap that I took yesterday morning while browsing among the flowering plants near my house. Normally I would just take a glance of such flowers that bloom off and on but with that macro lens now everything became a subject of my curiosity. Now I would look closer through the lens of the camera and there I found things that I normally could not see with the naked eyes. Have a nice day. [click to enlarge]

The DUKE....

DUKE [Duta-Ulu Kelang Expressway] is the name of the new highway that connects Ulu Kelang/Ampang Jaya to Damansara/Jalan Ipoh. It now makes it easy for folks from this side of the city to get to the other side especially to get to Jalan Ipoh, PJ, Damansara Mutiara where the Curve and Ikea are; without going through the city proper. Now it just takes less then ten minutes for us who live in Ampang Jaya/Ulu Kelang to get to Ikea, a favorite store of ours. The Curve is another spot where one could have a great time shopping and enjoying good food.

The road bypassed the city and as you travel you would see a panoramic view of the City of Kuala Lumpur with it imposing skyline on your left, as you proceed toward Damansara. There are many interchanges on the way and now it is much easier to get to the Karak Highway using this new Expressway. I have tried this road twice so far and found it well constructed with wide lanes, thus made driving to and fro a pleasure. The toll for using this road one way is RM2.00 [US70 cents]. Above is the scene of the city seen on the left as we drove from Ampang Jaya/Ulu Kelang toward Damansara. Have a nice day. [Click the image to enlarge- The images was snap by my spouse]

Got it!..

It is a beautiful day in the month of June and we are half way already into the year 2009. Many things happen as we move along and for me life has always been beautiful. And now I am continuing that journey of life with a new tool, a Macro lens; where I could venture one more step beyond and enjoy the new world, the Micro world through that lens.

Folks, with the naked eyes we would not have notice the activities in the micro world of the plants. A world so small that we just took for granted that it is there. With an ordinary lens we get to see some but only when we look through the Macro lens that we began to enjoy the wonder of nature. Its pomp and splendor is a wonder by itself.

A few days ago I wrote about the wonder of Bunga Semalu [Mimosa] and yesterday I went to the plant again, this time behind my house and have a look again through the Macro lens. Above is what I saw. It would be just impossible to witness the insect that tiny enjoying itself on that little flower. Now I know why friends had encouraged me to go into Macro Photography. Indeed there is another world out there. Fantastic!. Have a nice day.