Views From A Hill

On top of Bukit Semarak:

On a clear day when we look south we can see my home island in the distance.  Tikam Batu town is in the foreground.

And when we look north we can see Gunung Jerai, Sungai Petani town and the lush greenery of mangrove along the rivers...

 

And when we look closer, we can see wild flowers we seldom see unless we stop to look.

Don't play-play with this guy...

Saw this mean looking thing hanging out by a foot path while hiking uphill...

Mother nature must be taking a nap...

It seems my little Ciku Tree is coming along fine, but I just wonder why it's taking forever even to lift the teeny weeny seed shell off the ground.

After we've seen how fast bean sprouts get off and go, this is like watching a slug taking off after hearing the starter's gun. Yeah, not exactly reaching eagerly for the sky.


Mother Nature must be having a nap over this one.

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Update: It's standing up this morning! Straightened itself. That's more like it!


It looks like some golfer stuck his club in here...

The Replacement

One of my ex-bosses had a little saying while we watched some workers cut down a tree to put up a building extension: "It takes 15 bloody long years to get a tree to its full height, but it takes only 15 minutes to cut it down!"

While our mango tree slowly withers away, I'm making preparations for its replacement. After all, it takes years for a tree to grow to its full potential, so I need to start early. But it seems my little replacement, the ciku seed, is taking its own sweet time to germinate. Looks like it's going to take some effort on my part to nurture it. The 'parents' come all the way from Kuala Selangor.

After several days seeing nothing emerging I got worried, until I noticed a little crack in one of the seeds that got 'floated' above the soil. Then a day later another of the seeds surfaced and 'anchored' itself into the soil.


Knowing we won't be around to water it, we took it along on our travels. (The story is: We're staying at brother-in-law's. While wife takes care of the cooking and cleaning in the house, I take over some of the son's errands, while he recuperates for a month in hospital of some internal ailment. On top of that, I have an assignment to keep track of).

I covered the little pots with a plastic netting and left them in a corner in their garden. That night, their dogs messed up the pots and chewed the netting to pieces. Fortunately, one of the seedlings survived. Then another seed broke through the surface of the soil in the 2nd pot.



Stick around... especially you tree lovers.

Cure for sore-throat.

I tried to plant some in my garden some years ago by throwing some seeds around.  Nothing happened.  Then I managed to get one seedling and poked it into the ground.  It has been flourishing all over the place since.  Now I have them even in the back lane.

Whenever you feel some itchiness in your throat and it's hot and dry (sure signs of pending sore-throat), just get 5 to 10 leaves, wash them thoroughly, throw them into a cup, boil some water, pour in, cover it for a while until its temperature is down to lukewarm.  Then drink it. 

Caution:  You may scream.  Because it's bitter.  That's why they call it Hempedu Bumi (bile of the earth).  It's an anti-toxin which is good for cleaning out your liver.  It also helps lower blood pressure. 

Kaffir Lime

Took this shot some years ago.  Didn't know the real name of this lime until today.  Looks like it's in bloom.  We used to call it 'thaiko kam'.  Always love the smell of the leaves.  Use it as a natural deodoriser in the car.  While going through the papers this morning I read about Kaffir Lime, and decided to search Google.  And presto! 

I found this: http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/Citr_hys.html