The Lake Birds

Hi friends

As promised this entry will feature photographs taken at the lake, the site where I went for my morning walk.

Actually I started a little late. My trail today was shorter as I took the shortcut . I had to because my feet still felt a little sore from yesterday's walk. I should take a rest but I was very interested to photograph the birds. And from the time I started I knew it would be hot day.

Yes my prediction was right. At nine something the sun was quite strong. The effect of bright day light causes harsh shadows it wouldn't be good on my photos.

There was a hive of activity on the small island. From far you can see patches of white on the dense canopy. They were birds perched on the tree top and among the branches.Some were wading in the shallow water around and underneath the trees. Some were swimming.

The water was clear as you can see from the reflections.

The island is quite far out so not much details can be caught in the photo unless you have sophisticated photographic gear. The too bright day light also was of no help at all.

While concentrating on the birds my camera caught something approaching. I thought it was a snake but when it changed direction it looked like a small croccodile or was it a phyton. Oh no! May be just a memerang (otter? beaver? )

Ah this. It can be found anywhere, on the road in the water and in your compound! Guess what.

Back to birds . . .flaminggos herons of different kinds and others . . . don't really can identify them unless the very obvious . . . leave it to the expert.

Peaceful surrounding 

The sanctuary

The lake birds living in harmony

I hope you like the photos.

Today is the last day of 2016 . I take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

Bye . . .

The Walk

Hi everyone

Sometimes we need to be away . Got to get away. We need to have a change of air. Need to move away from the humdrum. Snap out of it!

So I go somewhere. Here I come to the place of my retreat. Wanted to make a few days different from the everyday. And here I am writing about it with the aircon humming quietly.

So today I did something mad. I did a marathon.

I walked for a distance of more than 13 kilometres. My MI band tracked  22728 steps i.e equivalent to 13.8 kilometres. I started out at 7.32 am and reach back home at 12.35 in the afternoon.

I made short stops to rest my legs and a rest long enough to finish a small  bowl of  a fancy named ice kacang- tropical paradise hah.

The MI recorded 507 calories burnt . Never mind the ice kacang then.

 Don't you think it was quite a feat? I was not really tired for the most part of the trail but towards the end as I trudged on my legs were giving signal.

And in the house later going upstairs was a challenge.

My trail

Thanks Google for the map. The line dark blue and red is my trail.

So there is it.

I enjoyed walking along the lake. Today I have not taken any photograph. The nature around here is quite nice with big birds flying around and playing in the island  islet. I did not bring my zoom camera as I did not expect to walk that far to reach the lake.

Tomorrow I shall go again with my camere direct to the place. Will take the shortest route as now I have got my sense of direction. Hope no rain tomorrow.

See if I can get some nice pictures for my next entry.

So stay tuned.

Bye for now.

School Holidays

Hi friends

I have not been blogging for some days.

It was that, the school holidays.

Not that I'm a school kid as you know I left school decades ago, though I still write and think and act like school kid sometimes. Am still upbeat about the school holidays haha.

Remember there is always that little girl in every woman?

The children came to stay for a week. They . . .fresh bubbly honest and in simplicity. A joy to have them here. Everything enlivened. All vitalized ha ha. Their laughters and giggles were contagious. The house became so alive and noisy but the noise was lovely. They made me feel young again.

It felt so good be surrounded by happy children. All four girls. Though it was quite hectic having them around but I didn't mind at all. Their chatters and laughters made my day.

To entertain them took some thinking and planning.

Well now we are living in the material world, give them what they want and your problem is solved. Give them gadgets and they will sit there engrossed with whatever they are on that there will be no complaining and whining. Easy.

But nope. Not with me. There were better things.

I also put some responsibilities on their shoulders. The elder girls helped me with the laundry and simple works in the kitchen. They also helped to bathe the little one. In fact they were good at it.

We had time for more interesting activities together when works had been done with.

I can't help thinking about my younger days. Holiday or not the days were the same except you did not have to go to school. Going for trips? Going places? No such thing. May be just once or twice to the cinema. It was considered a luxury in those backward days. At other times it was all about helping our parents with their kampung work.

When my own children were schooling school holiday was quite a tough time for me and hubby as we were working parents. Just like my grandchildren especially when they were younger stayed with their grandmother in the kampung. Or sometimes the grandmother came over. In the later years their school holidays were occupied by attending sports camp and taking part in tennis tournaments as they were quite serious into sports.

For these girls what a pity there was no holiday trips to resorts and no theme parks this time. No sports camps, nothing. But coming to stay here with me was just as good. The surrounding area provides lots of fun and learning experience to inspire and to enrich their young minds.

Keeping them happy and entertained got myself entertained too.To be so much involved doing things together has strengthened our relationship. And they seem to like what I like. That was a good thing.

Bored with crafts and scrabble we went out. Took them to the pool or to the beach for a swim or we just went out for walks and looked around sort of a  take-photo outing . Let them appreciate nature.

See the strong tangled roots of the mangroves.

The beach morning glory still a beauty even with close petals.
.
Let them see the vast rambling sea at the coming of a bad weather.

Let them feel the strong breeze in their hair and on their faces.

Looked up at the flock of birds blown by the winds (?)

The sunset a joy to watch.

And as the children like to say  . . . and many more!! heheh.

All are good feeds to their minds.

May they have feelings of gratitude and hence healthy minds . Become happy people when they grow up.

Picture of joy ( old picture)

Bread dunked into milo also nice

Play bubble a must

Crafting together

Swing before a swim

Beach morning glory closed their petals in the evening

The island 

Take a look  up there

Found a stranded kitten

Reflection 

Time to go home

Now its back to normal. They have left. They are now visiting their other grandparents. Well they are not mine and mine alone . . .

At the time of leaving the goodbye hugs were silent . . .

I will cherish those happy moments.

Bye . . .

The Hundredth Post

Dear readers

Together with this post my blog entries has come up to one hundred.

No I did not count it but blogger counts it for me. On the blogger dashboard everything is laid out for me to see. It is so well organised it makes my life easy. I only need to keep on writing and posting.

According to the chart I have readers. Definitely not all are phantoms. There are real readers too.

I don't really make efforts to share my blogposts since I don't have a facebook or a twitter account let alone the others like instagram. Thus the ninety nine entries are read by not that many people.

I am such a dreamer and hope that somehow this blog one day will find its way into many hearts.

I am trying hard to compose better entry each time. In the beginning I took so much time to complete a single post. As time goes on I find it a lot easier. As usual for me the beginning is the hardest.

For sure I don't write anything heavy and serious or taunting as my intention is to make this blog for easy and light readings. Something which can make you smile.

Its just that like in the real world you chat and tell stories jokes and such to whoever enjoy listening. I don't call out hey come listen to me about my nothing stories. If my stories entertain they will listen. Of course I do sometimes start the coversation first. Most people are polite.

Ideas to write don't come easy all the time.

There are everyday happenings and things around me that can be the subject of my writing. Sometimes telling about an incident can be written in one or two lines. One or a two line posting how entertaining can that be? Better not post anything at all.

Sometimes happenings are not worth or not right to be exposed. Some thoughts are better to be kept within your mind. Some photos are best to be kept private.

Images can spark ideas to write because as they say a picture is worth a thousand words.

I find it quite difficult to choose from the hundreds (reaching thousand?) of pictures and I am still taking more pictures hehe Which picture is best photographically, relevent or not and sometime thinking too much over it can stunt an entry.

I can get stuck.

Ideally I want the title, the narative and the picture supports each other in not so obvious way but subtle and metaphorical. It is quite difficult to turn or to twist or to spin words. So you see most of my post are straight forward type of narration. Dream of becoming a real writer haha.

It happens sometimes the entry when completed swerved from my intention. I blame my rambling tendency. Then I have got to redo, rearrange paragraphs and change the words and choose different images to make the whole entry more cohesive. Now I regret for not taking literature lesson seriously when in school ha ha.

Before I started writing this post I spent some time reading the previous posts though not all. I cringed at some and felt like taking them down editing them and republish. There are some which I could have said in another way which can be better. Some pictures should be replaced by different pictures which are more appropriate. And grammer mistakes! And spelling mistakes!

But I decide to leave it as it is, flaws and all. My all sincerity! I am just a humble writer still learning. Ah please don't tell me to just go and jaga cucu.

Anyway as I come to this hundredth post I am quite satisfied. When I started this blog I thought I won't last to even a month with one or two posts. I have put in one hundred and intend to continue. Must pat my back myself hehe.

And so I can say I am still . . .

 ..in the swim . . .

Ahhh . . .

We'll meet in next entry.


Bye . . .

Rain Or Shine

Hello

Its dark sky again . Cool but I am restless. Not hungry but I want to eat. There are fruits bread and biscuits ... just choose but no not these. A dark day like this you crave for fried food, some kind of savoury fritters, karipap or badak hehehe yes badak . Good. . . I have some frozen badak in the freezer . . .I don't mean the rhinoceros . . .

Very satisfying, hot savoury fritters with hot instant cofee what a great combination . . .

When the weather is like this - dark and gloomy but the rain is not coming you are so undecided. If you go out and it rains you would just be wasting your time and if you don't go and the rain does not come at all then you would regret missing on the fun of playing tennis in such a cool weather.

Also a day like this there will be more beeps in the groups whatsapps . . .

P: Y  you already in BT? Heavy rain here in town. There how?

Y: Already here.Was cloudy but already clear .

A: Are you already at the court . . .

Y: No. Still at apartment will go now . Wait wait I hear thunder. Aaahhh.

P: See later how.

Another group participant chip in . .

S: Rain or shine just go!


The day before about the same time the weather was the same. . . the phone conversation went like this . . .

M: Hello

H: Yoo

M: Rain in your area? (My house is sharing the same sky as the club)

H: Aaaa ya dark very dark . Rain few drops only. Just now.

M: You think it will come heavy?

H:  Don't know. Don't know how to forecast hehehe.

M: Hahaha ya I know  you bukan kaji cuaca.

H: Wait I go outside check again. Yeay no more. But still dark here.

M: Mmmm I still go. You still resting?

H: Yaaaa ( sigh). Ok. Hope you all can play today. Enjoy!

M: Thanks . . .

Its like that. Weather is unpredictable nowadays. It makes you so undecided. That is why sometimes you wish for the rain to just pour so that your decision to stay back is correct and justified. No disappoinment.

Get yourself a gadget and go huddle in the corner of the sofa. Come. Let it storm, let it rain cats and dogs . .

But when I come across disturbing news on the floods and landslides I feel I am such an inconsiderate thoughtless person.

Did I not know how those people staying in low lying area and on hill slopes are feeling when the rain pour.

They are living in fear, be mindful spare them some thoughts.

Forgive me for being so self centred.

Though not that wishing and hoping can change things . . . rain or shine is the bussiness of nature . . .

Pray. No more bad news.

Lets appreciate nature . . .even in not so fine a weather.

The birds chose to come out on a gloomy day.

Poor light makes the photo look hazy and dull.

In poor light the colors do not shine through . 

I know the photos are substandard. But these birds rarely appear.

I hope it will appear again soon in fine weather so that I can take better pictures.

Dear readers rain or shine you still can do what you'd like to do . . .

bye . . .


 

Small and Silent

Hello everybody


A time to observe. The small and the silent.

Don't squish them.

I am gentle i am a lady

I am for the fruit not for your food. I am not a menace.

I sting when i have to . . .

I am harmless . . .

A time to ponder . . .


Bye . . .

Supermoon Full Moon

Hi all

People are talking about the supermoon .

A full moon said to be bigger and brighter because of its position in its orbit when it comes closest to earth . It comes in after many years ie since 1948 according to NASA. The excitement spreads through out the world as can be read in the media.

I get affected too. In this post I would like to talk about it albeit a little late.

When I came to know about it I put a mark on the calender lest I forget. And that night I made sure I had dinner early. I wanted to have photographs of my own of the supermoon . Was it possible with the camera that I have. Never mind no harm trying. Anyway I was pessimistic when at late evening the sky was shrouded by dark clouds.

When night came it came together with the rain. When the rain let up the night was still pitch dark no sign of the moon at about eight or eight something. It was only after nine oclock I went outside again. Then I noticed the moon.

The moon was bright but it looked small. When I looked through the view finder I could not see the shape of the moon itself at first due to the brightness. Light scatterd from the moon shinning like a bulb of white light or something like a light from a motorcycle coming from opposite in the night.

Only later I could see the moon clearly it sort of slowly and gradually came out to show its face. It appeared more matt no more so shining - if I can say it that way . . .

I could not really realise any difference in size. It was the same like the full moon at other times that I have seen.

Brightness, yes I sense the difference when it was rising(?) earlier before that particular time the moon should be nearest.

I also wished that I could catch a picture with the aircraft superimposed on the moon. Yes like those great photos shot by the professional photographers.

There are also fake photos which look so awesome. They take two exposures then editing and superimosing them. But still it needs to be clever to do that. And not everyone can do it. So I still appreciate them fake or not.

I was not lucky only two or three airplanes passed below the moon. Others were on different paths. Also it was quite difficult to focus and my hands were not steady. Imagine one old lady trying to be a photographer ha ha.

One airplane moved too fast

Another airplane passed by

I think if the weather was good I could have got better pictures.

Did I notice any difference. Not really.

When I was small I liked to gaze at the moon. I always thought I saw movements on the moon surface. Well may be children have eyes that are extra sharp right? And in their mind full of imaginations.

Even now though already old I never cease to wonder at the moon.

Picture taken at few months back (morning)

In our folklore there is a story about the bird, the owl, longing for the moon . Bagai pungguk rindukan bulan is the famous idiom. It means you are wishing for something which is impossible to achieve.

Pretend that's the pungguk admiring the supermoon

Moon is featured in many songs as moon is associated with romance hence  we have the evegreen songs like 'Fly me to the moon' and 'Blue moon' for example. I have yet to hear a song on supermoon . . .blue moon is also a full moon if I am not mistaken.

Enjoy the song on low volume.

Bye . .