It Is Quiet

Hi everyone

The car is already outside. The engine is being revved up and ready to go, just waiting for me, yet I am not ready. I linger, look at the plants in my small side garden, a little worrying. Do all the plants get enough water to last for the next few days? I take pride in their growth.

I take time to lock the front door, close and lock the heavy gate. Only then I would get into the car, slowly, as if testing the driver's patience.

Though I am not going far and not for many days I can't help but look back at the house as I usually do and seeing it with my mind's eyes.

Looking in from the outside the place is still and quiet. There is little activity except for the birds and squirrels and others who are there, help enliven the place.

Lizard lives in trees and bushes

The house is more a home if loud and noisy. But as the world keeps on turning so does the living keep on changing.

If you take a peek at the house you hear little talking over lunch and lesser still over dinner.

You would hear more of the motorcycle or the car engine starting, someone is always going out and who would want to talk to the walls?

At other times one is arriving as the other is going out.

And late into the night,  everybody is poring over their gadgets. Whatever are they reading?

Such is the accepted way of life nowadays and it is ok, on the surface, there is nothing to complain.

The tv is only turned on when some big sports event is on life telecast. There would be sudden cheers or growls or grumbles.Then people know there's someone at home.

The tv news, once not to be missed is now no more the source of latest information.  It's now all coming from the online news portal, read on the small mobile telephone screen while lying in bed. Life can be quite comfortable. 

And when there are things to be discussed or gossiped about, it's via the apps with somebody whoever he/she is at the other end and not with the person closest.

Living like this is alright, quite a nice arrangement because there is no interfering with each other's likes or dislikes. An unspoken agreement, you would say.

A changing life experience as the years pass and the house has become a quiet place. But quiet or not there is always a home to come back to.

Smiles to welcome me home once upon a time

Hearty laughs make a house a home

Cheers . . .

Till next entry . . . bye . . .

Come To My Fragrant Garden

Hi Friends

A fragrant garden!

An environment that delights your senses.

As you stroll into the garden it would be like walking towards a perfume counter in an upmarket shopping mall. Scented, aromatic, sweet smelling. Never overpowering. Just beautiful.

Ha ha ha I am just imagining. My scented garden never really materialise. It cannot qualify to be called a fragrant garden.

That is not to say the garden does not feature any sweet-smelling flowers, it has, but too few to give an effect.

My garden is actually a yard beside the house haphazardly planted with trees and shrubs and common house and garden plants. It does not have a concept but it can be aptly called natural bush garden hehehe. It is messy. And now with the falling leaves it is messier still.

At the beginning of my gardening endeavor, I have a vision that one day my side yard would somehow develop into a scented garden where the air is filled with the fragrance of the flowers.

Fat hopes because I am not so serious and my time is mostly taken up by other hobbies . . . and the household chores . .

As I mentioned earlier I have only a few plants with fragrant blooms and so what I get is only a whiff of the scent sometimes. Of course, if you go near and sniff the smell would be stronger.

Come to think of it, if those few plants all bloom at the same time the fragrance should be better and stronger but even then the effect won't be heady like, mmm . . . say when you spill a bottle of perfume?

Here are my fragrant flowers, just to share.

My bunga kesidang plant very rarely blooms. But when it does the flower lasted for quite a number of days. The pleasant odor is very noticeable. I never miss taking a sniff at the flower whenever I pass it.

Now this plant is getting bigger and it has started to climb up the mulberry tree.  One day I should see it producing more flowers, I hope. 

The flower, what's the name, below, is a pleasant surprise for me because initially when I bought it I never knew it as a flowering plant and on top of that the flower emits fragrance though quite faint. I bought it because I was attracted to the glossy leaves.

The plant has been with me for so many years already and the pot dragged to here and there many times. And at the very last spot, it stays there until the roots dig into the ground. It is at this spot that it begins to produce flowers quite often. Then I don't move it anymore hehe.

You cannot miss the distinctive odour of the cempaka but my twin cempaka trees are not producing enough flowers to effect a fragrant garden. The few flowers are situated so high up that the fragrance cannot reach the ground.

The lower branches are not bearing any flower. I put the blame on the neighbouring gaharu tree which is shielding it from the sunlight. I wonder when this gaharu will get injected and die.

Below is another one in my garden collection. The kemuning flower. Nice fragrance and the smell more pronounced when the plant is flushed with flowers. They do not last long. The plus point is it flowers quite often.

Below is the gardenia. Is it a dwarf plant. Won't it grow big.

Its fragrance is very faint, not the same as the bunga cina I used to play with in my kampung when I was small. At that time gardenia shrubs form the fencing for our kampung house. I remember waking up in the morning to the smell of gardenias.

Or is it my sense of smell is now diminishing? 😟

There is a jasmine plant but is stunted and not producing any flower since being uprooted from the ground into a pot. It was done so because of some house renovation. I have been quite patient with it and hope it will not disappoint me. I wish it would flower like before so as to make my neighbour jealous again hehe.

Then there is also a limau kasturi, the calamansi plant at the back part of the compound. When it blooms you get a very fresh smell. It is quite old already and producing less and less flowers and fruits.

But today I am so happy, just realized, the once about to extinct from my garden fragrant orchid gives out a flower. What a pleasant surprise. 

So there, a few fragrant flowers in my collection.

Hope you like them.

Till next entry, bye . . .