The bauhinia and orchids continue to bloom in their quiet domains, when the birds come to nest. The diversity and cacophony of the dawn chorus and evensong is transformed into the persistent urgent shrills of hungry nestlings and their affectionate parents……… and immediately, we know there and then – there is life.
(Week 42) The Bauhinias are in fully perennial bloom – and they are joined by a rare flowering of an epiphytic orchid on the adjacent black bamboo (Phyllostachys-nigra)in the garden. A rare beauty and a true blessing, four weeks to Easter Sunday.
(Week 18) The first flowers. And more. The plant looks very jaded, and a little worn around the edges. Like a weary soul whose time has come to journey beyond adolescence.
(Week 6) The mysterious miracle of growth and fruitfulness
Another two weeks has passed. Now, there are these giant steps towards starting up the self-sustaining chlorophyll engine.
This parable from today Missal, the Gospel of Mark 4:26-34 is so apt
“With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”
(Week 4)
Another two weeks has passed. The shoots are now proliferating in droves. Already, the first strand of a spider’s web has spun across the fledgling shoots, seemingly unaware of how short-lived the structures will be……
But Life does find a way.
Elsewhere in the garden, a rare pink variant of the Peacock Flower (Caesalpinia pulcherrima) looks on regally at the rebirth.
(Week 2)
Two weeks after a heavy (heavy) prune, new shoots emerging from this Bauhinia kockiana creeper. This climber is a native of the Malaysian jungle, and produces an abundance of orange and re-orange flowers.
