Ninety hours in the pilgrim town of Assisi brought me from the milieu of an interesting cultural experience, to the dissonance of attempting a meditative journey amidst the life-line and highway of a major tourist town, and thence to a more balanced reflection on the 800 years that had since passed from the austere beginnings…
A glimpse of the sweet morsels from the fruiting mango tree that feeds the young black-naped oriole in the south garden. Here the mother indulgences in her young, while other birds look on, and await their turn at the fruit basket. Now its the turn of the yellow-vented bulbul to partake of the…
Last year. this time, in the Gardens Reflections on Good Friday, I had cited two verses from the Gospel of St John: “they went to a place which was called Gethsemane” (Mk 14:32), “across the Kidron valley, where there was a garden”(John 18:1) “In the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in…
A few days’ ago, I had a noodle meal topped by sweet potato leaves and an egg, garnished by a sprinkle of dried shrimps and an oriental belachan chilli paste (chilli padi with garlic and malay shrimp paste). Sweet potato leaves were the high point of the meal, since they were plucked from the garden…
In a scene reminiscent of the Kafkaesque landscape that the 20th century author had painted in his books, we trudged through this vast fog-bound lava plain, along with a horde of humanity, some on horse-back, others on motor-bikes, and still more like us, led by a determination to reach the end of the stretch…
Gospel of Mark 7:14-23 It is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean Jesus called the people to him and said, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that goes into a man from outside can make him unclean; it is the things that come out of a man…
Chūn Xiǎo 春晓 Mèng Hàorán (Táng) 孟浩然（唐） Chūn mián bù jué xiǎo, 春眠不觉晓， chùchù wén tí niǎo. 处处闻啼鸟。 Yè lái fēngyǔshēng, 夜来风雨声， huā luò zhī duō-shǎo? 花落知多少? “春晓(chūnxiǎo)” refers to a Spring Dawn. The Tang Dynasty poet, Meng Haoran (689-740) describes how in his deep slumber on a spring night, day has broken…
On a mild January morning, the female Brown-throated Sunbird (Anthreptes malacensis) applies herself diligently to the business of collecting nectar as her mate keeps her company with watchful eyes and chirpy delight. Thus runs the kingdom of the tropical garden, a never-ending kaleidoscope of flora and fauna providing sounds, sights and the odd surprises, as…
The male Brown-throated Sunbird (Anthreptes malacensis) is shown here on the Red Button Ginger, with its confident dawn roost and throaty calls while the female is demonstrably more flighty and darts around rapidly whilst feeding on the Heliconia psittacorum. (Lumix GX85; M.Zuiko 40-150mm January 2018)
The bright red flowers of the South American Costaceae species Costus woodsonii (Red Button Ginger), competes with the Heliconias in the garden for the Sunbird, with its nectar-feeding beaks, to pollinate its flowers. In their native America homeland, it is the Hummingbirds that does the work. (Lumix GX85; M.Zuiko 40-150 mm) (Convergence evolution) …