GOODBYE TO YEAR 2005

Today is the last day of the year 2005, but it is just a normal day for me. Life still need to go on. The year 2005 was a smooth one to Gary's Garden and hope that the years to come will be as good, if not better. Gary Garden wishes everyone out there a happy and peaceful year.

Fraser's Hill - Flower & Bird

Fraser's Hill is an ideal place for plants and birds. It is indeed a 'Shangri-la' for nature lovers. Malaysian Nature Society organises jungle treking, birds watching, mountain climbing and other activities in promoting love to nature. During the trip there, we managed to snap some photos and would like to share with all of you.

Gary's Garden recommend you to visit http://www.naturestops.com . The shots are fanstatic. The name of the bird posted is Chestnut-Capped Laughingthrush

Merry Christmas

Today is a special day to the world at large and specifically for people of Christian faith. Gary's Garden wish you Merry Christmas and may God blessed us with good health and happiness. A friend of mine sent me this photo to share his joy with us. I am sure he is excited to celebrate this festival with his family and his enlarged family and friends worldwide. Although we are not celebrating Chirstmas together physically, the goodwill in celebrating this auspicious day prevails. Gary's Garden believes such kind of goodwill will bring ultimate peace to the world.

Fraser's Hill

My family had a trip to Fraser's Hill last weekend. Fraser's Hill is a highland resort situated in the State of Pahang, Malaysia. It is in the main mountain range named Titiwangsa which form the backbone of Peninsular Malaysia. The place brought me down to memory lane where my family shared precious moments with my nieces and nephews many years ago.

Fraser's Hill did not change much since my last visits there. The town centre, clock tower, the Paddock (i.e. horse riding range), the golf course and others still remain the same as last time. It is a good place for relaxing our minds and souls. I especially like the cool whether there.

Monsoon Season

The month of December is always a rainy month as the wind direction is North Easterly coming from South China Sea. As a result, December is always a relaxing month of each year whereby people will clear off their leaves and having holidays with their families to celebrate Christmas and countdown to a fresh new year 2006.

Well, Gary's Garden is full of weeds now due to rainy season. But these weeds take the opportunity to show-off their 'cousins' that they can be as nice and attractive, if not better. This is in-line with Gary's Garden's concept of letting the ecology to strike its own balance. You may say the owner of this garden is just giving excuses for being lazy to do weeding. But, honestly, I am not, yah!

We should give chance to all God created creatures to prosper even if they are of the INFERIOR. Everyone of us should has the rights to exist in this world, right?

Note: I am unable to upload images due to some technical errors, I supposed. At last, I managed to post one of them.

Lotus - from young to old

Pictures shown here with lotus at stages of young to old. This reminds us about Life Cycle. Every living creature has to go through the process of Birth, Old, Sickness and Death (生,老,病,死). We cannot avoid this cycle and have to face it graciously. More importantly for us is to be a useful person, of no harm to other people, contribute positively to humanity and live happily during our life time.

This is exactly reflected in lotus. It is grown in muddy pond, grows up graciously, cherish the world by its flowers and sow the seeds for future life.

Snowy House

Internet technology has again amazed me. It is giving me chance to view a place that I never set foot on it. The Snowy House belongs to a distant friend of mine whom I seldom meet. We chat in the web more than we did in person. The house really look fantastic to me. Due to vast different in currency exchange rates, I may not have the chance to visit the house physically. Perhaps this friend can sponsor me? Ha! ha!, just joking yah!

Thanks for sharing. See you soon.

Dutch Architecture

You can find Dutch Architecture in Muar. Do you believe it? Well, it is true. There are traces of the Dutch's presence in Malaysia, especially in the state of Malacca. According to history, if I am right, Dutch first landed in Malacca. You can find more of the Dutch Architecture in Malacca which are the favourite tourist spots now. Muar, being the nearest town to Malacca, has some of the traces of the Dutch's presence.

The Dutch culture has somehow influenced the local people's way of life.

A trip to Muar, Johor, Malaysia

Gary's Garden had a trip down to Muar, a coastal town near to Malacca. We managed to take a few nice shots during the trip and would like to publish these photos to all of you. We visited a friend's house which was renovated recently. We really admired the house and especially like the house's water pond with waterfalls. The waterflowing sound really made the atmosphere soothing and relaxing. The pond is a home to mini koi fish and two turtles named George and Mildred. The interior of the house is tastefully renovated. The family are surely warm hearted and nature lovers.

Another house we visited is full of flowers. The garden is full of flowers and it has lots of varieties not found in Gary's Garden. We wish to thank the couples' hospitality for allowing us to put up two nights with them. The couples are number one garden lovers. The trip to the garden was really an eye opener to us.

Lotus seeds - resemble a shower head?

In appreciation of the support of a blog pal, Kenny Point of Gardening Secret, I decided to post photos of lotus for his viewing pleasure. Lotus is a sacred plant to me as it represents purity. Though it is grown in muddy water, it still can grow elegantly. Its flowers are just facinating and we can feel the atmosphere of calmness and peacefulness when lotus bloomed. When the flower faded, the seed will grow and they are edible. The seeds taste nice and chrunchy. Most Chinese believe the seeds have medicinal values. The lotus roots are well-liked by the Chinese to boil lotus root soup, and believe me, the soup tastes delicious. So, what we can see here is that lotus plant is a very useful plant to all of us. Perhaps Kenny Point may want to try to plant some lotus plants in his garden.

Bravo! Gary's Garden's Kids

I attended my son's school prize giving day a few days ago. My son received a trophy for his best performance in class. Bravo! son, keep in up. His position in his class has improved from 41st last year to No. 1 this year. This was mainly due to improvement in his proficiency in chinese language, which is the main language being used in school. I wish to thank my wife for her dedication in coaching him to achieve this far. The achievement was a history now and most importantly is the journey ahead. The best efforts from all of us must continue, and not just stop here.

The headmistress's speech during the prize giving ceremony touched on many aspects in moulding a kid. One of them was that "kids are always kids, they never grow up in the eyes of every parent". Do you agree with the headmistress's view? I do not agree. For me, as a parent, our role is to give our best within our mean to our children so that they can grow up to be a person of good characters and can be independent. Our role in this is diminishing as our kids grow from day to day. We must pass the 'baton' to them one day and not keep on holding to it. We cannot treat them as kids forever, even though, in our hearts, we prefer to be like that. Do you agree with me?

Also posted here is a trophy of my daugther, who got No. 1 in her kindergarten class last year. This year, no ranking for her since her new kindergarten does not adopt the ranking system.

Chinese Hokkien Bak Chang

These are Chinese Hokkien Bak Chang or dumplings wrapped with bamboo leaves just out from Gary's Garden kitchen. Thanks to my blogger friend http://preciousmoments2.blogspot.com who leads my wife over to interesting blogs sharing recipes of various chinese cookings. This is the first attempt by my wife in making Bak Chang. I am very proud and satisfied with her achievement.

The ancient story for this Bak Chang was related to a well-loved patriot in China who committed suicide by jumping into a river. The Chinese wish to offer this patriot with food but worried that the food offered my be eaten by fish, so, they taught of a way by wrapping the glutinous rice with bamboo leaves and threw into river as offering for this patriot. The Chinese will celebrate the Bak Chang Festival in a day (I don't know the date) of Lunar calender, but this tradition is slowly forgotten among Chinese.

A Profession called Hunters

As a nature lover and god fearing person, Gary's Garden is of the opinion that, except when wild animals form part of the food chain of a native, there should not be a profession called HUNTER. The nature is the rightful place of abode for wild animals. We human should leave them in the jungle and should not hunt them for reasons such as profession, food or past-time. These animals have their own family, they may be a child, a father, a mother, a sister, a brother to someone, right? Every hunter should think again, if he or she is a wild animal and shot by a hunter, what will happen? Its family's members will be in sorrow, right? A recent case of tiger poaching in the state of Kelantan, Malaysia, was a disaster to mankind. It reflects the selfishness of a human being. Every single life is precious, irrespective of a human or an animal. If someone kills somebody, he or she will be charged for murder. But, if a hunter kills a tiger, will he be, by right, charged as a murderer also?
Posted here is a picture of a little bird born in Gary's Garden and came back to visit us, how nice!!! This was an achievement to us.

Malay Architecture

These are the replica of a typical Malay house and ponduk (i.e. hut). They can be found in a Malay Kampung (Malay village). The architecture reflects simplicity, friendliness and elegance of the Malays who usually hold 'open house' party to invite friends of all races and faiths to their houses during Hari Raya celebration. The open house concept somehow is adopted by all other Malaysian during their Chinese New Year, Christmas, Deepavali, Harvest Day and so on.

SELAMAT HARI RAYA

Today is the first day of Hari Raya celebration for all Muslim in the world. After one month of fasting, all Muslim start to celebrate this important event in Muslim calendar. In Malaysia, festival like Hari Raya is celebrated by not just Muslim, but with peoples of all faiths. Perhaps, you can find this festival is celebrated within a Malaysian family which consists of different faiths. This shows the importance of ‘blood relationship’ which bind a family together. We Malaysian are proud in this and just wonder why this can happen in Malaysia (and more interestingly, in a family) but not in some other places. Gary’s Garden believes peoples of all faiths can co-exist as we believe all living creatures have their rights to live in this world. So, why bother what religion he or she adopts? More important thing to do is to live happily in this world, right?

Gary's Garden wish to post a few flowers to reflect the diversity of Malaysian of all faiths and races.

Powder Puff (Calliandra Species)

This is a small to large shrub which has flowers resemble a ladies powder puff. It has become a favourite for nectar feeding birds and bees. We normally describe it as 'Rambutan Flower' as it resemble a rambutan, a fruit well liked in the tropical.

The Sun of Lotus

Posted here are the first moment of a lotus bloomed at Gary's Garden. It really looks like a sun. Its aroma is the nicest at this moment. When the petals drop completely after a few days (normally about 3 days), the 'sun' will turn green and grows bigger each day. Its seeds taste nice and have medicinal value.

Orgnanised Tour to Kuantan, East Coast of Malaysia

Some time in June 2005, members of Gary's Garden were organising a trip to Kuantan, a serene town in the East Coast of Malaysia. Perhaps you can use Google Earth to locate Kuantan. It was a refreshing trip after hectic workload as an Accountant. Kuantan is a beach town. A beach nearest to town is named Teluk Chempedak. The beach is at a bay and its wave is most suitable for surfing. It is somehow like beach shown in the American TV serial 'Baywatch'. Apart from that, there is a seaside park called Taman Gelora. The park is surrounded by Rhu Trees. This make the park a very cosy and it is resemblem of scenery shown in Korean TV serial. The photo was snapped using NIKON COOLPIX 3700 and was taken from Taman Gelora overlooking the South China Sea.