Macro Monday: Mellow yellow: Allamanda flower

http://mellowyellowmonday.blogspot.com/
http://sundaystills.wordpress.com/

When I finished high school in Borneo, I had a gap year and became a teacher before I went to university in Canada. The kids adored me as I was just a kid myself at 19, not much older than some of the students who have come from Chinese schools.

That school, Kai Chung school in Binatang aka now as Bintang, divided the students into houses named after flowers. I was in charge of the Allamanda team. This yellow trumpet like flower is very potent, the sap is poisonous.

This flower from a shrub I found on the Gold Coast of Australia is slightly different to the Borneo ones. They have those extra petals in the middle.
Common Name: Stansill's Double, Flore Pleno Allamanda
Botanical Name: Allamanda cathartica 'Stansill's Double'

The Borneo ones are look like a trumpet and have a hole in the middle.

This Monday, I am combining this post for the meme, Mellow Yellow which I normally post on my other site. http://ann-mythoughtsandphotos.blogspot.com/2010/01/mellow-yellow-fire-evacuation-sign.html

Macro Monday: Mid night Glory

http://sundaystills.wordpress.com/


This succulent plant blooms around mid night, and closes shortly after. So if you miss it, you miss it.

In Borneo, the Mid night Glory blooms once in a few years and usually only a single bloom. People regard it as an sign of good luck. They will buy the lottery when they see this flower bloom.

A friend holds a party and invites friends especially friends from overseas to see this unusual miracle.

In Australia, however, my brother Joseph's plant blooms numerous flowers often. May be that is why I am enjoying my holiday in the land of the rich and famous.

Macro Monday" Pumpkin flower

http://sundaystills.wordpress.com/

Looks like Sam had some luck with his pumpkin plant though he grew it too late. We found this half pumpkin half flower and Sam was happy that it was producing a fruit.

We are not exactly excited because we don't eat pumpkin. Many friends don't understand why.

You see, Mum and Dad grew up as kids and teenagers during the Second World War when the Japanese plundered Borneo. Import of rice and other food ceased, and the poor people depended on root vegetables and pumpkins to survive. Dad said they ate so much of the boiled thing without any salt or oil. They were so scared of them. Hence, they never served it to us.

When I was in primary school, Dad would drive us pass a small river where there were barges laden with pumpkins. Dad told me that the pumpkins were for pigs. This "Pumpkins were for pigs" were so ingrained in me that though I am past half a century, I would still not touch pumpkin.

Once, my American neighbour gave me a pumpkin pie. I thought the water engineer and the kids would eat it, but they didn't. It remained in the fridge till it got mouldy. When I mentioned this to my friends, they LOL and asked why I didn't give it to them.

The water engineer grew up in a small town where people have a small garden. Friends and relatives gave him pumpkins, and I didn't cook ithem At first, I just left them in the pantry until they rotted. The water engineer asked why I didn't cook them. Later, I gave them to my friends. Some cooked and gave me some, again they sat in the fridge making pencillin.

The funniest anecdote in the family would be when Mum and Dad went to Christchurch, New Zealand to visit my Kiwi sister in law for the first time. For the Kiwis, a roast leg of lamb if often accompanied by roast kumara and pumpkin. That is supposedly one of the best dish you can serve. Mum and Dad did not eat the pumpkin wondering why Karenserved them such a lowly vegetable. Karen thought she didn't cook well. Years later, when I came to NZ, I cleared this misunderstanding.

Macro Monday: Dahlia

http://sundaystills.wordpress.com/

This was the first bloom of my neighbour's dahlia bush. I took the photo last week. Now he has six blooms.

Macro Monday: Slugs

Abandoned in winter, my garden has become a bush. I looked under a giant pot sitting on egg cartoons are some unwanted guest. Slugs!!!!

The weather is too erratic, and I am going away for the summer. I left the slugs alone. The water engineer asked what they are. Like I told my students, slugs are snails who got in a fight and lost their homes.

http://sundaystills.wordpress.com/

Macro Monday: Pink flowers in Mt Albert Park

http://sundaystills.wordpress.com/

Macro Monday: Tree with yellow flowers

At our One Tree Hill park, I saw this tree with yellow flowers.

Does anyone know what tree it is?

http://sundaystills.wordpress.com/

Macro Monday: Red Hot Poker

http://sundaystills.wordpress.com/

Red Hot Poker, Torch lily, Poker Plant (Kniphofia uvaria)

a genus of plants in the family Asphodelaceae that includes 70 or more species native to Africa. Some species have been commercially used horticulturally and are commonly known for their bright, rocket-shaped flowers.

These plants produce spikes of brightly-colored, hanging, red-to-orange flowers. This gives names such as "torch" and "red hot poker" to many of them.

The Kniphofia genus is named after Johann Hieronymus Kniphof, a 18th century German physician and botanist.

There is a clump in my neighbour's garden, and it was just perfect for me to take the different stages of the flower.

Hmmmmm! do I see a humming bird? I must spent more time looking out of my window to see if there is one, as Hot red pokers are a favourite of the humming birds.

Macro Monday: 3 stages of the beach succulent

http://sundaystills.wordpress.com/

Here's the three stages of the beach succulent flower. Yellow, orange and red. If I go to Muriwai again, which is unlikely, I will try to take the photo of the entire patch. Muriwai is not the only place that beach succulents grow. I have seen them elsewhere, but I can't remember where.

Macro Monday: Beach succulent

These lovely flowers cover the slopes of the sandy beach at Muriwai. They start off as a yellow flower, then turn orange and then pink. Someone told me that these beach succulents play a very important role in preventing erosion.

http://sundaystills.wordpress.com/

Macro MondayBeschorneria yuccoides (Mexican False Red Yucca)

http://sundaystills.wordpress.com/

A lovely Yucca flower in Western Springs Park in Auckland.

Macro Monday: Bird of paradise

http://sundaystills.wordpress.com/

This is not an ordinary Bird of paradise. When I was little, my dad always pointed out things that were an oddity. These flowers came out from the same stalk. In normal cases, one stalk has one flower.

Please click on my older post of a normal bird of paradise flower.

Macro Monday: Purse looking egg plant

http://sundaystills.wordpress.com/


This eggplant can pass as an evening purse for me to go to a ball.

Macro Monday: Gecko

http://sundaystills.wordpress.com/

In Borneo, we were quite used to see these little lizards or geckos. They dart across the ceiling upside down to catch insects. Some times when we clean our cupboards, we find miniature eggs that looked exactly like hen eggs except they were very small. An adult gecko can grow up to six inches.

They make this gec gec sound, and perhaps this is why it is called a gecko. We didn't worry about them except the dropping really stank. Sometimes, they fought, and left their tails behind. To the environmentalists, read no further, my brothers used to used slingshots and rubber bands to shoot at the geckos. Mum would tell them off, the geckos were harmless and ate the nasty creepy crawlies like mosquitoes.

When my New Zealand Sister-in-law Karen went to live in Sarawak, she was terrified of these "ceiling baby snakes." We thought it was funny. The house was left vacant for a few years, and the geckos had grown very big.

This photo is not exactly a Marco photo, the gecko was sitting very quiet in the corner of the room minding it's own business. I was below trying to be unobtrusive as possible. It didn't stay long enough to take a good photo.

Macro Monday: Beschorneria yuccoides (Mexican False Red Yucca)

Macro Monday for 9-7-09 http://sundaystills.wordpress.com/

When Ed proposed Macro photos, I have not attempted taking these photos. At the same time, my daughter D suggested I take them. I started experimenting, and wasn't very successful.

The Bird of Paradise was quite satisfactory.

This flower I took looked like a giant aloe. Sorry I don't know it's name. I will post more photos showing the entire plant.

Update: 14 sept: I found the name, it is Beschorneria yuccoides or a false Mexician Yucca.

lophophora.blogspot.com and http://www.cambridge2000.com/gallery/html/P4186126.html

It is so satisfying solving this.