HELLO JUNE

Yay!

June is definitely my favourite month on the gardening calendar here on this island.  

 

It's "The King of Fruits" (durian) season and if you like me loves them, you will understand why.  

During durian season, the island sees an influx of visitors.  Some of these faces you see only during the durian season.  They come, they camp, they pick, they collect and then they leave happily ever after until their next hunt for the thorny fruit.  While this is often all in a day's work, for some it can turn into an overnight affair.  Camping the night means there are more chances to gather the fruit as durians reportedly fall late at night or in the wee hours of the morning.  

  
                     

It's a very common sight to see people carrying a fruit or two in their hands or people cycling past with durians in their baskets.  There are also the locals who pick enough to sell them to the visitors by going to the right plantations in search of the prized fruit.  I haven't got around to camping under the trees and letting mozzies feast on me as I laid in wait to hear that  much longed for thud under the tree.  However I did find two fruits by chance. One was the size of my clenched fist while the other the size of a rock melon.  These were durians the "professional pickers" will not even bat an eyelid let alone pick them.  They were unripe but I still wore that "I picked two king of fruits" smile!
  
The time is here again and I've seen people coming to the island in the morning and leaving at night heaving heavy sacks or unloading trolley bags onto boats.  I think it's worth the S$5.00 they pay for the return trip.  After all these are organic durians; free from additives (pesticides, growth hormones, etc) that some commercial growers feed their trees with the hope that they will yield heavy and perfect crops.  So if you pick a decent size one easily over a kilo that is enough to cover for the boat ride. 

I know of a couple that come almost every weekend.  They form such a perfect team!  During the course of their hunt, while one waits the other will run errands as sort of a break to stock up on drinks and food or to answer nature's call.  Picking durians is no mean feat.  Imagine camping under the trees fighting with the buzzing mozzies with your ears pricked for that sweet sound that will break the silence on those dried leaves and then racing to be the first to reach that prized fruit.  However at the end of the day despite the mozzie bites and perspiration, the bags and bags of fruit they get to lug home outweigh everything.   

This year, the harvest is expected to be  less than in the past as the locals have reported that monkeys... (oh you cheeky monkeys! ;) ) have pulled down some of the developing fruits.  Yes there's monkeys here on this island and let's just say they do like durians too :)) The sad thing for durian lovers is that in their excitement they pull down those unripe fruits too reducing the yield in the process.  

What is so special about durians on this island?  Imported ones from commercial farms can be had almost every other day.  They seem to magically appear so frequently whereas the durian trees here fruit mostly in June and with some luck maybe a smaller crop in November.  They are organically grown so they are as pure as can be.  

While durians are cholesterol free, they are packed with sugars but I can always settle for those bitter sweet ones right?  Bring them on... breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper and I'll gladly sink my teeth into these cottony creamy delightful treats.  I like :))

  

LOOK... WHO CAME TO VISIT!

MSG welcomed the first overseas guests all the way from Switzerland recently. 

 

From L to R: Andrea, Pascale, Monika, Dominique

Local snacks and homemade Roselle tea from the backyard plus garden tours and seeds exchanges (what else when gardeners' meet if they don't exchange seeds!) were the order of the day.  The visit ended with refreshing popsicles from the lime laden trees plus loads of pictures for keepsake.

It was an exciting day with visits to the island's Spice Garden, tour around the island on bikes and picking seashells on the beach.  

It's amazing what technology and social media can do to unite people from around the globe to being friends.  In this case it was where gardeners in common meet. 

 

JUICY CRIMSON BELLS

The sun was disappearing fast over the horizon as I headed towards the jetty to catch the boat home.  Just in case you have not heard, home is actually in the city.

As there was a shortage of people to form the maximum 12 before the boat took off, to wild away time I whipped out my phone to take some shots of the last rays of sun disappearing over the water.

Then I remembered I had a bag of rose apples (also known as water apples or jambu air); nature's gift from the island in my carry all...

I emptied the juicy crimson fruit onto the wooden bench, placed them on a pot cover which happened to be in my bag (one of those odd things that I carry between my home and MSG or vice versa) set my phone on silent mode (so no one would look in my direction) and started to click away as I squatted on the rough cement floor.  

I always love taking shots in their natural setting.  Shooting these sweet mountain of juicy bells from my apartment surrounded by concrete walls are never quite the same.

I must have taken these fruit models in and out of my bag several times before I reckoned I had the ultimate shot.  

Oh the things I do just for a photo...!

SEEDS LOVING DUDE

My new hangout place has to be under the guava trees seeing how beneficial this humble fruit can be.  

Have always taken for granted that there are always guavas to be picked but recently I have transferred some seedlings from seeds I sowed in pots which haven't made much of a progress.   As real guava trees are tall, they are better off in the grounds whereas the grafted varieties can still do well potted.

Nothing like having your own guava trees although there's one just outside of MSG as well as many others growing around the island.  In some orchards / farms the fruits are left to rot as islanders probably see them as just another tree.  Birds like them but there's too many variety of fruits and berries around here they're just spoilt for choice.  

However here is one dude who loves his seeds in particular guavas.  

A mimic artist and iconic fixture in the island's grocery store, he's one who's known to make me embarrass when I step into the store without bringing him his favourite fruit.  An attention seeker and capable of different guises, he would call out from the top of his perch "How are you?"... "How are you?"....

I always see that as asking "Where's my guava? Where's my guava?"

When he sees me rummaging my bag, he'll start to whistle and do a little dance and clearly he's a lady's bird as his owner claims he only reserves his whistles for females.

Oh yes, he loves guavas as much as I do!

Don't be fooled however as he doesn't eat the whole fruit.  He pecks away the skin and flesh and is only interested in eating those precious seeds.  

WHERE ONIONS AND SHALLOTS ARE THE SAME

 

The thing about being on an island with a small population is the closed camaraderie.

I heard a voice and parted the laundry on the clothes line to see someone standing near the garden fence.

“Do you have an onion to spare?”

“Wait… let me see” as I left the other basket of unhung laundry and skipped into the kitchen.

So I didn’t have an onion but he was happy to leave with 2 shallots instead.

SHARING A PINCH OF JOY!

Here's a little story...

These are not paintings but a series of real flower shots which are very special to me.  

I was given this cluster of a rare stunning orange bloom (was told there's only one tree on this island) recently by an islander in the compound of a temple.  I just had to take some shots there and then!  There was a red table nearby and as much as I love colours.... well, red and orange don't seem like the best combination.  So I found myself emptying my nylon bag and using that as a backdrop for these shots, much to the amusement of the islander who must have thought I was a little craycray.  Let's pretend you didn't see the creases in the background ;)

The beautiful shade  of orange flowers speckled with those black seeds were so mesmerizing.  I was so fascinated by them and completely blown!  

I like to think that these are my lucky charm because today I received an email to advise that this print has been included in the Society6 Shop (http://society6.com/products/STUNNING-ORANGE-BLOOMS_Print where these pictures will be reproduced as art or framed art prints and also printed onto other merchandises.  

Just in case you're wondering what's on Society6 Shop... 

"The artwork on Society6 is created by hundreds of thousands of artists from around the world."

When you buy a product from Society6, we produce it using only the highest quality materials, and ship it to you on behalf of the artist.
  

Gosh! So am I an artist?  No because I can't draw.  Many years ago during a charade game (I've given up playing them, they only embarrass me...), I picked up a card with the word goldfish on it but you just imagine how I drew the fish because my team mates screamed in unison "guppy!... guppy!" to my horror.  If given a choice by the nice people behind Society6, I would consider myself more of a photographer because what I basically do is upload photos I take onto various products. (No, I don't use photoshop.  You get what you see) However what I like about this is although my products are available in my shop on Society6, in reality I do not own a brick and mortar shop where rental can be so exorbitant.  Apart from uploading photos and promoting my products which I am lagging far far behind, there is nothing else that I have to do as everything else is taken care off by Society6 (just in case anyone else out there wants to be an artist too).  Basically I get 10% of the sale price off all merchandise (except for art prints) which barely is enough for me to buy a packet of seeds but hey I am enjoying what I do ie. taking pretty pictures and that is what matters most.

Coming back to where I stopped, so after some detective work, I found out the common and botanical name for these flowers.  They're the flowers from the Black Pearl Tree, also known as Majidea Zanguebarica.  What a pretty mouthful!