What's blooming today?

I finally dragged myself out of bed and out into the garden a bit. Just to shake off the lethargy and ease the mild ache that has settled on my lower back from too much lying in.

The dog got a bit excited at seeing me but I'm just not up to playing a game of futsal or catch today. Sorry old boy.

A large oriental magpie robin flew in and settled onto a patch of grass about 10ft from me. He picked up something, flicked his beak a few times and flew off onto a pine branch with his catch. I went in to grab my camera but by the time I got back onto the porch, he was gone.

I have no bird to show you this time but these robins are pretty regular guests and they enjoy the bird bath I put out for them. I can hear them sing now as I type these words. :)

So, anyway, the garden is very much alive and blooming!

The palm tree is fruiting as you can see, right next to the pine trees. Aren't the red berries luscious? I have cultivated lots of baby palms from these fruits, mostly to give away to neighbours and community centres.

And the papaya trees are also bearing fruits. The only problem I face in my garden is trying to protect these fruits from rogue monkeys that climb over from the perimeter fencing across the road.

And here is the kedondong or "sar lei" tree, less than a year old but starting to fruit for the first time.

And my mulberry tree, which I have trimmed down and planted some of the cuttings. The mulberry is really suited to our local weather because it fruits continuously and when ripe and black, is really tangy sweet. And it's a low maintenance plant.

Oh, I finally have pomegranates in my garden again! I regretted chopping off my old pomegranate trees to make way for Luck Luck's home. So when I found seedlings from the MARDI nursery nearby, I was more than delighted to bring them home. And here, you can see the very first orange fruit that has sprung from one of them.

I noticed my pomegranate trees need lots of sunshine. Two which were planted under the shade of the papaya trees seem stunted in growth.

And this lone passionfruit dangling from the fence is the last for this season. I have harvested close to 40 of these fruits this round, which is not bad for a first timer.

I'm thinking of erecting a mini pergola to give more room for the vines to grow. Or maybe a trellis on the brickwall so that it can climb upwards. Something like this? Will be beautiful with the fruits hanging red from them, eh?

The chilli trees are getting old, and need to be re-planted. So I'm going to let the fruit ripen and seed them.

And the yellow rose is blooming! Beautiful, isn't it?

I'm glad I got out of bed and into the garden. Even though it's so hot.

As I sat under the porch and look at the photos I took, I made the decision to start writing again. And that's how this blog came to be this afternoon.

I want to take pictures and let you see what I see from my mind's eye. I want to write poetry and share them, let you feel what I feel. I want to journal my thoughts and moods so that I can make sense of what has changed and what has not inside me, along the way.

The magic within is not lost. Yet.

(Note: All photos, except the wall trellis pic which was sourced from Google, were taken using Sony RX100M2 this afternoon)