Little tiny trees

Duranta repens, pigeonberry
Durant repens, or pigeonberry, beginning its life as a bonsai

Living in Malaysia and not making bonsai is like living in Minnesota and not snowmobiling. You’re just not taking advantage of what is on offer. With a 12-month growing season, plenty of sunlight and rainfall throughout the year, the slow, slow pleasures of bonsai come just a little bit quicker.

It took me years to come around. I thought bonsai was for people who can’t appreciate the natural beauty of the plants growing all around them, that it was cruelty to trees, that it was kitschy. But really I just hadn’t seen the right bonsai. It was Harry Harrington’s site that did it for me. The images there are so sublime, so evocative, I thought if I could create something a tenth as beautiful one day, it would be worth it. Take the time to look through his galleries, they are stunning.

So far I’ve been puttering away at this hobby for about a year and a half. The picture above is the first piece I think has any potential, taken on the day I took it out of the ground, two days ago. Check back in three to five years for a finished product.

What Fronds Are For

Palms are the tree and the swing
The mighty coconut palm provides an afternoon’s entertainment. The fronds (Malay: pelapah) dip low enough that the kids can grab them and sling themselves into the air. After an hour or so of swinging the frond is swung out and hangs limply from the trunk. It’ll take a few weeks until the next one has grown to the right size and position for more swinging.

Wasteful


It’s a fact. According to the FAO, Americans waste as much food at the table as South/SE Asians lose in their entire supply chain from farm to table! Put another way, individual Americans throw away 10-15 times more food than South/SE Asians. And that wastage is one driver for the global rise in food prices. Reading articles like The New Geopolitics of Food, you find a lot of concern over for instance the masses of Chinese who want to give their children a taste of milk, and the effect of that on the food supply, but what of the American throwing out half a bowl of milk with the remains of his Froot Loops? Living As Muslims reminds us of the Holy Quran saying “…and waste not by extravagance. Verily, He loves not those who waste by extravagance!” [Qur’an 6:141] [via The Global Food Outlook]

Avatar II: Blue As I Feel

Synopsis of the upcoming sequel to James Cameron’s Avatar:

Sulley continues to grow and mature as a Na’vi. We explore the wondrous beauty of the planet with him and the nuances of Na’vi society. But he begins to see aspects of the Na’vi he never noticed before that trouble him. He notices conflicts within the tribe that he tries to solve. But his solutions are not apt and they are not welcomed. He finds he still cannot communicate in Na’vi the way born Na’vi can, and at night, he dreams in English. Images of his former life flash before his eyes. Then a major crisis affects the tribe, and his advice is not solicited. The solution put forward by the tribe requires a significant military role on his part. He disagrees with the strategy and sees major flaws. Nonetheless, he agrees to participate, as his standing in the tribe is at stake. In the ensuing action, the strategy works and the crisis is resolved but Jake himself suffers a fatal injury as a result of misunderstanding the plan due to a nuance in the Na’vi tongue. The screen fades to black as Jake stares dying into the distant stars. THE END.

Originally posted at TalkIslam where I can no longer post for some reason, recycled in an oblique contribution to this discussion.