Orange for May

I am smiling as my title definitely will mislead you! That is the nuisance or maybe beauty of the English language. Being non-English speakers we also have running jokes about English words with the same spelling, but have very different meanings and pronunciation. I guess i am trying to explain my title, and how i was able to misled you. Orange is not just a fruit but also a color. And I have time and again been telling you that we have a lot of orange colors, it is the most predominant color in our climate, of course aside from green. You will not blame me for saying that it bores me sometimes.

 My Hippeastrum puniceum that flowered slightly even prior to the heavy rains.

 an almost spent hippeastrum bloom

 Caesalpinia pulcherrima has 4 colors here in our climate, the red, the pink, the orange and the yellow! it is so alive against the clear blue sky. Butterflies love them too, and our goat kids love eating their leaves.

Their very long filaments supporting the anthers with pollens are seemingly extravagant. I wonder what they signify for the plant to perpetuate the species. Or they might be a disadvantage as the pollens might not attach to the bees sipping nectar. I just don't know!

Orange You Glad It's Friday

Today's Flowers

Unusual Sky Scenes

Skywatch Friday

Netted Shadows

A serendipitous shadow of the nets over my hoya leaves!

Shadow Shot Sunday 2

SOOC

One Saturday Afternoon

Which do you prefer?

 BIG SKY!

BIGGER SKY!

BIGGEST SKY!!!

Skywatch Friday

Catching the Light

Bronze colored water is a sunset reflection on the fishpond of my friend. He is raising milkfish and shrimps on his ponds north of Metro Manila.

 At the bottom is shot after sunrise in our garden in my province. I love the hairy periphery of this growing petunia.

Nature Footsteps - Catching Light

Nature Notes

Early Dry Season Casualties

Many of you know that i have a 5th Floor Window plants. I don't call it a garden because it is a very small patch on the ledge of the airconditioning unit. I put some hooks on the concrete wall to hang some of them. This time of the year when we are at the height of the dry season, most of the plants cannot stay long there. Watering every morning and evening cannot suffice for their needs. The heat of the cement wall magnifies the heat of the sun, which is really intense for them, as they are facing the west.

 This Dracaena surculosa is quite hardy to heat, but some leaves got scorched even after a few weeks. It is now adapting the darker condition in the room, with very subdued light from the closed window. If i didn't put it inside, it would be totally dry now. Those green leaves are already a response to the indoor condition.

 The hippeastrum plants suffered too. Those at the left are the species which are very much acclimatized with our dry season. But those at the right had yellowed leaves and now totally bald. I got the bulbs wrap them in newspaper to wait for lower temperatures.

 My Hoya carnosa 'Krimson Queen' leaves yellowed. I was in a hurry to transfer it indoor, opposite the 1 ft X 11 ft window. It gets some filtered light but not enough to photosynthesize. Am so sorry, but at least your leaves will be maintained, no scorching.

It now turned green indoors, no observed growth but still life, just to let the bad conditions outside to pass. Don't worry baby, hopefully in a month there will already be rain, and you can go out again.

 My one and only tomato plant, a survivor during the seedling stage, still suffered much even just in a day heat. Can you see the plastic cover on the pot? I suppose it limits evaporation from the soil, however it still wilted. A morning and evening waterings are not enough to withstand temperatures reaching 36.8C. But it really is a survivor. Can you imagine that it is still living! It even produced 3 flowers now, i just don't know if they can produce fruits!

 This is a rose stem i put on a vase inside the room. It died without the flower opening. This is the case when the plant grew in lower temperatures in the highlands, then transferred as cutflowers to the lowlands.

 Do you think it had a full experience while alive? haha, i bet it did! 

Nature Notes