Laden and Bowing Low in Gratitude

Just a day after the floating of previous edition of this blog, came first of the heavy monsoon rains, early in the morning and it rained for good two hours. After the rains had stopped, It was so good to go out and feel the freshness of the air and smell of the washed out trees. The Lychee trees laden with fruit, the Pink Shower Tree loaded with pink and white flowers, and the ever enchanting Bougainvillaes all were prostrated low in immense gratitude of Allah SWT for bringing the life back to them. 

The heat of summer in the month of June is so intense that it would not have mattered much however plentiful watering you did to your plants. We saw drying up of grapes, while still not fully ripe and vegetables such as bitter gourd totally stunted in situ. The rains have dramatically increased humidity in air. Most of fruits and vegetables suck moisture from air more than they take from the roots underground. The bitter gourd is one such example. The humid air of the later part of June and the entire month of July and possibly also August would bring a miracle change in the growth behaviour of this particular vegetable.

Flowering Trees and Bushes of Season:

The flowering plant of this week is none other than the redoubtable Lagerstroemia (Crape Myrtles). The Lagerstroemia flowers are of several different colours. Among the colours at our farm are:

(1) Violet (2) White (3) Lavender and (4) Delta Blush. 

Presently, only double Violet colour Lagerstroemia is in bloom. Other colours will soon appear and will be put on display in this blog.

Fruit (s) of Season:

Lemon

With the advent of Ramadan Kareem, the thought first and foremost that comes to mind is of Lemon, for it makes a refreshing drink, which is particularly gratifying at Iftar time.

There are three varieties of Lemon in our farm. Among them: (1) Eureka Lemon (2) Bush Lemon and (3) Meyer Lemon. The Meyer lemon fruit is yellow and rounder than a true lemon. The skin is fragrant and thin, coloured a deep yellow. Locally it is known as Chinese Lemon, which is not wrong, as the Meyer lemon originated in China. It is believed to be a cross between a standard lemon and Mandarin orange. The Eureka lemon originated in California. The Eureka lemon trees produce fruit mainly in the spring and summer, as opposed to other varieties e.g., Meyer Lemon that bear lemons in the summer, fall and winter. Unlike other hybrid cultivars, Eurekas are considered "true" lemon trees. Eureka lemon trees produce small to medium-sized fruit that is yellow at maturity. Eureka lemons are much more acidic than most other varieties. At this time all the three different varieties are at different stages of fruit formation. The fruits of Bush and Meyer are still very small, while the Eureka  fruit is larger in size, still however green but growing in size just before it is fully mature.

The three Lemon types vis., Eureka, Bush and Meyer could respectively be identified by their leaves :

One could see that the Ureka Lemon tree has larger dark green thick leaves, while the Bush a Lemon tree has smaller light green leaves, with long thorns on branches and twigs. The leaves on Meyer Lemon tree are longish and light green in colour.

Vegetables of Season:

Torai/Tori

Both the Kali Tori and Ghia Tori are being cultivated on our farm. They, both of them are grown with the help of trellis. Although sown quite a while back, with consistently continuing heat and rains, the  Torai climbers have now started thriving. The Kali Tori is variously called: Chinese Okra / Moongi Tori / Angled Luffa / Luffa acutangula. Similarly Ghia Tori is identified by several names too e.g., Ridge Gourd /Luffa aegyptiaca / Sponge Gourd. On account of the fact that rains came late, both the Torai forms have not yet come to the stage of fruiting but are still climbing up fast and quick on trellis. Another  vegetable, which is overdue for fruit action is bitter gourd. It has started bearing glowers that are yet to be transformed into bitter gourd.

Our Pet Birds:

The Java Sparrows:

In this edition of the blog, we will introduce another inmate of our aviary. It is the Java Sparrow. The Java sparrow has been a popular cage bird in Asia for centuries, first in Ming Dynasty China and then in Japan from the 17th century. It is the  resident bird of Java (Indonesia). We have two pairs of Java Sparrows, often also called Java Finches or Ricebirds/Paddybird. 

Several mutations of Java Finches. exist, including White, Pied, Fawn, Cream, and Silver (dark and light). One of the pairs,  we have is white and the other  Grey with pearl grey wings and chest. The cheeks are white and the belly pink is grey. The beak of male is dark pink and that of the female is light pink. 

Only the cock birds perform a song and dance routine. The male may begin his song by clicking his bill, then will begin to slowly rattle notes, increasing in speed and ending in a drawn out whine. Songs vary among individuals. 

It's fun to have them in our aviary. Their movement, singing and bathing routine is so attractive and lively to watch.

The Javabirds breed just after the rainy season and we are expecting them to just that in the near future as we are currently midst of monsoon rainy season.