Monsoon Sets In

Week 30	July 21, 2014	July 27, 2014

1.    Foreword:

After several episodes of pre monsoon rains interspersed with hot sultry and very humid weather, the monsoons finally seem to have settled in with heavy downpour day after day. Often than not it starts raining early in the morning continuously for 4-5 hours without any pause. The drains and nullahs (water courses) turn into torrents and the entire area around our little farm becomes a deluge of watershed siphoning into low lying areas further below into the Haro River and subsequently to the River Soan feeding the Potohar Valley. It usually is overcast and hazy on account of rain curtain that forms soon after the initial drizzle converts into medium to heavy and finally very heavy downpour. It usually remains as such through out the day. There are no birds to be seen and heard. Apart from a continuous chirping of Cricket and high pitch croaking of Toads on slowing down or stopping of rains, it's generally quiet still. For a change there is no activity at the farm, there are no fruits, and no vegetables  either. There is therefore little to describe except of course continuing with the ever green trees and shrubs that we started to talk about the previous week.

1.1    Eid ul Fitr Mubarak:

As I write this edition of the blog at the eleventh hour of Sunday morning deadline  that I myself have imposed, it comes to mind that today perhaps is the last day of Ramadan Kareem and tomorrow would be Eid ul Fitr insha Allaha! It's therefore just the right time to wish all the readers of this blog a very happy Eid celebrations accompanied by feasting in accordance with our traditions and culture. There is of course no way better than to say it with a flower or better still a set of flowers.

2.   New Additions to the Farmhouse: 

And before I forget, there are some new additions to our farmhouse. These are the awnings on our front windows, facing the full blast of the Sun as well as the onslaught of monsoon rains. But even these awnings have not been able to stop the rain water from seeping in, forcing us to get armed with moppers and wipers in mostly unsuccessful attempt to dry the rooms making them liveable once again but these are the charms of living at the farmhouse. 

2.     Evergreen Non Flowering Trees/Shrubs
2.1.  Ficus BinnendijkII:

The previous week, we talked about two closely related and similar Ficus trees i.e., Ficus Benjamina and Ficus Elastica. These we found were identical except for the varigated leaves that one of them  (Benjamina Elastica) has. Another type of Ficus tree that we have around our grassy lawn is Ficus BinnendijkII 'ALII' It has long leaves and an attractive foliage.

Ficus binnendijkii 'Alii' is a large evergreen tree native to the tropical areas of India and Malaysia. It is typically grown as a large tree or shrub. Although we have to see this fig tree flowering and fruiting, the inconspicuous flowers bloom in its native land in spring and are followed by small fruit that may be green or yellow maturing to red. The cultivar ‘Alii’ has very narrow foliage and reddish new growth. Planted in warm, frost-free climates the Binnendijk’s fig becomes a huge tree  as is the case 
at our farm.

For detailed description visit:

http://www.learn2grow.com/plants/ficus-binnendijkii-alii/

3.    Our Pet Birds:

Some new species of birds were introduced to our aviary at the farm during the last fortnight. These comprise three pairs of the Nun Finches and one pair of Love Birds:

3.1.   The Nun Finches:

The Nun Finches that we acquired, are variously called White-headed Munia, White-headed Nun, White-headed Mannikin, White-haired Munia, the Cigar Bird or Maja Munia. They have light grey beak, white head, neck and breast tinged with buff, chestnut brown body and wings, black-brown tail, and the center of the belly is black.In their case Beak-clicking precedes the song which is a series of rapidly repeated notes followed by a drawn out whine. 

For detailed description visit:

www.finchinfo.com › Birds › Finches › Species

3.2.   The Love Birds:

The lovebird is a small stocky parrot mostly between 5.1-6.7 inches (13-17 cm). They have a large bill and a  round tail. Their average life span is between 10-12 years. There are nine lovebirds species based on colouring. The three common species are the Peach-faced Lovebirds, the Masked Lovebirds, and the Fischer's Lovebirds, and all three make wonderful pets. There are a variety of color mutations in lovebirds, developed from these three common species. This is especially true for the Peach-faced Lovebird, which can be bred in hundreds of different combinations of mutations. As a result, there are many a new lovebird colors available.

In the aviary at the farm we have Fischer's Lovebirds. It has a green back, chest, and wings. Their necks are dark orange. The top of the head is olive green, and the beak is bright red. The upper surface of the tail has some purple feathers. They have  a white circle of bare skin (eyering) around their  eyes. 

For detailed description visit:

www.parrotparrot.com/lovebirds

Farewell to Lychee Season

Week 29 of 2014	July 14, 2014	July 20, 2014

1.   Foreword:

Preceded by cool breeze announcing its arrival came the first of the real monsoon rains today (16 July) early in the morning from the westerly direction late only by a day of the officially announced 15 July season's commencement date. Accompanied with rumbling clouds and thunder, it rained for a good two hours drenching the trees and plants all over and soaking the parched good earth. Even though the sun remained behind the clouds most of the day, the humidity in the atmosphere increased dramatically, making us the humans sweat often quite profusely. The rains cleansed the trees of the settled dust, giving them the look of new with shiny leaves. Except the flowering trees and shrubs already described in various editions of this blog, there are no other trees and shrubs left to be introduced in this category at this time of the year at the farm. There are however a lot of ever green non flowering trees, which have not so far been mentioned and need therefore to be looked at individually. We will do exactly that starting this week.

2.    Ever Green Non Flowering Trees/Shrubs:

2.1. Ficus:

Ficus benjamina, commonly known as the weeping fig, Benjamin's fig or ficus tree and often sold in 
plant nurseries as just ficus. It is the official tree of Bangkok (Thailand). Best known are the larger 
tree types, such as F. benjamina (weeping fig) and Ficus elastica (rubber plant) with varigated marble leaves, which thrive in full or filtered light. A multiple number of both these in addition to others of the same species form the boundary of our grassy lawn.

The leaves of both these trees F. Benjamina and F. Elastica respectively are depicted hereunder:

For detailed description of Ficus Benjamina and it's varigated forms visit:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficus_benjamina

http://rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=669

3.   Seasonal Flowers:

3.1 Zinnia:

Zinnia is a summer flowering seasonal plant. Most species of Zinnia have upright stems but They typically range in height from 10 to 100 cm. The leaves are opposite and usually stalkless (sessile), with a shape ranging from linear to ovate, and pale to middle green in color. The flowers have a range of appearances, from a single row of petals, to a dome shape, with the colors white, chartreuse, yellow, orange, red, purple, and lilac.

For detailed description of Zinnia Flowers visit:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinnia

http://www.bhg.com/gardening/plant-dictionary/annual/zinnia/

3.2  Portulaca Grandiflora:

The Portulaca is another summer flowering plant, which we prefer for the front roundabout and in the flower beds on both sides of entrance to our farmhouse. They bring colour and therefore life to our farmhouse in hot and very hot summer months. The common name of Portulaca is moss rose, which is quite descriptive of its key ornamental features: ruffled, rose-like flowers (to 1” diameter) appearing on prostrate to slightly ascending stems that form a moss-like foliage mat. Flowers bloom in summer (June to August) and come in single, semi-double or double forms in colors including red, rose, orange, yellow, white and pastel shades. Flowers close before the sunset and do not open on cloudy or rainy days either.

For detailed description of Portulaca Grandiflora visit:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portulaca_grandiflora

4.  Fruits and Vegetables of Season:

The Lychees season has just come to an end. From here on we will have no fruit until September when we can expect to have Persimums and hopefully a couple of Pears too, for the plants are still very young and do not appear to have a lot of fruit. 

Similarly, there are still no mentionable vegetables until August when we looking forward to harvest a lot of Turai and Bitter Gourd, which are quite obviously delayed on account of very hot weather and late coming of the monsoon rains.

5.  Pet Birds at the Farm:

During the current week some new birds were introduced into the aviary. These included a pair of Fischer's Lovebirds, Three pairs of  White Headed Nun Finches and a couple of white Munias. The newly acquired birds will be introduced in this blog in due course but for the present we will talk about the Diamond Doves, which exist in the aviary for quite some time now. The Diamond Doves are the resident birds of Australia. 

The Diamond Doves are small pigeons with a length of 19 to 21 cm. Regardless of the gender, they have white spots and black edges on their wings, orange eyes and red eye-rings. The genders look similar except the female's eye ring is less vivid and has more of a brown colour to the plumage. The male's head, neck, and breast are light blue-grey. The bill is a dark grey colour. The abdomen is a creamy colour while the back and tail is a brown-grey colour. The legs and feet are pink. At the farm we have a pair of Light Grey and another pair of Dark Grey Diamond Doves.

To learn more about the Diamond Doves, visit:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_Dove