Butterflies Galore and Festive Eid

Week 31	July 28, 2014	August 3, 2014

1.    Foreword:

Never before seen so many butterflies at the farm! They seem to have sprung up all of a sudden this rainy season! Baffling to see them in so many different sizes, colour patterns and hues! Only other time I remember seeing them in such large numbers was in my childhood when I had just started going to school (Birla High) in Okara (a small town of that time near Lahore) where Abba worked as    medical officer in Sutlej Cotton Mills (since long been sold out and taken apart!). Seeing them fluttering over flowers, I used to run after them in an effort to catch them, while returning from school. Now I can not do that but the joy I used to derive then is still the same today!

Okara of my childhood and Taxila where we have our farmhouse both happen to be rural green, with perhaps similar conditions of temperature and humidity in summer. That might be the reason behind the 'Butterflies Galore'', we witness and which the city dwellers might not appreciate or aware of! I, however can only sympathies with them!

2.     Eid Reunion at the Farmhouse:

Thanks to a great improvement in weather and unusually long Eid holidays, the farmhouse was bustling with life this past week. The families of all our sons: Hasan, Omar and Saad except Taha the youngest (lives in Toronto) joined us from Lahore, Karachi and Pindi respectively making it one of the most enjoyable of Eids, we had for several years! Apart from the Eid feast, there was a barbecue evening but the biggest bonanza of all was the fact that all our grand children having over a period of time come of age joined their being at the farmhouse to make the most of it. Games they played both outside and indoors with essential quarrelling but mostly joining in making themselves happy was a pleasing sight day after day and an enviable previlege of ours!

2.1.   In Pictures:

3.     Ever Green Non Flowering Trees:

3.1.  Araucaria heterophylla Norfolk Island Pine:

Soon to be one of the most majestic trees of our garden is the Araucaria heterophylla Norfolk Island Pine, which is located on the left hand side of the entrance to our grassy lawn. "It has a pyramidal outline of whorled, horizontal branches, widely spaced, in formal ascending order to its crown. The dark green leaves (needles) are awl-shaped, covering all sides of the branches, changing their shape slightly in the upper branches as the tree ages. The bark is grey and rough. 'Heterophylla' (variable leaves) describes the variation in the leaves from youth to adulthood."

"It is One of the most familiar tree silhouettes in the world. It is a member of the Araucaria family that has been dated from the Jurassic period, 200 million years ago. Araucaria species have prehistoric connections to the pine family when all of the continents were one single land mass. Captain Cook discovered tiny Norfolk Island on his second voyage to the South Pacific. Eight hundred miles due east of Australia. Norfolk Island Pine is also popular as a Christmas tree, or as an exotic houseplant of ancient lineage that survives with little watering."

Read more at:

http://www.sfbotanicalgarden.org/garden/bloom_10_05.shtml 

4.     Wildlife at the Farm:

Among the wild life at the farm, there are Brown Rabbits, Partridges, Many a kind of Reptiles and a large varieties of Birds, not commonly seen in urban areas. Among the most noticeable are the Grey 

Francolin Francolinus pondicerianus, described below:

4.1.  Grey Francolin:

Francolin or more precisely the Grey Francolin Francolinus pondicerianus is a species of partridge seen and heard in abundance at the farm during winter, which is their mating season as also after harvesting of wheat, when the hatched chicks are seen briskly following their parents all over the place. Their local name is Teetar, which is based on their calls, a loud and repeated Ka-tee-tar - tee-tar which is produced by one or more birds. The term teetar however may also refer to other partridges and quails. They move fast and in spite of some effort, I have not been able to take a presentable picture of them. To make them identifiable by the reader, borrowed pictures (from reference cited below) have accordingly been included in this blog.

Read more at:

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