The Tulip Tree 'Grandiflora Magnolia'

Week 38	September 15, 2014	September 21, 2014

1.     Preamble:
1.1.  This Beautiful Land of Ours:

Rains are mercifully becoming sparse. This week there have been none so far. The humidity still persists in the atmosphere however. The temperatures both 'Hi' and Lo' have though gone down a bit. Outdoors, it is still hot during the day but indoors it is generally not too uncomfortable. Fans nonetheless are still operating even at night. The fields have been ploughed and squares of plot prepared for sowing of garlic, broad beans and winter vegetables such as: radishes, carrots, cauliflower, cabbage and turnips.

Cultivated land around lychee and orange fruit trees ready for sowing of garlic and winter veggies.

This week we will continue introducing the trees at our farm beside talking about our small crop of sweet corn, which has produced this season a few good and healthy cobs for our home use. As promised we will also celebrate this week, the birthday of our dear grand daughter Ne'ma and talk about her a bit.

2.     Deciduous and Ever Green Trees:

2.1.  Magnolia Tree:

There, we have a Magnolia tree besides the grape arbor on the left hand side of our farmhouse. It is one if the three planted by our dear son Saad soon after we moved in 2009. Two of them didn't survive. The one which luckily escaped the rigours of weather, took a long time growing up. It is now over eight feet tall. Last year it yielded first of its large white flowers. 

Magnolias are believed to be the earliest known flowering plants dated back to about 130 million years ago. Magnolia Trees are quite spectacular when they are in full bloom in the month of May. The creamy-white bloom of the magnolia tree are usually fragrant consisting of six to twelve petals. Once the petals have fallen off the tree, a large cone shaped fruit of the magnolia is left. Magnolia is named after French botanist Pierre Magnol. Magnolia is often called Tulip Tree because of the shape of its flowers. It can grow up into a very large tree. We  actually saw them, the largest of the large on the grounds of Beylerbeyi Sarayi during our visit to Istanbul in September 2012 . The Sarayi (Palace) was used as a summer residence and guest house for the foreign dignitaries. It was shown around to us by our very good friend Dr Necmi Dayday and his wife. Located in the Uskudar district along the Asian shore of the Bosphorus, it is a marvel of Ottoman architecture. We really got fascinated by the glory of the pink flowering trees not any less grander than the architecture of the palace itself.

Above are snap shots of Anjum and our friends with the large Magnolia trees in the background (see: how little and insignificant they and the lamppost appear in comparison to the trees). The magnificent Beylerbeyi Sarayi is seen in the second image with the tall Magnolia trees in the background rising over and above the Sarayi itself.

Read more:

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

http://www.southernliving.com/home-garden/gardens/magnolia-trees

3.     Fruits/Vegetables of Season:

3.1.   Maize/Sweet Corn

Maize is sown in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa (KPK) in June-July after the harvesting of wheat every year. This year we had it sown on only two small squares of plots on experimental basis. The variety sown was sweet corn, which is a genetic variant that accumulates more sugar and less starch in the ear. It is is consumed as a vegetable. The seeds were procured for individual sowing from the government agricultural outlet in Taxila. The result, which has just come out is promising and we have, apart from occasional bird pickings, cobs densely packed with sweet corn kernels.

The grains are about the size of peas, and adhere in regular rows around a white, pithy substance, which forms the ear. An ear commonly holds 600 kernels. Even though the colour of kernels was yellow in our case, they are of various colors: blackish, bluish-gray, purple, green, red, white besides yellow. When ground into flour, maize yields more flour with much less bran than wheat does. It lacks the protein gluten of wheat and, therefore, makes baked goods with poor rising capability. Young ears can be consumed raw, with the cob and silk, but as the plant matures (usually during the summer months), the cob becomes tougher and the silk dries to inedibility. By the end of the growing season, the kernels dry out and become difficult to chew without cooking them tender first in boiling water. During the season, we buy steamed cobs from paddlers and munch on them all the way while driving to Taxila or our return home from there. At home we however prefer to bake them over gas flame and chew on them sprinkled with salt, pepper and readily available home grown lemon. 

Read more:

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

4.     Family Event(s):

4.1.  Nemo's Birthday: 15 September

The first day of this week was the birthday of our dear grand daughter Ne'ma, lovingly called Nemo. Born on September 15, 2010, she is second of the two daughters of Saad and Sahar. She bears a name, very similar in meaning to 'Inaya', her older sister. On that count both are really the gift of Allah (SWT). Could there be a better bestowment from the one who is the creator and benefactor of all beings? Ever mindful of that, Saad and Sahar take very good care of both of them. Being younger, she quite understandably receives most if the pampering and attention. But Inaya gets her lion's share of love and affection too. Not surprisingly therefore, there is absolutely no sister rivalry. They understand each other's position and are consciously respectful of that.

As Sahar was teaching in a school, Ne'ma too used to accompany her even though she was still very young. Some of her stories belong to that early period and her crave and liking for 'Donuts' is reminiscent of that age. The school was next door to the famous Rahat Bakery, where from she often used to get helpings courtesy either Sahar or Sahar's teacher colleagues. At that stage she was still learning to utter words correctly and could pronounce 'Donut' only as 'Nonut'. Whenever Saads drove pass by the bakery, she would make a hellfire and cry vociferously 'nonut .... nonut' leaving them no option but to stop, get down, go into the bakery and buy her nonuts. From the very early age, she liked chocolates and candies, which gradually led to the decaying of her teeth and very considerable pain on that count especially at night. After several visits to the dentist, there was no resort other than pulling the bad ones out. Those were the most nightmarish days for both the parents, as she altogether refused to be examined what to talk of extracting them. She ultimately needed to be taken to a dental hospital, where surgical extraction was performed after making her aesthetically unconscious. She is masha Allah all well now but is very weary of the doctors even those within the family. She would remain lurking, far in the distance, if she discovered there was one at the same place.

Thanks to Sahar, Nemo participates enthusiastically in the annual function of her school, the Roots Academy. Being too small, she was assigned last year to play a fairy singing in unison with her older colleagues. She looked fabulous in her costume but facing a large hall full of guests, she looked a little bewildered moving her both hands in 'to and fro' motion with wide open eyes in search of her parents in the audience. Very cute of her, we thought! 

Nemo is very fond of dressing well too. She would try several outfits one after the other just to please herself. She would take out neatly pressed and hanged dresses from the hanger, lay several of them down side by side on the floor to select what she would wear. If there was a dress prepared especially for an occasion, she would request Sahar to let her try that even for ten minutes. If a dress was too formal and cumbersome to wear on a hot and sultry day, it would not deter her the least and she will allow herself to be in that dress for the whole day. On the other hand she would change dresses several times during a day too. Sahar says, the most clothes going daily into the washing machine are those of Nemo.

Nemo is shy of strangers but irrespective of their ages, can make friends with them instantly too if she so liked. Once a while, she would get attached to them quite inexplicably as well but generally not with every one. 

As dear and loveable as you are Nemo, both your Dada and Dadi miss you when you are not there at the farmhouse for the whole week and wait for you and Inaya to be with them on the weekends, the only time that you can be with them. They pray, you to grow up quickly to be with them during your longer school breaks. They also pray, you grow up to be a lady as much as excelling in academics, athletics and artistic talents. As such they pray, you in addition would be gracious, thoughtful, kind, intelligent, self-assured, and poised as you see more number of years ahead insha Allah!

Happy Birthday Nemo!