Report card on my plants

Murrayas
They bloomed together again. More sweeping for me. I think they bloom every 1 month.

Lipstick plants
I think, I am maybe 2 months away to be called a plant murderer. I must remember to take a before and after pix to show my point. The sunbirds still turn up every morning but they just stare at the plants. 

Aloe Vera
Really growing sideways. Repotting soon.

Lantanas
They bloomed. Nice orange.

Thinking and reading too much into things

Humans like to complicate simple matters. One of the points I observed during a yoga workshop I attended this past weekend at the Sun Festival.

When one of the teachers asked the class how to unblock our chakras (something like energy channel within one's body) and have a ache-free body and led a worry-free lifestyle. Answers given from the students ranged from pranayana (breathing exercises), meditation to practising the asanas. Boy, people do like to complicate matters and sound so sage-like. My answer was totally unrelated to yoga. It was just being happy and laughter. To me, there is something more to yoga than the external motion of perfecting the asanas. There is this inner detox of the mind. The stillness of the mind, and not being too caught up by the daily stresses of life.

Next, standing backbends! They absolutely terrify me. There is something unnerving about bending backwards while standing upright to landing on my palms on the floor behind me.

Fear grips me. My heart races, muscles tense and I always hope that I will miraculously land safely without hurting myself. It is really a long, long drop back and I don't like going to see my chiropracter for a sprained back. Don't tell me about the theories of backbends and the ease of executing the pose. At that tensed moment, my mind is blank and all I can think of is, 'I am so afraid of falling.' Teachers have said that I should be able to do it as my lumbar area is flexible but I have to overcome this hurdle myself. I used to end up grabbing the poor teacher half way through the pose risking injury to myself and the teacher (Sorry, Kym and Asokan). Trust me, I am not exactly that light.

Fear is irrational. Even with controlled bending, bending backwards into the unknown without seeing where I am heading to cripples me. I can go on and on about this fear but during the workshop, I did it. I have not done standing backbends for a very long time. Something in me changed in this one year since I stopped work. There were several milestones reached in my yoga practice. I had a bad fall a few years back while doing the handstand which built this irrational fear of all inversions and backbends. I avoided practising difficult inversions and backbends since that fall especially if it is a combination of both. I always believe the practice of yoga somehow relates and affects how one lives her life. While resting at home, I did a mind detox and figured out what I am afraid of? For both yoga and life, three points came to mind. Falling, failure, the unknown. By changing my mindset, I have progressed and changed, my priorities definitely have shifted. The only hurdle is my mind.

Walking with Dinosaurs, the Arena Spectacular

Dinosaurs in my brain. Reread Michael Crichton's Jurassic park and The Lost World in the last 3 days. Moving on to my National Geographic dinosaurs articles next or maybe I will watch the dinosaur dvds.

Going, going, going. : P Let the countdown begin. I must behave like an adult in front of my nephew. No to sudden roaring or slashing in mid air.

Mmm, I think it's only when you are a young child you learn to spell and pronounce those difficult dinosaur names. Repeat after me! Velociraptor! Stegasauras...etc

Going to see these or check out the website here. BTW, the navigation buttons on the website roar when you click on them. Cool.

10 large dinosaurs
Plateosaurus - 10 ft tall x 31 ft long
Stegosaurus - 18.5 ft tall x 36 ft long
Allosaurus - 14.5 ft tall x 43 ft long
Brachiosaurus - adult 36 ft tall x 56 ft long and young 29.5 ft tall x 48 ft long
Ornithocheirus - Wing Span 38 ft
Ankylosaurus - 12 ft tall x 34 ft long
Torosaurus (2) - 13 ft tall x 30 ft long
Tyrannosaurus Rex (2) (one spare) 23 feet tall x 42 feet long

5 suit dinosaurs
3 Utahraptors - 8 ft tall x 14 ft long
1 Baby T-Rex (one spare) 7 ft tall x 14 long
1 Liliensternus - 7.5 ft tall x 16 ft long

So exciting. Pardon me, while I get to know my dinosaurs. Oh yes, I have already checked out the merchandise online. Good for kids only.

For Dino fans, children and those who wanted to be a paleontologist when you were a child:

Walking with Dinosaurs, the Arena Spectacular is showing at Indoor Stadium from 1 December  2010. Book your tickets from Sistic. http://www.dinosaurlive.com.sg/

Lipstick plant report card: Not doing too well : (

Been 3 months since I bought the two lipstick plants from the nurseries.

What is a lipstick plant? Copied right from Wikipedia, Aeschynanthus is a genus of ca. 185 species of tropical herbs. They are found in southern and southeastern Asia, the islands of Indonesia, New Guinea, and the Philippines. They are usually trailing epiphytes with brightly colored flowers that are pollinated by sunbirds.

I didn't know what and where it is from before I bought them. I just like their fat dark green glossy leaves, the red tubular flowers and the way the leaves cascaded. They were on my 'I Want list' for sometime.

It's been a fair share of happiness whenever they bloomed, or when the sunbirds came to visit and frustrations when the green glossy leaves kept falling off.

Was it the location of the plants in my balcony? Or too much water or too little of it? Or maybe too much sun?

A gardener's constant dilemma. How much is too much water or how much is too much light? Or too much fertilizer?

According to the goggle searches and instructions from the nursery's owner, it is a low maintenance plant that needs bright light and moist but well draining soil. Yep, sounds easy... I really hope they don't die before I get the hang of looking after them.

Marching on.

An email you need to read

Have I?

Excerpt from The 4-hour Work Week, Timothy Ferriss. A portion of an email the author received from a terminally ill girl in a New York Hospital which he reread repeatedly. 

Slow Dance
Have you ever watched kids
On a merry-go-round?

Or listened to the rain
Slapping on the ground?

Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?

You better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.

Time is short.
The music won't last.

Do you run through each day
On the fly?

When you ask: How are you?
Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done,
do you lie on your bed

With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?

You'd better slow down
Don't dance so fast.

Time is short.
The music won't last.

Ever told your child,
We'll do it tomorrow?

And in your haste,
Not see his sorrow?

Ever lost touch,
Let a good friendship die

Cause you never had time
To call and say, "Hi"?

You better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.

Time is short.
The music won't last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.

When you worry and hurry through your day,
It's like an unopened gift thrown away.

Life is not a race.
Do take it slower.

Hear the music
Before the song is over.

Raising a Stink

Stock Photo AP.
You can't be serious, that's a big heap of s...compost!

What is wrong with these people! First, they stockpiled sand, now compost or ****. Finally, a picture of the 200 tonne of 'compost' that had it's stench perfuming the neighbourhood for the past 2 weeks.

Had my first whiff sometime back. I was like in the bathroom, I went, "Is there something dead in my home drainage system? Time to buy the drain de-clogging chemical?" I lowered my head and sniffed at the drain traps. Eewwwkk... grossed out behavior. Then I stepped out of the air-conditioned bedroom into the living room. You could have knocked me over with a feather. Did a sewage pipe burst or what! It was really a major stink. That puzzling stench came back again and again over the past two weeks. Then, I found out from a forum that there is a mountain of compost fermenting in the heat and rain less than a km from my home.

3 Laws of Gardening

Moved this big pot of plant into this corner of the balcony today.
Took me 15 mins. My back is killing me.

Came across these 3 points in Elle Decoration. Rings true.

• Gardening is a matter of your enthusiasm holding out until your back gets used to it.
  
• God made rainy days so gardeners could get housework done.
  
• One of the best ways to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out easily, it is a valuable plant.