This is a personal note to the creature that downloaded/ripped my entire site today:
You’d better not be using my original material for your own personal gain. I detest dishonesty and disrespect, and you displayed those by ripping my site. I may never find out who you are but I know what country you’re from as well as your IP address. 122.252.227.17
What goes around comes around. Remember that.
The Pitta searching for food around the base of a banana tree.
Two weeks after first spotting the Blue-winged Pitta lurking in the shady parts of our garden and it’s still here. I guess there’s something to having a slightly wild garden – it’s a more natural habitat for the wildlife to enjoy, and for us to enjoy watching them when we can.
This little birdie is extremely shy. If we do come by when it’s out in the open, it quickly hop-scuttles to hide behind or beneath a plant – and if it’s really startled, it’ll actually fly away. And that’s when you see the beauty of it’s vivid blue wings. Well, blue, black and white, to be more precise. But we’ve become so accustomed to seeing it hopping around that a friend who visited after a long day at work wondered aloud at the bird’s ability to fly at all! Um, how do you think it got here in the first place?! Sometimes, I think we work ourselves too hard, when we can’t even think logically…
I don’t know where the Pitta spends all it’s time when it’s not in our garden (I know, it’s selfish of me to think it would stay only here) but I do know it likes foraging in shady areas under trees and plants. It has even come into an open shed area, but what it may find there, I don’t know.
We are still getting used to each other and I hope we can reach the point where it knows it won’t be harmed and then I can get a better picture of it. I’ve been trying, trust me… It’s just too elusive and stays in dark areas that you can’t get decent photos in. I hope I’ll have a few weeks more to keep trying to get good shots of it – and of course that I actually do get the pictures. I feel privileged that the Pitta chose our garden to grace. There isn’t all that much natural habitat left in over-built Singapore and for a forest bird to come here, well, that’s something. I have my fingers crossed that we’ll have more such interesting feathered visitors in time to come.
© 2010 curiousgardener.com All rights reserved.
An overcast Nov afternoon at Pasir Ris Park.
It’s really odd to talk about seasons in Singapore, because as an island just off the equator, we pretty much have rain and sunshine throughout the year. The only difference is when the seasonal monsoon winds change direction – that affects the temperature and to a certain extent, the humidity.
Some people may be appalled to know that we have close to 100% humidity all year round. In fact, the humidity level has never gone below 60% and has hit as high as 97%! (See weather statistics) Just thought you’d like to know… 
The reason I’m ruminating once again over the weather is because our version of “Christmas” weather has begun. In this case, it’s more windy than normal, the sunshine is exceptionally bright and lighter in shade, and the air has a coolness that you don’t feel at other times of the year. There is a slight drop in temperature thanks to the strong, gusty breezes and frequent cool showers of rain. Obviously, there’s no snow. After the weather we’ve had this year, I won’t say that we have excessive rain to equate the cooler season, although our highest rainfall is typically in December. However, with the extra rain we’ve had this year, maybe the weather patterns are changing. Who knows.
A colourful December sunset.
This sense of the holiday season hearkens back to being a student. The “long” school holidays are at the end of the year, from mid-November until New Year’s Day. So I assume that everyone who has grown up in Singapore shares this ingrained-in-the-bone feeling with me: as soon as I feel the weather cool and the winds pick up, I associate it with Christmas and being on holiday, without care in the world. It’s just one of those things, happily.
So, yes, folks who need snow to feel the yuletide mood, this is what those of us who live in the tropics experience. However, I admit that the idea of Christmas in the summer, as those who live in the lower southern hemisphere experience it, is a little odd to me. It’s all in the manner of where and how you grew up, I guess. We can get used to almost anything if we want to. Anyway, it’s time to start getting ready – it’s less than a month to Christmas! 8)
© 2010 curiousgardener.com All rights reserved.
Yellow cosmos flower
Our cosmos plants have finally reached flowering stage. They were grown from seeds that I got from a member of the GCS forum. As per normal, I scattered a pinch of seeds in a flower pot, hoping to get a bunch of plants I could plant in a cluster, and as per normal only two of them germinated. Also, per normal, I delayed transplanting them out of laziness, and their growth rate slowed. So, finally, after almost three months can we see these pretty yellow flowers blooming. I need to try to get more of them to grow, because they’re a welcome splash of colour in the garden!
Pretty, pretty flower! :)
© 2010 curiousgardener.com All rights reserved.