Play time

He was alone near a pile of sand with two pieces of cut off planks as his toys.
As his father worked to complete renovations at a house, this boy found some discarded pieces of wood to live out his imagination.
As I watched, the pieces of wood were transformed from what a apparently was a four-wheel-drive vehile race across a desert to a train (after being strung together with a piece of plastic sheet.)
The wonders of a child's imagination.

Another posting via mobile blogger.

Nature nearby

It is said that Borneo like other tropical regions contains the highest biodiversity, meaning as I understand it, it has the largest variety of plants and creatures.

My house is in the middle of a housing estate in Kota Kinabalu is a little testament to this. Little creatures do drop by at the yard attracted by the plants that we have there.

So I've learnt to keep my camera nearby to "capture" them. And it has made me realise that nature photography requires much much patience. Afterall, a toad or a butterfly will not wait around for anyone to set up that "Kodak moment."

Here are some of the creatures that have appeared in my yard.

Royal opening

Often described as the king of fruits, aficionados will not hesitate to pay a princely sum for a durian. I've seen people forking out as up to RM17 per kg (working out to nearly RM40 per fruit) just for the ones that taste 'bitter sweet'.
However, more often than not,the king of fruit will have to be consumed at humble surroundings, usually along a road side, under the shade of a large tree as hotels and other businesses ban them due to their overpowering?odour.
An American has described the smell of the durian as something akin to a pair of very well used socks.
So much for respect for the king of fruit.