Hair Combing

Early this morning, May 22, 2011, Elly has changed her clothes, ready to go to church. She was sitting on our bed. Grandma gave Elly a comb to brush her hair. I believe it was the first time that Elly was given a comb to do her hair.

Elly found great interest, smiled and held the comb with her left hand. Grandma taught her how to brush. She learned it quickly and soon mastered the simple skill of moving the comb through her hair. Then she used her right hand to brush the hair on the other side of her head.

The comb could be folded up and the teeth were soft. At one time, the comb was folded up. We wondered if Elly knew how to open it. To our surprise, she could! She first experienced the "magic" of combing her hair. There will be many many times that she brushes her hair in the future.

今日、昔日麵包款

這裏除了右下角那個西式到爆的芝士腸仔包外，其餘四種麵包都帶些經典面貌。

最令我驚喜的正是照片左下角的椰絲面奶油麵包。它的樣子仍舊可愛，正中的軟軟的白色奶油忌廉特別吸引。昔日賣一至兩毫子一個，昨日則賣六元一個。雖然它是那麼貴，我也忍痛買一個回味一下。結果是女兒和太太分享了它，太太的評語是「普通啦」。

左上角是餐包，形狀有些怪怪地。牛油餐包由來已久是餐室下午茶的主角，奶茶是配角。我記得牛油餐包也是以前常餐、全餐中餐湯的好伴侶。

右上角的菠蘿包簡直是兒時早餐經常出現的主角之一，其實它最吸引之處是上面那甜甜地、鬆軟的酥皮層。每次咬一口時，酥皮應聲破裂，同時間向四方八面掉下來。大家要儀態的話，就不要吃菠蘿包了。

右中的雞尾包形狀不像以往的好看。昔日的雞尾包是長形，頭尾圓渾，身上掃上兩條墨西哥包面的酥油層，裏面的蛋黃椰絲餡料特別美味，吃起來有滿足感。

運橙遊戲

昨天艾莉和阿比在太婆家玩運橙遊戲。

充滿活力的艾莉當然喜歡這種既是遊戲，也是手足運動。於是，艾莉和阿比把太婆家裏存倉已久以打計的新奇士橙，分十次八次從睡房搬運到客廳中央，不過她們並不是輕放在地上，而是把它們拋到地上。幸好厚厚的橙皮承受了這般衝力，像皮球一樣彈跳一兩，滾到障礙物時才停下來。曾經艾莉想用小盤去運一下子幾個橙，但它們實在太重了。我們阻止了她的妙計。

隨著所有的橙已運到廳中，下一遊戲部分自然是讓艾莉和阿比把它們運送回房中。
從面帶陽光笑容的艾莉，興奮得跑著去拾起，去拋出充滿加州陽光的橙，正令這個兩歲不到的小孩子開心到極點。家姐阿比也忙著陪妹妹一起玩，不太緊張，因為這遊戲對於她來講，實在太簡單了。

Recent Collection of Canadian Currency coins

These are the Canadian Currency coins I collect recently. The suppliers are certainly my daughter and son-in-law.

The Canadian coins are interesting because they may tell people about
[1] Winter Olympic Games (2002)
[2] Children ‘s year (September 1999)
[3] Harmony 2000 (A Maple leaf formed from 6 people hand in hand)
[4] Hilly landforms in Alberta
[5] Trees in Ontario
[6] National Legacy 2000 (Clouds, rain, salmon, fir tree)
[7] Pride 2000 (with several maple leaves)
[8] Canadian soldiers (Canadian Dollar)

A Spelling mistake

Marks are usually deducted when students make spelling mistakes in their dictation. How about spelling mistakes that are found on coins of a country?

Some people may say that mistakes in printing on stamps become valuable. What about coins? I wonder how stupid and careless indeed that a mistake can occur on current coins of a country. The best thing to do is to melt all these coins and recast them.

Sausage Bread

To Elly, sausage bread should be split up into sausage and bread separately. In Elly’s encyclopedia, sausage is for herself and bread for anyone else. Elly loves sausages or ham madly. It can be reflected from her eating ham macaroni outside and sausages at home.

Today she grips the sausage bread with her little hands. At first, we wonder how she eats it. We are sure Elly ‘s target is the sausage alone. She first bites hard at the part of sausage sticking out of the bread. Next she wants to bite further in but it is quite difficult for her to eat the rest of the sausage because it is deeply embedded inside the bread. Next, she asks for milk to go with the sausage, not the bread.

To assist Elly to get the lower half of the sausage, Mother Connie tears open the bread and let Elly snatch it. At one time, Elly uses all her might to pull out the remaining part of sausage.

At the dining table, Abby is eating a biscuit. She found no interest in the sausage bread I buy her. Later on, Elly joins her elder sister. Two sisters are eating differently at first and in the end, both together eat biscuits. At last, what we find on the ground are tiny bits of biscuits that have fallen from their hands and mouth when the biscuits break at times of bites.

King-sized Hibiscus

I found King-sized Hibiscus flowers at Ma On Shan Park today.

The flat pink petals stretched out so widely that tens of bees could land on them at the same time. The red round stigmas were tiny when compared with the petals. Below the stigmas were the yellow anthers. They grew in clusters. On the whole, both the stigmas and anthers seemed out of place because their sizes were quite small.

I never know the difference between King-sized and Queen-sized until I started my first tour with my wife to United States of America. The experience came from a Queen-sized bed and a King-sized one. The fact is that the former is bigger than the latter. Maybe American ladies are usually fatter than the gentlemen. They require larger beds.

The First Breakfast at Mc Donald’s

On May 8, 2011, a very sunny day, we went to a newly opened Mc Donald’s to have breakfast.

Since it is a new restaurant, the wall picture cheers everyone, especially our grand-daughters, Abby and Elly. Here you see how they imitated the laughing face on the wall. They really possess some or a great many “acting” cells.

Abby used forks to pick up food, but Elly merely her fingers. At one time, Abby charged her fork at her sister’s piece of minced pork. It was "pacific". Either Elly did not notice Abby’s action or she did not mind at all of losing the small piece of meat.

At another time, Abby leaned sideways at Elly as if they were twin sisters so that I could take their group photo . Both grand-daughters liked eating macaroni, but they rather chose ham first. I also noticed that Elly loved eating hash browns. Her satisfaction was reflected by her deep bite at the flat piece of potato.

We won't let Abby and Elly eat Mc Donald food every day. To them, the first breakfast at a Mc Donald was an enjoyable one after all.

Please double click to see larger photos.

Longitudinal Growth

Abby has grown taller by 0.06 metre in one and a half years. She expands lengthwise, but not breadthwise, just because she eats little. She always says, “I am slim, slim, slim”.

The left hand picture was taken on Dec 21, 2009 and the right hand one on May 8, 2011. She is over 1 metre now. No wonder she has to pay on any MTR or bus journey ever since she stepped on Hong Kong soil a week ago.

Flowers on Mother’s Day

These were the flowers our mothers at Shatin received on Mother’s Day.

I took photos of these flowers after they had been cut short and inserted inside a small blue vase. I let them dance around my camera. The flowers came as different pink, and in clusters of bluish purple and yellow.

They were not fragrant, but conveyed much love to the mothers.

Espresso and Cappuccino

Caffè espresso or simply espresso is a concentrated beverage brewed by forcing hot water under pressure through finely ground coffee.

Espresso was invented in Italy as far back as 1884. It often has a thicker consistency, a higher concentration of suspended solids, and foam. As a result of the pressurized brewing process, all of the flavours and chemicals in a typical cup of coffee are very concentrated. For this reason, espresso is the base for other drinks, such as lattes, cappuccino, macchiato, mochas, and americanos.

In Italy, espresso bars providing a place for socialization. The coffee prices were controlled by local authorities, provided that the coffee was consumed standing up, encouraging the "stand at a bar" culture. If customers prefer sitting down to drink it, prices will double, say, a 2-Euro cup of coffee will cost 4-Euros (when seats are required). The size of a cup of espresso is usually smaller than that of cappuccino.

In the Anglo-speaking countries, espresso became popular particularly in the form of cappuccino, due to the tradition of drinking coffee with milk and the exotic appeal of the foam; in the United States this was more often in the form of lattes, particularly with flavored syrups added. The latte is claimed to have been invented in the 1950s by Italian American Lino Meiorin of Caffe Mediterraneum in Berkeley, California, as a long cappuccino, and was then popularized in Seattle by Starbucks in the late 1980s and 1990s.

For myself, I prefer cappuccino to expresso because the latter is too strong for me and I like the rich milky taste of cappuccino and the wonderful picture at the top of the foam.

Slide Show

It was the third day after our grand-daughters had returned to Hong Kong. We bought them to the park below. Climbing up the big steps to a slide was the first thing Elly had to learn. She was fearless and successful in reaching the top of the slide. There she showed her smile of satisfaction. I grasped those moments of her thoughts just in time to take a few snapshots of her before she started her way down. Since the slide was made of plastic and not polished, her sliding smoothly down was almost impossible.

For Abby, playing on a slide was too easy for her. This time, she climbed, walked along narrow bridges and crawled through tube-like plastic tunnels. She found a vertical pole and was bold enough to slide down as if she were a fireman descending to a fire-engine below.

Fisgard Lighthouse

On the last day of our 3-day tour on Vancouver Island in October, 2009, we passed the outskirt of Fisgard Lighthouse and just took a short glimpse of it from a long distance because he had to hurry to Swartz Bay to take a ferry back to Vancouver.

It so happened that recently Philip's and his brother’s families paid a visit to this National Historic Site in Colwood, British Columbia. The lighthouse on Fisgard Island is at the mouth of Esquimalt Harbour. From record, it is the first lighthouse on the west coast of Canada. The causeway from the adjacent Fort Rodd Hill National Historic Site provides access to it by land.

It is so nice that the former lighthouse keeper's residence is open to the public and contains displays and exhibits about the site's history. The attached tower is not open to the public as it mainly serves as an aid to navigation.

Fisgard Lighthouse was built in 1860 to guide vessels through the entrance of Esquimalt Harbour. It was automated in 1929. It shows a white isophase light of 2-second period in a sector from 322° to 195° at 21.6 m above mean sea level. In other directions it shows red shutters. The white 14.6 m tower is floodlit below balcony level.

Fisgard Lighthouse and its sister station Race Rocks Light, were constructed in 1859-60, to ease the movement of naval ships into Esquimalt harbour and merchant ships into Victoria Harbour. The light stations were also seen as a significant political commitment on the part of the British government to the Colony of Vancouver Island.

The black-and-white photo inside the display room there shows the following:
[1] Lightkeeper’s house (red in other photos)
[2] Lighthouse Tower (white tower)
[3] Outhouse
[4] Boathouse (white one)
[5] Storehouse
[6] Weather Station (with instruments outside)

物輕情意重

聰明豆(Smarties)一直是自己童年時代摯愛的朱古力糖。當時每粒豆，大得像衣鈕。將它們放在手心是會融化的。它們七彩的糖衣或糖心的朱古力，都令我心悅。現在的聰明豆有袖珍形的，可能是專給小朋友食用的。

以前美味的聰明豆是用圓柱形狀紙筒盛載著，一端是封閉的，另一端的顏色膠蓋是可以打開的。想知道紙筒內大約有幾多聰明豆，只要搖一兩下紙筒就知曉了。

最近女兒在網上顯現過加拿大售賣的聰明豆，豆是用像擦紙膠般大小相約的長方盒(12cm x 2.5cm x 1.5cm)裝著。既然盒子是那麼小，裏面的聰明豆一定相應小。我曾經對女兒說其中一款的包裝盒特別趣緻，因為盒上有【愛】心一個，背面佈滿粉紅色的心，亦印上To 和From各一欄，相信是送給情人用的。小小的禮物，充滿著愛，又經濟，又物輕情意重！今次正是女兒送給我的父親節禮物。多謝 Connie.

Elly likes Stickers

Elly entered her Stickers' World yesterday (May 7, 2011). She stuck some of her stickers onto her nose, arms and legs. I think sticking is a really good exercise for her. It trains the motor skills and coordination of her hands, fingers, and eyes. Now if we ask Elly to stick ordinary stamps onto envelopes, she is able to help us.

The photos show that Elly enjoys the moments of her "game of creativity". Note that she puts a red sticker onto her little nose. That’s how Elly spent a quarter of an hour in this kind of play.

Back to Hong Kong

Early yesterday morning, we arrived at HK International Airport to welcome Connie, Philip, Abby and Elly back to Hong Kong.

It did not take long to see them come out from exit A. Connie and Philip each pushed a trolley of luggage while Abby her younger sister on a pram.

We rushed a little to board an airbus back to Shatin. Elly pointed and uttered “bus” when she saw it. I did not believe she could recognize one because the buses in Vancouver are single-decked instead of ours, double-decked.

Except Philip who looked after the luggage, we all sat at the front of the upper deck to get a better view outside the bus.

Abby was excited and talked to her grandma all the way. Behind sat Elly comfortably upright with her mother. I was busy taking photos along the way. It rained a little on Tsing Ma Bridge, so some of my photos showed rain drops on the window before me.

This time, they could not conquer their jet lag and felt sleepy at around five in the afternoon. Both girls did not take their dinner at all. Connie, Abby and Elly woke up at early (1:45 a.m.) in the middle of the night. They became fresh, sober and active like those nocturnal animals.

Catherine arrived at Westminster Abbey

Catherine and her father arrived at Westminster Abbey in a deep purple Rolls-Royce. Catherine’s sister was the bridesmaid. She took care of the tail of Catherine’s long wedding gown as Catherine and father stepped into the Abbey.

Mr. Middleton held Catherine’s hand, leading her daughter along the red carpet into the Abbey. It was a long way to reach the altar. Catherine smiled sweetly as she walked with her father. When they reached before the altar where William was standing, Mr. Middleton passed the hand of her daughter to William’s. This scene was exactly the same when I handed my daughter’s hand to Philip in the church at Wu Kai Sha when they wedded in December 21, 2002.

The wedding ceremony began with the song “Guide me, O Thou Great Redeemer” which everybody sang together at the Abbey ……..

The Royal Wedding at Westminster Abbey, 2011

The Royal Wedding of William and Catherine was held yesterday, April 29th, 2011 at Westminster Abbey, just round the corner from Buckingham Palace.
The abbey looks ancient, not big, but grand. The abbey viewed from above is cross-shaped. The chambers are long and narrow. The guests and choirs sat compactly on the sides of the nave and transept.

The abbey is beautiful because of its arches, pillars, stained windows and ceiling decorations. It is interesting to find trees planted inside, but, to some extent, they did block the sights of those guests who sat further away from the altar.

Please double-click the collage photo to get better views of the abbey.

Cultural Centre and TST Railway Clock Tower

At Tai Koo Shing, Lego exerts its power of shrinking our Cultural Centre, TST Railway Clock Tower and public pier to a size small enough to be placed on a table.

The shape of our Cultural Centre is curved, wavy and sharp at two ends, but Lego can make its model right. One interesting thing is that there are tiny lights shining on the walls of the Centre.

The trees in front of the Cultural Centre give a cooling effect to the area if they are real.

The Clock Tower of our old railway station used to be one of our landmarks at TST. It looks 90% real here.

I marvel at the minute details of the public pier – the ropes, chains, stairs, wooden planks which serve as cushions between the boats and the pier.

The human activities at the pier are interesting. Amazingly a soldier from ‘Star Wars’ is fishing. A man is taking videos with his camcorder. Workmen and a street sweeper are working. At the roof top of the corridor, a newly married couple was taking photos with their friends and relatives. Some people are doing Tai Tze (太極拳). There are also some interesting elements such as a grey dog walking alone without a master, a red crab crawling up the pier and a whale was being dragged up.

Monument Valley

This is the view of Monument Valley in Utah, looking south on U.S. Route 163 from 13 miles north of the Arizona/Utah State line.

A few shots of this valley appeared in the film, “Forrest Gump” (阿甘正傳) cast by Tom Hanks. In the story, Forrest was running for three and a half years without a stop, from coast to coast across U.S. On the way, a number of people joined in his run. Realizing that he had been running to try and make sense of his feelings for Jenny and the deaths of his mother and Bubba, he abruptly stops and returns home.

The interest came yesterday night when I watched a documentary film in which two young men from Korea reached the Monument Valley by way of Arizona. They aimed at finding the Valley and imitated the running of Forrest Gump and his followers. By checking the film, they learned that they had been driving towards the Valley from the backside, so they drove on to the other side. They raised their hands with uttermost joy as they reached the exact location where Forrest Gump had run. These two young men never missed the chance of imitating Forrest Gump’s cross-country running.

Bauhinia Variegata

Bauhinia Variegata (宮粉羊蹄甲) can be found in Hong Kong. They look like Bauhinia Blakeana, but differ with the latter in colours and reproduction.

It is a species of flowering plant native to southeastern Asia, from southern China west to Pakistan and India. The common names include Orchid tree, Camel's Foot Tree and Mountain-ebony.

It is a small to medium-sized tree growing to 10–12 m tall, deciduous in the dry season. The leaves are 10–20 cm long and broad, rounded, and bilobed at the base and apex. The flowers are conspicuous, bright pink or white, 8–12 cm diameter, with five petals. The fruit is a 15–30 cm long pod, containing some seeds.

This is a very popular ornamental tree in subtropical and tropical climates, grown for its scented flowers. In the Neotropics, it can be used to attract hummingbirds - such as Sapphire-spangled Emerald, Glittering-bellied Emerald, or White-throated Hummingbird - into gardens and parks. In some areas, it has become naturalised and invasive.

Our Floral Emblem

Many species of Bauhinia are widely planted in the tropics as orchid trees, particularly in northern India, Vietnam and southeastern China. In the United States of America, the trees grow in Hawaii, coastal California, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida. Bauhinia blakeana is the floral emblem of Hong Kong, and a stylized orchid tree flower appears on the Hong Kong flag.

Bauhinia is also known as Mountain Ebony, Purple Orchid tree or simply Orchid tree, and 'Kachnar' in India and Pakistan. Bauhinia trees typically reach a height of 6-12 m and their branches spread 3-6 m outwards. The lobed leaves usually are 10-15 cm across.

The five-petaled flowers are 7.5-12.5 cm diameter, generally in shades of red, pink, purple, orange, or yellow, and are often fragrant. The tree begins flowering in late winter and often continues to flower into early summer. Depending on the species, Bauhinia flowers are usually in magenta, mauve, pink or white hues with crimson high lights.

Super Mario Galaxy 2

I remember that my son played Gameboy, created by Nintendo when he was young (in the 80’s). One of the games he played was Mario Brothers.

This year, I bought these six MTR tickets with promotion of the new game called Super Mario Galaxy 2. This time Mario is in a 3-D world. The video games appear in the sky or on land or in the sea.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 uses a map like the one found in Super Mario World. Each course is an enclosed world in which the player is free to wander in all directions and discover the environment without time limits. The player gathers Power Stars or Shine Sprites in each course; some only appear after completing certain tasks, often hinted at by the name of the course. As more Power Stars or Shine Sprites are collected, more areas of the overworld become accessible and thus more stages are available.

From the demo, I can see that with two remote-controls, the player(s) can make Mario jump, spin, duck down or walk forward, backward, to the left or right or even in a circular track. The games are more interesting because Mario travels in a 3-D world instead of those dull 2-D journeys going in linear direction in the early years of the 80’s.

Elly and Elmo

Yesterday, Elly was still in Victoria, Vancouver Island. At night-time, Elly was given a red doll of the superstar in Sesame Street, Elmo, to play. Its size was just a little smaller than Elly.

Elly first looked at it with curiosity. Next she examined her eyes, mouth and teeth if any. Mother Connie told Elly that she could press Elmo’s belly so that Elmo spoke. Elmo did speak in English. I believed Elly did not understand a single word Elmo uttered.

After all the examinations on Elmo, Elly decided to descend from her bed, leaving Elmo crouching with face downward. Elly skillfully slipped down the bed at the edge.

My wife and I thought that it was time to say good-bye to Elly and the rest of the family so that they could get a good sleep before they explored more interesting places of this city the next day. Elly gave us a good-bye kiss to end the window chat through Skype.

Lego Exhibition at Tai Koo Shing

With the power of a free single-journey MTR ticket, I decided to cross the harbour to see the Lego Exhibition at Tai Koo Shing.

It was the first time I saw a section with ladies in national costumes (Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Dutch and Korean) and people in different eras such as the Rickshaw man, an ancient king in armour sitting at a high-backed chair and a western cow-boy. Amazingly vivid were they.

Looking out of my window

The orange sky at sunset can be so beautiful and fascinating to me.

It seems to be quiet in the sky. Though there is one plane flying, I cannot hear its noise. Either I am deaf or it flies too high up and far away from me.
The clouds are motionless and the glare from the setting sun starts to fade.

The sky dims as the clock strikes six. Night falls and the electric lights of houses near by are turned on simultaneously.

It takes another eleven hours to have daybreak.

The bottom photo looks as if it had been folded.

蘋果的樂章

我愛細看紐西蘭加拿蘋果(Royal Gala, 4173, Mr. Apple)皮上千變萬化的花紋及獨特的紅色和與黃色的不同分佈。在我眼中，一個一個不同面貌的加拿蘋果擁有自己的性格，像人們的手紋一樣，是不會重複的。果皮上的花紋密集不一，顏色的不同變化，像優美的樂章，像飛舞的文字。它們(蘋果)的喜悅，通通顯現在我眼前，我會在吃它們之前照相以作留念。

值得一提的是在合成相裏面，左下角的蘋果有變幻的圖案，上左二的一個則有 Nike 的招牌 tick ，是否神奇呢？

這般的蘋果今天特平，每個售二元二，果肉又爽又甜，我視它們為上品。

The Richmond – San Rafael Bridge

I am extremely happy to discover this Richmond – San Rafael Bridge (at centre) from an aerial photo taken by Tony on an Air Canada plane flying overhead Richmond, SFO towards Vancouver. Please double-click the photos to enlarge them.

Let me show you the bridge through an aerial photo, a 2-D map, a 3-D map and a side-view photo.Obviously enough, this 8.9 km bridge links up San Rafael and Richmond. At the time it was built, it was one of the world's longest bridges. The low budget bridge spans two principal ship channels and has two separate major spans, each of the cantilever type. Both main cantilever sections were designed identically, giving the bridge a "roller coaster" appearance and also the nickname "roller coaster span". People say that it looks like a "bent coat hanger". After it was completed, many were disappointed when they compared it with of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge in respects to engineering and historical marvels.

Oreo’s New Flavour

Oreo is a kind of Kraft’s chocolate sandwich cookies. Its usual flavours are vanilla, peanut, chocolate and strawberry. I have checked that the cookies sold here come from Indonesia.

A new flavour of Oreo, Blueberry Ice Cream, arrives at our home today. Abby likes eating ice cream and blueberries. I believe this flavour suits her best. Her little sister, Elly, likes eating, so she is sure to like it too.

Soon Abby and Elly will add this new flavour of Oreo into their own dictionaries.

Here is the Delicious trick with Oreo: TWIST - LICK - DUNK.

How a Petrol Station is born

Let us see how a station is made:
[1] The setting up of a Petrol Station needs a site and the plan of construction.
[2] Land must be dug down for sheltering the petrol tanks. A firm concrete base must be made to stabilize the tanks.
[3] The premade tanks are brought to the site to be lowered and placed in the designated area.
[4] Before the tanked are fitted in place, they are first carefully checked if there is any leakage. If yes, the weak points are sealed up properly.
[5] The tanks are orderly connected to pumps and pipelines are laid and connected.
[6] Petrol is transported by oil trucks to the station and pumped into the storage tanks underneath the station.
[7] The construction of the station at ground level is next underway. Racks for selling snacks, food and drinks are assembled. The computers are set up for sales operations.
[8] Fixing of oil guns and service booths are carried out.
[9] Lights, air-conditioning, water supply should be ready for use.
[10] The petrol station is at its service.

HONG KONG ATOM

I saw Astroboy (阿童木) on the wall of a double-decker on April 14. It looked something like those lego toys on Legoland.
Long time ago, I bought several boxes of lego for my children. Not only I was an active player in assembling these colourful bricks, my son also liked to build out of these bricks. Soon I will be working with my grand-daughters building houses, police station, post office, fire-station and so on. I hope my granddaughters can create a mini town for themselves.

Another Study of Cara Cara Oranges

Today I bought 6 small Cara Cara oranges from W Supermarket. They were packed in a plastic bag with a net weight of 2.5 pounds (1.14 kg) and cost $13.9. Each orange averaged $2.3.
Let us see how Sunkist advertise this produce of U.S.A.

More Natural Nutrition – I agree because oranges are rich in Vitamin C and good for nutrition.

Distinct, Rich Pink Colour – Yes, it is different in kind with other oranges. The colour of flesh looks red, but when the juice is squeezed out and collected, it turns out to be a dark pink colour.

Perfect as a snack or for use in seafood and poultry dishes to add colour and flavour – I will urge Philip to add the orange juice to the food he cooks.

Cara Cara – The Power Orange – Yes, its power comes from its fragrance and taste. Complex and interesting!

A Floral Garden

Felix Ching grows his garden plants at his backyard. His backyard is not big, but there is a great variety of trees and shrubs. The spring scene of flowers cheers him and his family. Although I live thousands of miles away, I can perceive the beauty of his floral garden from his photos.

Here they are from left to right -

Top row:
(1) A Plum tree with pink flowers (李樹) - Normally, it flowers in the early spring.
(2) A Colorado Blue Spruce - It is a medium-sized evergreen tree with needle-like leaves and cones.
(3) A Japanese Maple tree - with leaves in deep purplish red

Bottom row:
(4) Cherry Blossoms in beautiful huge pink flower clusters, variety "Kwan Shan" 櫻花 (關山品種), currently in full bloom.
(5) leaves of the Japanese Maple tree
(6) Ching Sir uses half-wine-barrels as big containers for plants

In Spring, Felix's garden is full of colours - pink, red, green and colours that we may not think of.

Legoland Exhibits

The above photos show a Lego exhibition at City University some time ago.

The scenes of Japanese houses are marvelous sights created by legos. I have to praise the brick-makers of Lego and the constructors of this lovely Japanese miniature town mixed with modern and ancient building skills and structures.

The details of sakura, bridges, rivers, rocks, roads, railways, trains, roads and even the statue are impressive. I want to own one such lovely Lego town, but my home is too small to accommodate it.

Please double-click the collage photo to see the details.

Pistachio in Italian food

Italians have good ideas in merging Pistachio into their food. The chewy texture and flavor of the nuts have added much fun and won the favour from the people of Italy and tourists worldwide in the following drinks and food:

(1) drinks such as cappuccino and pistachio juice
(2) tarts and cakes
(3) Ice-cream
(4) creamy rolls
(5) mixed with cream inside bread
(6) paste/jam
(7) large round pistachio cakes which can be sliced into sectors

Pistachio

The modern pistachio nut (開心果) was first cultivated in Western Asia, where it has long been an important crop in cooler parts of Iran. Its cultivation spread into the Mediterranean world by way of Syria. The nut was introduced into Italy by the Roman consul in Syria.

More recently, pistachio has been cultivated commercially in Australia, New Mexico and in California where it was introduced in 1854 as a garden tree. It was not promoted as a commercial crop in U.S.A. until 1929. The earliest records of pistachio in English are around roughly year 1400 with the spellings "pistace" and "pistacia". The word pistachio comes from medieval Italian pistacchio, which is from classical Latin pistacium.

Pistachio is a desert plant, and is highly tolerant of saline soil. It grows well when irrigated with water having 3,000–4,000 ppm of soluble salts. Pistachio trees are fairly hardy in the right conditions, and can survive at temperatures ranging between −10°C (14°F) in winter and 40°C (104°F) in summer. They need much sunshine and well-drained soil. Long hot summers are required for proper ripening of the fruit.

The bush grows up to 10 metres (30 ft) tall. It has deciduous pinnate leaves 10–20 centimetres (4–8 inches) long. The plants are dioecious, with separate male and female trees. The flowers are apetalous and unisexual, and borne in panicles.

The fruit is a drupe, containing an elongated seed, which is the edible portion. The seed, commonly thought of as a nut, is a culinary nut, not a botanical nut. The fruit has a hard, whitish exterior shell. The seed has a mauvish skin and light green flesh, with a distinctive flavor. When the fruit ripens, the shell changes from green to an autumnal yellow/red and abruptly splits part way open. This is known as dehiscence, and happens with an audible "pop". The splitting open is a trait that has been selected by humans. Commercial cultivars vary in how consistently they split open.

Each pistachio tree averages around 50 kg of seeds, or around 50,000, every two years. The trees are planted in orchards, and take approximately seven to ten years to reach significant production. Production is alternate bearing or biennial bearing, meaning the harvest is heavier in alternate years. Peak production is reached at approximately 20 years. Trees are usually pruned to size to make the harvest easier. One male tree produces enough pollen for eight to twelve nut-bearing females. Harvesting in the United States is often accomplished by using shaking equipment to shake the nuts off the tree.

The photos show the pistachio trees that grow in Sicily, Italy (the thickest tree is the oldest in the area), the green-to-yellow-to-red fruits before they are ripe, the beige-coloured shells and the seeds when the shells are removed.

A Practice of CCSC Handbell Team

Here is a recent practice of CCSC Handbell Team. Please enjoy listening to their playing two pieces of music.

Good news comes that our handbell team won the silver award (1st runner up) in 亞洲校際手鈴及手鐘大賽手鈴中級組 this Monday.

Cara cara Navel Oranges

What I discovered, a few days ago , at one of our supermarkets in Hong Kong were the Cara cara navel oranges. They come from Sunkist, U.S.A. What interests me most is its red flesh. The colour and texture look more or less like that of a grapefruit.

As you know, grapefruit is a little bitter and less sweet. These Cara cara oranges are less sweet, but not bitter at all. I like its light sweet taste. At the time of eating one, I imagine I were eating a “specially sweet” grapefruit.

Let us look at the origin and characteristics of these oranges from Wikipedia:

The Cara cara navel, or red navel orange is an early-to-midseason navel orange believed to have developed as a cross between the Washington navel and the Brazilian Bahia navel. Discovered at the Hacienda de Cara Cara in Valencia, Venezuela in 1976, the parentage is apparently uncertain enough to occasionally warrant the distinction of a mutation, with only the tree on which it was found—the Washington navel—being an accepted progenitor. Cara caras did not enter the U.S consumer produce market until the late 1980s and were carried only by specialty markets for many years thereafter.

This medium sized navel is sweet and low in acid, the flavor is more complex than most navel varieties and has been described as evoking notes of cherry, rose petal and blackberry.

From the major growing regions, South African cara caras are ready for market starting in August, Venezuelan fruits arrive in October and Californian fruits make their seasonal debut in late November.

I am happy that this kind of oranges has arrived at Hong Kong. I hope I am one of the supporters of these wonderful oranges.

The photo in the bottom left corner shows two kinds of Sunkist navel oranges from U.S.A., the ordinary ones and the Cara cara. They look almost the same. How can we distinguish the two kinds from each other without cutting them up?

The Pretty and the Ugly

Here in display is a pretty peacock which shows her beautiful feathers to visitors at the Japanese Garden, Sydney. It is rare to see this kind of scene unless we have the patience to wait for this precious moment.

The peacock is spreading her feathers out like a fan. At a glimpse, tens of eye-like patches of green, blue and yellow spaced out evenly. What is the peacock thinking at this moment of her feather display?

The body of peacock looks pretty too because the green and the ‘peacock blue’ match in perfect harmony.

The back view of the peacock is a completely different picture. The look is just ordinary. Perhaps its mate always looks at it from the front.

In one of the photos here, a pretty and an ugly bird meet. The former is the peacock and the latter is the emu. To describe the emu, I will say that the bird is wearing a light brown fur coat of feathers, nothing attractive to its spectators. Its beak is much bigger than that of the peacock. Maybe it is due to the reason: the emu eats more and the peacock eats less.

Please click at the collage photo to get bigger views.

Emu and Kangaroo

Let us see the lovely Emu and Kangaroo that appear on the Coat of Arms at the Parliament House, Canberra as well as those real ones at Koala Park, Sydney. It was interesting that we could feed both animals in the same park.

The emu that we saw at Koala Park in December 2006 lived with a lamb in the same enclosure. At first I puzzled at the patches of green painted on the lamb. After deep in thought for a while, I supposed that it might be easier for recognition in case the lamb had run away.

When Ho Keung was feeding the lamb with some bread through the fence , the emu was so clever as to bump into the lamb so that the latter lost the bite at the bread and it snatched and swallowed the bread instead. This showed us that the emu we saw was clever. From my observation at the park, an emu has a long neck and a thick body. Its feathers are not as colourful and attractive as those of ordinary chickens.

The kangaroos at the park were very tame. They did not fear of humans at all. Some drank water from an aluminium sink. Some lay on the ground leisurely as if they were sun-bathing. Some small baby kangaroos stood beside their mother and one even climbed back into his/her mother’s pouch for nursing or milk feeding.

Ochre Restaurant

Ochre Restaurant is located at Shields Street, Cairns (凱恩斯) , Queensland, Australia. It serves seafood as well as traditional Australian food.

Of all the food placed on the long platter of food in the bottom left photo, the main interest comes from two wontons of crocodile meat.

The red roasted meat of emu with cheese on top may attract those customers who aim at tasting the large flightless bird on the Coat of Arms (symbols) of Australia.

The fillets of kangaroo (another representative animal on the Coat of Arms) look very much like beef with a meat pate at the top.

The prawns with chilli sauce create another desirable dish.

棘杜鵑

棘杜鵑(Bougainvillea)的原產地是秘魯、阿根廷、巴西等國。

棘杜鵑為常綠蔓性灌木，生長力強。樹枝可向上生，亦能垂下當為籬笆花。大紅、粉紅、紫、黃、白色的，祇是包葉花苞，真正的花朵是白色的，體型實在很細小，成漏斗狀，一生三朵，故又名三角花或三角梅。包葉薄如紙，也叫紙花，正名是南美紫茉莉。

在香港，棘杜鵑與杜鵑同時在三四月盛開。因枝上有刺，故叫棘杜鵑。在南洋則花期很長，可開整年，花重又重 ，故叫九重葛。