PATUNGCENDANA

TEO TORRIATTE ... Let us cling together ... Tokyo 2021

Salam and good day,

Oh yes. As a Queen fan, I am very proud and moved that they played Queen's Teo Torriatte at the Tokyo Olympics 2021 opening ceremony.

If you don't know that song, then you might have missed their album 'A Day At The Races' It's a beautiful song, written by Brian May for their Japanese fans

It's no secret that the Japanese love Queen, and this just proves it. They still love queen, just as much as I do.

Sadly, I could not put the video of the opening ceremony here because for some reason, it was blocked. However, I did find a snippet of it in twitter ... here

Hear my song, still think of me the way you've come to think of me.....

Miss you Mr Mercury

QUEEN OF THE NIGHT ... bakawali

Salam and good day,

I walked into my yard early one morning, around 6.30 am and I was greeted by a glorious sight. Glorious because it was such a rare sight to behold.

Yes. I was greeted by the still blooming Bakawali flower or its not so exotic scientific name Epiphyllum Oxytpetallum. Mind you, I was lucky to be able to catch it still blooming as it was already daylight and the flower was already wilting, never to bloom again.

also known as Queen of the night

, Gul-e-Bakavali, Kadupul, Brahma Kamalam, Beauty below the moon

Blooming only once a year, the blooming period is said to be from the end of June till early July, which was around the time I took these pictures. Being a night blooming cactus, they start to open after dusk, around 8 or nine pm and start to fade after dawn. hence the name Queen of the night. Not only that, each flower will only bloom once and only for a few hours.

That is why we will never see this flower being sold in flower shops and florist or blooming in the nursery. They could never make it to the shops. so, they can never be bought in all their entirety, which renders them priceless, ergo, the most expensive flower in the world.

Luckily, there were a few more buds that hasn't bloomed. I waited 2 days for them to bloom.

so here it is, the Queen of the night in all its glory, captured on 21.06.2021 at 11.35 pm

Oh, did I tell you about the scent? How would I describe the scent. It is soft, warm and sweet, and it perfumed my whole yard. Heavenly.

However, if you are an avid believer of the paranormal, smelling the Bakawali scent in the middle of the night would definitely make the hair on your arm stand up and send you scrambling indoor. Incidentally, just a few moments ago, a booming thunder cracked the sky. I nearly jumped out of my skin. Well, I guess that's my cue to stop.

REFERENCES:

https://ms.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pokok_Bakawali

http://ipgmktar.edu.my/etnobotani/2018/10/22/bunga-bakawali/

https://www.nst.com.my/news/2015/09/moonlight-beauty

http://pplh.ulm.ac.id/id/2020/02/28/15-bunga-terlangka-di-dunia/

HAWK-MOTH ... oleander or jade

Salam and good day

3 hari lepas, sewaktu saya sedang mengemas bahagian hadapan rumah, saya ternampak setompok daun melekat pada eksoz motor anak saya yang sudah tidak digunakan. Namun, sewaktu saya mendekati untuk menyapu daun itu, saya dapati yang ia bukan daun, sebaliknya seekor kupu-kupu yang agak pelik rupanya. Pelik bagi saya kerana tak pernah terjumpa kupu-kupu seperti itu.

inilah kupu-kupu yang saya jumpa

Selepas mengambil beberapa photo, saya biarkan saja kupu-kupu itu. Out of curiosity, saya google gambar species kupu-kupu di Malaysia, namun tiada yang padan. Saya google pula rama-rama di Malaysia, sama juga, tiada padanan. Lama juga lah saya mencari, berpuluh-puluh gambar kupu-kupu dan rama-rama yang saya tengok. Akhirnya, saya google 'moth' dan saya dapat dua gambar yang agak serupa dengan yang saya jumpa.

species pertama adalah Daphnis nerii, the oleander hawk-moth atau army green moth dari keluarga Sphingidae atau hawkmoth.

Oleander hawk-moth/daphnis nerii
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphnis_nerii

species kedua adalah Daphnis hypothous, the jade hawk-moth, dari keluarga yang sama.

Jade hawk-moth/daphnis hypothous
https://tpittaway.tripod.com/china/d_hyp.htm

Apparently, terdapat sedikit perbezaan antara keduanya, tetapi, saya bukan seorang entomologist, jadi saya gagal membezakan antara kedua species. Menurut cucu saya yang berusia 9 tahun, ' the top one has the same pattern, but, the bottom one has the same colour'.

what do you think?

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphnis_nerii

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphnis_hypothous

https://tpittaway.tripod.com/china/d_hyp.htm

CORONAVIRUS RHAPSODY ... stress buster

Here we are , bracing the third wave of Coronavirus. still WFH.

Anyway, I found this while browsing for Queen videos, and I just have to post it. Lyrics by comedian Dana Jay Bein, performed by Adrian Grimes, music by Queen obviously. Just a bit of fun to see us through these gloomy times. Enjoy.