11 years together

Today is our 11th anniversary. It has been an eleven precious years of our marriage and we are blessed with three kids and a good life. For that, I should always revise my Alhamdulillah , every moment, be thankful and grateful for everything we receive in this life.I've talked about how me and hubby met and be together in Love in a pomelo so ... dont worry i wont talk about it repeatedly on every anniversary...:-)..like usual on every same date i feel that i have the whole bunch of everythingto talk about but when i try to put it into words... everything seems never come out...well a few things are better left unspoken..

Be true to yourself

I have been subscribing to pravworld.com for quite a number of years. This is the random quote that the website send me today:

Be True to Yourself

Never compromise your values and beliefs,
even it if means risking ridicule and rejection.

Be true to yourself. Live your own life.
And don’t allow others to decide what is best for you.

If you do, you will be unhappy, because, you’re untrue to yourself.

Shoot by a policeman?

I am reading a news about a boy, AminurRasyid Amzah who was shoot be a policeman, the boy look perfectly innocent.Only Allah knows what actually happened: http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/130328

Jade Vine

common name:Jade Vine
Botanical name:Strongylodon macrobotrys
Family:Fabaceae/Leguminosae
Other name:Tayabak(Philipine),Jade climber,
Origin: Philipine

A special evergreen vine with jade to blue flower. one thing uniue about this plant is the color was so green blue that you could hardly find in a plant.The structure also really looks like a artifial flower, at first i thought that they purposely hang the artifial flower to the vine.

Jade vine is a native plant in Philiphine and grows in wild in the tropical forest. It prefer neutral to acidic soil. in term of light we can grow jade vine in full sun with some shade in the mid day. Jade wind nomally grown over a pergola or trellis where the upper part is facing the direct sun and the lower under the shade.

a close up of Jade vine flower. This plant is attractive to bees, butterflies and birds. it can be propagated by stem cutting and seed.

Other link:
Jade vine at melur.com

Aster

strawberry

strawberry is definitely not from malaysia, only can be found grown at highland in Malaysia that has a lower temparature climate such as Cameron higland , genting higland and Ranau in Sabah

Our maid-to-be met with accident and passed away

The maid supposed to join us by early next week . Everything has been ready including all imigration procedure but yesterday she met with an accident while riding motorbike at her hometown and passed away. Eventhough we haven't know her personally yet, but our heart go with her and her family. She was a widow and left behind 2 kids age 8 and 5. Life must be difficult for the kids.. without mum or dad around to support them , especially financially.

Life and death, there is no rigid line between it. When the time come, no matter we are ready or not is never be a question, it will happen. now we are laughing and savour all the good moment in life , suddenly in another split second we can lie motionless and lifeless. for a second something came across my mind. i kind of regret because i was delay-dally with the decision making process. if not she have already be here by then and wont meet with accident. However, Everything happens for a reason and only Allah knows what He has arrange for us. Al Fatihah to her.

i remember i've wrote in one of my blog entrance years ago: The Distance between hapiness and torment is just a blink of the eyes

Jasmine aka Melur

original post date: Thursday, August 24, 2006

Jasmine is one of my favorite flower.Jasmine or Melur in Malay language is a sweet smell with flower belong to a shrub herbs.

I have 2 var of jasmine at home. duke of tuscany and maid of orlean. Between those 2 the latter has stronger fragrant than the former.I plant jasmine in pots in my front garden.Jasmine is actually quite easy to grow. you must make sure water is sufficient and to ensure it blooms more expose it to the full sunlight. I'm living is a tropical country so sunlight all year round is not a problem. I give the jasmines flower inducer once a months. I cut the old stem ( where the flower drop) once a month so it will turn bushy.And to encourage it to produce more flower , harvest the flower frequently ( this is my tips and my own belief...:) you can call it mitos)I believe if we appreciate the plants, they will know how to return the favour back.... hahaha...I pick the flower every day after coming back from work and put it in a bowl of water. This can make the flower release it scent throughout the night.

And jasmine is good for your heart too. You can make tea from jasmine buds the same way as lavender buds. Pick the buds before it blooms and let it dry naturaly. After 2 or 3 days your can keep the buds in air tight container. Just add 2 or 3 buds to your cup of tea. It will strengthen your heart plus it can cool you down from a stress day.

Malay old folks always keep the jasmine flower in there 'bedak sejuk' container so the 'bedak sejuk' will smell goooooodddd...Bedak sejuk is a traditional malay cosmetic made from rice.The rice will be soak in the water for months before the water will disolve it into a tick paste.The tick paste then will be drop on daun pisang and left to dry under the sun. When it was fully dry, bedak sejuk will be kept in air tight container. the water have to be change regularly until the rice start to disolve ,so it will never produce a stink smell ...which is very2 stink. when i was a kid i try to make my own bedak sejuk but i forgot change the water for almost a month, and i can tell you i'm almost vomit when i open the container. That's my first and last attempt to make the bedak sejuk.

To aply the bedak sejuk , dissolve in a few drops of water and apply it on the face.The cooling effect of the bedak sejuk is very soothing to our face. You have to try it to beleve it. It also can eliminate excess oil from our face hence prevent the acne.

alamak...why i'm talking about bedak sejuk now. I'm suppose to talk about my jasmine.better stop now.

Welcome to the 32rd weeks

This coming week is the 32nd week of my pregnancy. Since this is the 4th pregnancy nothing is so new about this one.But eventhough this is the 4th one the feeling of scare, ancious , afraid and excited is still there. I hope everything goes well for this one same like the others.

My youngest now keep one asking when the baby will come out and why it took so long for the baby to come... you wait la girl... when the baby comeout you'll sure ask the baby to go back into mama's tummy....hik hik hik.

i've been subscribing to babycenter( http://www.babycenter.com/) since my first pregnancy. in someway it helps me alot to keep track on the progress of my baby and pregnancy stage ( Again...this is not a paid commercial incase you guys are curious ...:-) but well if babycenter wants to pay me... i'll be very grateful... hihihihi).

Last week i have a very major urat (vein) problem that force me to take MC for 1 day and burn the whole weekend suffering. I cannot even change position since every time i move my vein start to feel like it has been pulled and it's so painfull. I never experience this in my last 3 pregnancy... its damn painful mannn... feeling like cannot breath everytime it happened and it happened very frequent.so i went to a midwife for a massage and after 2 session it's better. aside from that i went to see the doctor and he prescribe me with 'vitamin urat' . so actually i dun really know which one is actually made me feel better.

Another 2 months to go and i'm so excited and start to prepare for the arrival of the new baby in our family...after 5 years its kinda of thrill to hold the baby again. Dear people please pray the best for me....

posting using samsung omnia pro B7330

This is my first blog post using this smartphone.And No..nobody pay me for this entrance incase you guys are curious....:-).. (i wish samsung can pay me for this) This is My third smartphone in a year. It's not that i'm a techie or always keep myself up-to-date with the current technology, but because of a husband that wants his wife to catch up with latest technology. For me as long as my phone can receive and make a call, sms, ocassionally link to internet that will be ok and enough.But i think coz my hubby always want to give something that i always use, he always give handphone( little that he knows that what i always wants is ***bling***bling***bling***)

So for our 10 anniversary last year he gave me the Motorola moto Q9h smart phone, eventhough i said i dont favour it the phone has been so useful for me and i kinda like it.Then after a year he decided to bought me Blackberry Bold 9700 , yeah.. the phone is cool, everytime we use it in public many people will stare at it and some even said..owwww...blackberyyy... ( i hope i dont get struck by lighting by saying this...:-)). but changing phone is like changing boyfren, when you are excited with new one, you will sure miss the old one ...heehehe(syyyhhh!!!). So i keep nagging about the new phone, and plus if you use blackberry you need to change to Blackberry data plan. The normal data plan that we subscribe only allow us to browse the webpage but cannot do any email downloading or data downloading. I hate to change plan.. and a loyal person...that's why i'm still using my old plan and old provider that i've used for more than 5 years... just top up here and there to the plan only. For 2 weeks i used that blackberry without downloading my emails to the phone. My mind is kind of blocked for 2 weeks... i felt like i was leaving in a cave or something like that. When i call my service provider about changing my current data plan to blackberry data plan , they said i've to pay extra rm38 / month for blackberry license... nonsense.

I guess my husband was pissed off with me nagging about the phone every day... i even said no wonder many celebrities using blackberry coz it suit them( sorry ...:-)), good look, expensive but very restictive and not much function.The only thing that i like most was the mouse-like pad function to navigate thru the page.... but who cares about mouse when your life become so restrictive?

My nag must be a horror and nightmare to hubby that's why he bought me this samsung omnia pro . Honestly this one, is nothing more and less glamour compare to blackberry bold but it suit me..and we still have that blackberry listed at lelong unsold... huhuhu...

Mama's exam day and Syazwani's birthday

So Fuhhh... the most challenging semester has end for me... now i know how it feel when we're pregnant while trying to obtain our Msc part time and at the same time was given a department to handle at work...Damn tiring mannnn.... Luckily one thing has over... today is my exam day for this semester and uhhh... i dont know how the result will be but im glad its over... yeay...

speaking about my master... it's an ashame to me actually. this is my 3rd attemp. the first one was in 2002 i guess....i enrolled for master by research , the research title was similar to the project i handled at work. it supposed to be easy and straight forward but suddenly i got pregnant with my 2nd dotter and my spirit to finish it fled away , go to nowhere....hehehehe... then i thought its ok ... i will hold it first , let the 2 kids bigger and i'll pickup someday. so in 2006 , when the 3rd dotter was a little bit bigger, i talk to my lecturer and she suggest that i do reasearch on bioinformatic for her... on the protein sequencing. she loaded me with books, papers and journal but every time i try to digest it i felt like vomitting, the structure of the protein DNA and the parallel algoritm and codes to sequence it make me sick... it took a bout 6 months for me to give up. I decided the research title was not suitable for me....hehehhe..again? so i inhaled and exhaled... thinking what i can do to push myself to get my master....then suddenly i realized that the USM computer science school was offering a new course , which was quite interesting, the Msc in IT technopreneurship and the good thing was it's mixed mode. means 50% research and 50% coursework, by that way i cannot run away coz the exam will tied me and push me to finish.even better they open it for part-time student too... so here i am now , finishing my 2nd semester , another 2 semester to work on my thesis and research... so dear people ..please pray that my spirit will still here and wont runaway again this time as this is the farthest i've reach so far...

Today is my 3rd dotter's 5th birthday, the last she will celebrate as the yougest adik since after this Insyaallah she will become kakak already...she's so excited baba bought her a talking baby set came with baby carrier, feeding bottle and all sort of baby thing. I guess now, in her room she's sleeping with the baby... i will take a peep after this...:-). we have a small celebration today. Mama was so exhausted after the exam and her afternoon nap before Asar end up to be more than 2 hours. so i just cooked simple chicken curry to go with nasi and roti jala and hubby bought ayamas pepper roaster back home. So aft er eating dinner we eat her bday cake and that's it....

Bunga kesidang

original posting date : Thursday, March 01, 2007

my kesidang (vallaris glabra) is blooming. Every night when i reach home, the rich sweet pandan smell is in the air. Some people who like the pandan smell will really love it.My mother hate the smell, infact she said the smell will trigger her migrain. The smell of the kesidang flower is said to be resemble to the rice smell, describe why in nothern region of Malaysia it is called kerak nasi which literally means rice leftover.The flower also known in western as bread flower, perhaps because of the white color? hahh... just my wild guest.

Kesidang is a climber which make it a very nice companion to your trellis or pergola.It can be easily propagated by layering technic.Layering can be done by pull the branch until it touch the ground or the medium , then put something heavy , like a brick on the branch to make it always touch the ground. after +- 2 weeks, new root will come out for the part that touch the ground. Cut the branch and plant it somewhere else. It can be grown in a pot too...Other way to propagate is grafting. although stem cutting will grow into new plant if you are lucky, by the chance to stem cutting to root is quite low. A little help from root hormone might increase the chances to survive...:)

The leave is quite big, from a far it look like mango leave...:) the leave surface is shiny.Kesidang leave can easily turn yellow and drop if you give not enough water, esp in dry season like now. This the kesidang photo from my garden... Really love the clean white flower with the unique petals and the smellll.....so refereshing....My mother will hate me for this. Next time when she come to visit I'll make sure no buds is allow to bloom....:)

p/s: kesidang is said to be the symbol of malay folks, whic always rich with adab, budi bahasa dan kesopanan.

Corn tree

original post: 2007

Corn tree,sometime knows as iron tree or botanically known as Dracaena fragrans is a very popular indoor plant.Infact we can always stumble with it in almost every office.The behaviour of the plant that need less attention compare to other indoor plant make a perfect choice if you are not a plant lover.

Originated from West Africa, the plant has made its way around the globe. Belong to agave family give corn tree an advantage as it is very strong can tolerate a wide range of climate.the plant prefers low light and high humidity.

The wide leaves are long and arc gracefully from the stalk.The huge and strong stucture of the stem and leave turn it as an attractive green furniture to your room.Dracaena fragrans belongs to Agavaceae family, the same family agave, yucca and joshua plant.Same like others in agave family corn tree too can stand the dry zone.Though in its optimum condition the plant can grow until 20 feet tall, but normally as a houseplant the normal height of this plant is between 4 to 6 feet tall.Ovet time the plant loses lower leave revealing bare stem.D. f. ‘Massangeana’ is a popular cultivar that features a wide central yellow stripe on each leaf.


In tropical climate , it is quite difficult to see corn tree blooming. the flower somehow, very attarctive with the special fragrant any flower lover will treasure.To flower, the plant must be a very mature plant.It should be at least more that 6 feet in height.The flower stalk s emerge out from the center of tthe leave whorl and will extend untill almost 3 feet.the The fragrant is very strong , you can smell it even it is more than 100 feet away, especially in the evening. The fragrant normally will last more than 1 week or even longer if it is keep in the office or well protected environment.

Some people believe that the plant will die after flowering.Well, it is not true as the plant will keep on growing.Cutting the flower stalk when it wither is a good idea to boost up the groth rate.Propagation is simple, it can be done through stem cutting.Eventhough the plant bear fruits(berries type) , normally it is propaged using stem cuttings.If you notice that the leave turn brownish it could be because of to much or too litle water.Eventhough it is a tough plant, sometimes mites can get attracted to it.

Single layer gardenia

Monday, January 08, 2007

Hi...
it's me again...Last few days was really hectic for me...My eldest first days in school. going back to my hometown on the 2 past weekend and not sure whether have to go back again this weekend...Hmm... it's have been some time since i want to talk about my single layer gardenia. Well... most people know gardenia, the white fragrance flower that resemble the roses. But i bet not many people ever see this single layer gardenia. It's really a gardenia, with the smell and everything except the flower only has single layer.Normally we keep on looking for multi layer flower. but for me, single layer gardenia is even more pretty and unique( i like to use this word to describe it...:))

The behaviour, propagation, sun exposure is the same like multi-layer gardenia. It can keep on crazilly blooming if you expose it to the full sun light. Just don't forget to water it sufficiently. Here's the picture of my single layer gardenia. Enjoy it...!!

From Nor's Paradise

Monday, December 11, 2006
Nor's Paradise
my eldest daughter nursery is having a school holiday program and ask me to teach those young fellow how to garden. She's so excited that mama is going to tech her friends so she keep on talking about it the whole week until saturday when my second daughter infected with conjunctivitis. Then , she became so frustated and scare that me and her will get it too. Luckily we are still safe when the day came and she's so happy and eagerly help me with all the pots and garden tools....:) Proud of her mum....hehehe...i still remember when she's small when somebody ask what's her mother occupation, she would always said that mama grow plant...:) some even guess that i'm a gardener...:)

I hope that my daughters will enjoy gardening as mush as i do and as much as my mother do.well.... it's a trait in the family i guess....:)

Blanket Flower-transfered from my old blog: www.norsparadise.blogspot.com

original entrance date: 1/30/07


Haaa....at last i manage to find out the name of the flower that my husband brought back from US.This one is better known as gaillardia(nice name and it suite her...:)) I use to mention flower as her as i feel that 'it' is too harsh.The scientific name is gaillardia aristata. The name is drive from a french botanist name , Gaillard de Marentoneau. This plant is easy to grow in any variety of soil, provided that it is free draining

Daisy on my balcony- transfered from my old blog: www.norsparadise.blogspot.com

Date of original entrance: Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Before move to this current house we stayed in a 15 floor apartment. I'm quite like it, the balcony is facing the hill and before the hill is a shooting range. Very green and eye soothing except it can be very noisy once a week when the army practiced at the shooting range.During rainy season, i can still see the mist covering the hill bringing the cool breeze to our bedroom.I kept quite a number of plant there, on the balcony. plants like mini roses (4 vareties) gerbera daisy (3 varieties), money plant, violet, japanese rose etc. I even grow a grape vine on the trailis that i hooked up to the wall.The balcony is quite big. It's actually 2 balconie linked by a planters box before we combined it into one big balcony.

I enjoy planting on the balcony. But when you gardened at a very high place from the ground few thing that you must consider are, the weight of the pots + the soil + water.So i never use terracota pot as it can be very heavy after you loaded it with soil and water.I have one terracota pots for my aquatic plants, and that's the only one.

Let me share with you a few tips of balcony or roof top gardening:

Bad apple or Late bloomer

My 2nd daughter always bring back home complaints and comments from her school teachers about tak buat homework, cannot concentrate in class... dunwan to give attention and bla..bla.. bla..( well actually they always passed the message thru my eldest) it worries me... no matter how many times it happened.A few opportunity to talk with the school teachers sometimes nearly lead me to a cry (just nearly..hehe hehe). i keep on asking why...why she is so different from her sister. why she cant be like her sister. yaaaaa... i know its not good to compare... but we live in a world of comparison...we compare everything... to survive.while her sister is excellent in academic (wanna show off...she got first place in her school last exam..:) ) and good in co-curriculum and sports too, the 2nd one is totally the opposite. She was moved to 2nd ranking class after she dont want to coperate in the Linus test and submit the test paper blank...uwaaaa.....

The most important thing, i blame my self for that. I dont have enough time to supervise her homework, even when i do i cannot do it fullheartedly as so many thing waiting to be done or if not i'm so tired and worn out of my wholeday paid job. When i checked the exercise book i dont know what the teacher try to ask her to do as she always copy it halfway. I even said once to her teacher, please... you can beat her if she refuse to do what she's supposed to do but the teacher said, no we cannot do that, even you allow it, other parents will make an issue out of it. The worse thing , they even can sue us for beating the kids... uh..like that aaah...?

I always wanna see her as late bloomer rather than bad apple. I can see she's not that type the teacher always describe. At home she's a chatter box , but in school she dun want to talk to the teachers.As i can see she can read, she can write but she wants perfection in things that she did. So if its happens that the letter A that she wrote was senget (uneven) she will erase it and write it again. That makes her unable to finish whatever asked by the teacher. Well, bz mummy wants to write more but its close to 6 am now and i need to prepare for the kids school and work. Need to be more alert today Since yesterday i forgot to bring my laptop to office cos i was too busy holding the kids school bags....theeee heheheheh...

Euphorbia

Fuschia

Lantana

chrysanthemum

Dahlia

common name:Dahlia
Botanical name:Dahlia spp.
Family:Asteraceae
Other name: Tenjikubotan(japanese),peony of india.
Origin: Mexico

Dahlia is a special flowers that has been cultivated since Aztec time (The Mayan tribe). It was not just cultivated only because of the beauty of the flower but more for food and ceremonies.

Nowadays there are approximately 36 species of hyrid dahlia grown as decoratie ve garden plant. Among them are dahlia Dahlia coccinea,Dahlia juarezii. The hybrids commonly found in planted are Dahlia 'Adelaide Fontane',Dahlia 'Appleblossom', Dahlia 'Arabian Night',Dahlia 'Art Deco',Dahlia 'Aurora's Kiss',Dahlia 'Dahlstar Sunset Pink',Dahlia 'Asahi Chohji' and many more.

Dahlia can be propagated from the bulb or the tubers.Normally after flowering the plant will die, leaving the tubers behind. The new plant can be derived from the tubers by digging it back, wash it properly , preferrably with fungicidal solution, dry it for a few days . Then , it is ready to be planted again.Somehow dahlia also can be propagated by late cutting.

The picture here i captured couple of years ago in Cameron Highland.

share your story about this plant by writing the comment

Flame violet

common name:Flame violet
Botanical name:Episcia cupreata
Family:Gesneriaceae
Other name: Episcia
Origin: Columbia and venezuela


The vibrant flame red color of the flower.




a superb plant for hanging basket. make sure that water is enough as keeping it hanging make the water drain faster

Reference:
1. Flame violet at melur.com

Cape honeysuckle

Common Name : Cape honeysuckle
Botanical Name: Tecoma capensis
Other Name : Orange cape honeysuckle
Family : Bignoniaceae
Origin : South Africa, Mozambique

Cape honeysuckle is a flowering vine and climber. Somehow it can be grown independently without any support provided that the branches is prunned from time to time to control the growth.It can be propogated by cutting and seed.The cutting propagation method is much preffered as the germination rate is slightly low.

the plant is a fast growing shrub that can grow up to 3 m in height and spread around 2.5 m area.

See also:
Cape honeysuckle at melur.com

crossandra

calalily

zebra flower

Spider lily

Gerbera Daisy

common name:Gerbera Daisy
Botanical name:Gerbera jamesonii
Family:Asteraceae
Other name:common daisy,Bunga sawi,African Daisy
Origin: South Africa, Africa, Tropical Asia




The plant is really easy to grow, just that some people dont dare to keep it because they feel that the plant as beautiful as this sure ask for a lot of attention, but the fact it, you just water it, feed it it will be enough for it. And the best part is, it is very easy to propagate, the seed will come from the dry flower, and you just sow it and you will get a lot of new plant. I did that last time and i got more that 10 pots (actually i can have more if i have more pots) which i gave to few friends.


Red Daisy in My garden

and it can be use as cutting flower for your dinner table flower arrangement. With proper care it can last for almost 2 weeks. What i did was i cut the flower, then fill a glass with tap water(filtered, no more chlorine...:) then add 2-3 table spoon of sugar...yes... normal sugar. Put the flower in the glass for a very simple but beautiful flower arrangement. you can add fern leave or few strand of ivy to make it nicer.

Rain Lily

Common Name : White Rain Lily
Botanical Name : Zephyranthes candida
Other Name : bunga bawang, bunga lili, white rain lily, fairy lily
Family: Amaryllidaceae
Origin: South Africa

Rain lily is a common garden plant in Malaysia and can be found widely planted as ground cover. The name rain lily initated due to the habit of this plant which normally produce more bloom after the rain. The most

common type grown in Malaysia ia the white and pink flower. The plant can be easily propagated by the division of its bulb.Rain lily does not require much attention. It will die if left without water for a few days especialy in Malaysia hot wheather , but the bulb can be live again after ample watering.

See also:
Rain lily at melur.com

orchids

myriads of orchid

White Mussaenda

common name:
Botanical name:Mussaenda sp
Family:Rubiaceae
Other name: Janda Kaya
Origin: Native

This plant has a funny name in malay language. Janda kaya literally means Rich widow, most probably because the plant alway rich in bloom.

Marigold

White Butterfly bush ( buddleia)

common name:White butterfly bush
Botanical name:Buddleia Asiatica Lour
Family:Buddlejaceae
Other name: Buddleja, buddleia,white butterfly bush, Butterfly bush, Dog tail, winter flowering lilac
Origin: Native

This plant is he Most attractive plant in butterfly bush family.White butterfly bush is a native to eastern asia.The plan is a perennial that can easily propagated by cutting. the most special characteristic of buddleia (sometimes call buddleja) or commonly known in western as dogtail is the heavenly fragrant white flower.

Reference:
1. Buddleia at melur.com

White Plumbago

This f lower is cool. It looks classy and pretty in my eye. Genus plumbago is commonly know as ceraka to the locals in Malaysia. Generall 3 types of ceraka can be found grown or in wild in Malaysia. Ceraka biru or plumbago

Lantern Flower

Bromeliad

Blue Wigs