Spider?

In the last year I have developed a red spot on my cheek. My friends ask me if it is a pimple. My elderly grandaunts all wail that mosquitoes love me because my blood is sweet (it isn’t, I licked some once). My Pediatrician used a blurry magnifying glass from my CSI kit and had a close look. Guess what it is?

It is a spider nevi. That means a collection of burst blood vessels! I wonder why I am exploding? I might outgrow it and if I don’t, I guess someone can zap it away. Alcoholics have lots of these. I am not an alcoholic. I’m not even allowed coffee!

Anyway, take out your CSI kit. Have a look at this. What do you think it is?

I thought it was a spider, but it wasn’t. It was a nasty crunchy beetle. I tried to catch it but it hurried away!

 

A-a-r-d-v-a-r-k

The Big Sister’s favourite cartoon when she was little was Arthur. I have read all the Arthur books but am not so fond of the cartoons, although I have watched “Arthur’s Perfect Christmas” one million times EVERY CHRISTMAS because she forces me to watch with her.

Arthur is an aardvark. His best friend is a rabbit called Buster. Buster eats everything! One day his mum brought him to a fancy French restaurant and there was a bouquet of parsley to garnish the salad. He asked the waiter what it was and the waiter said garnish. Buster ate it with great relish and then said “Mmmmm I like garnish!”.

I like all my greens and when our helper doesn’t cook enough vegetables, I eat raw coriander and spring onion off the stalk. So Grandpa grew this for me…. Mmmmm I like garnish too!

 

Garden Decorations

When I was in Australia, I went to a huge garden centre called Masters. I saw some solar lights that had spikes at the bottom and insisted on buying them. Mummy said no, they were made of glass and would be a hassle to bring home, but Daddy kindly offered to carry them back so I got my wish! I wanted 12 of the lights but Mummy shrieked certainly not and said 4 or nothing.

So I got 4 lights. Have a look:

 

 

 

 

 

The solar panel is supposed to be able to power the light inside but so far nothing is happening! Grandpa did say for $3 what did I expect?

A Tale of Two Papayas

Have you played the game QuizUp? It’s a game you can play on your iPad or iPhone. You play against a random person and answer 7 questions on a topic of your choice. I like Medicine, Name the Candy and Name the Animal best. Mummy plays Literature (Classics and Children’s Literature), Classical Music and Food. She is also very good at Name the Candy but is a bit embarrassed to tell people that.

Anyway QuizUp is the ONLY game Mummy has on her iPad. My Pediatrician says she does not know why Mummy cannot instal mindless games like she does. Mummy rolls her eyes when my Pediatrician says things like that. It is because Mummy is a Tiger Mum (Godma too) and my Pediatrician is a Meow Mum.

In Literature, there is a very long book by Charles Dickens called A Tale of Two Cities. It is very boring. Even when Mummy tells me just the exciting bits, it is still boring. Today I have a tale of Two Papayas (actually papaya plants). It is not at all boring.

You already know about my first papaya plant, right? I’ve posted about it here, and here, and here, and here. When I came back from the holidays, I was very happy to see how it had been busy!

The photo below was taken from below, sometimes it’s useful to be short. I know not all the papayas look perfect, but that’s just fine.

OK so that was one papaya. The second papaya is a different type – not a Hawaiian pawpaw like the first papaya. Even though the second plant is not even 3 feet tall, look what it has! A Lone Ranger Papaya!

Remember Jonah?

When I was in Australia on holiday, I went to my QQ’s church. QQ means younger brother of my mother in case you are not Chinese. Anyway, one week at church, their pastor spoke about Jonah. Everyone knows that story, right? He disobeyed God and was swallowed by a whale who spat him out in the end (I am not surprised the whale spat him out, I would too). After all that trauma (I learned about trauma from The Big Sister – her driving instructor has been traumatized by her) Jonah decided to be a good man and go do what God wanted him to.

QQ’s pastor had a very low opinion of Jonah. But never mind that. One part of the story that you may not know is that God gave Jonah a leafy plant to shade him from the sun. According to Mummy, no one really knows what that plant was. I think it must have been a banana. Look at our baby banana tree (the baby of our big banana tree that gave us our whale-sized bananas). Just look at the size of its leaves! Jonah would have been a lucky man to be given our banana tree!

 

We’re Purutting Too!

Novice Gardener has recently posted about her kaffir limes. Not to be outdone, our kaffir lime plant which Mummy stuffed into a very small pot, decided to produce flowers and fruit too. Aren’t the flowers pretty?

Just look at the limes, don’t they look just like beads? I wonder when they will get all bumpy like proper kaffir limes?

And finally, my masterpiece artistic shot:

Since the lime plant was so obliging about keeping up with the Novice Gardener, I pleaded with Mummy to promote it to a bigger pot. Mummy was purutty in my hands and so the plant is now in a huge pot. I hope you are not purutoff by my puns!!

 

Here Birdie Birdie

I received a most exciting Christmas present! A birdhouse! Daddy followed the instructions and put it together (that is very good because he is not a handy sort of man) and we hung it in the ficus tree and put some grains of rice (uncooked) inside.

Guess the Fruit in Grandpa’s Garden

Clue – the bats like it. You can tell from the net.

Give up? Here’s another clue.

Yuo. That’s right. It’s lychee!  Grandpa got fed up of the bats that decimated his crop so he threw a huge net over the tree. Guess what? Tha bats managed to eat the fruit anyway!

It’s a Rocky Start to the New Year

Happy New Year, Everyone! I am back from my long holidays in Australia. I am as brown as a berry (although the berries I am used to are blue and red, not brown) and our helper says I have fattened up.

Before you start worrying that I am having a hard time in 2014, let me tell you why it is a rocky start to my year. I am very very jealous. Look what Grandpa has in his garden which he DID NOT EVEN PLANT. Grandma dropped some compost material accidentally in his bangkwang patch and look what came up? 6 of them. All HUGE.

Do you know why these melons are called rockmelons? Not because they are as hard and heavy as rocks. Because they come from Rockhampton in North Queensland.