The Photographic Garden Diary : April's Camellias

This year all Camellia have  by some unknown collusion  decided to flower at the same time:

Hagoromo in pots on the terrace

detail of Hagoromo flower

Shiragiku

Dr. Burnside

and Mary Phoebe Taylor. She sheds her blossoms complete which give a nice still-life picture together with other leaves from a copper beech and a Magnolia tree above her: 

 

In recent years their flowering time was spread out between December/January (Hagoromo) and May at the latest (Shiragiku) with Mary Phoebe Taylor (end of March) slightly before Dr. Burnside (April). We have no explanation for this year's anomaly.  

We had planted tulips in autumn. My idea was to have them accompany the Rhododendrons with some light pink/lavender low on the ground in May. I had chosen the late tulip "Cum laude" supposedly to bloom late in May, on 40 cm stalks - I bought them on the market from a Dutch vendor with large open vats full of bulbs. My fault: what came out of the ground was a bit surprising: a light reddish-pink early tulip, in April, quite large and on rather long stems. I have no clue what its name might be. 

(in the foreground is the well-scented Narcissus poeticus)

So far we like it and find the combination with Dr. Burnside and the red maple pleasing. It adds some red colour to the lower parts in the garden and gives Dr Burnside some grounding, making it look less artificial in its  red splendour. A few solitary bulbs of "Cum laude" seem to have been present in the delivery, albeit flowering earlier than proclaimed - what an odd mix! 

Plant of the Month : Dicentra

Dicentra spectabilis, in white or pink, flowers this month until the end of May. In Germany the plant is called "Tränendes Herz" (the translation would be: "weeping heart" or "dripping heart"), its English name is: "bleeding heart". It is an old cottage garden plant, a bit out of fashion now, which may be due to its renaming to the unpronouncable "Lamprocapnos spectabilis".  When I showed this plant to my young daughter, years ago, when she was about 4 years old, she misunderstood and her face lit up: "Oh - träumende Herzchen - dreaming little hearts!". 
Whether dripping or dreaming - these plants  have a fine delicate beauty, not only in their flowers but in their finely dissected leaves as well. Their season is short-lived: after flowering in April and May, they will withdraw for a long rest of nine months underground, to reappear the following spring. 

This is the pretty blue-grey leaved variety Dicentra eximia "Stuart Boothman": 

A climbing version is Dicentra scandens with tiny unobtrusive yellow flowers, no great decorative garden merit except for the plant collector as an unusual and rare rather sensitive plant. Its fine threads and delicate leaves are easily torn and overlooked when they come out of their winter rest to start climbing. It flowers a little later, in June. 

Here it grows through my rose Ghislaine de Feligonde. 

Luang Prabang - Kuang Si Waterfalls

Another stop on the tourist circuit from Luang Prabang are the waterfalls of Kuang Si about 45 min drive along country roads. Here a tributary to the Mekong descends in three tiers over a height of nearly 80 m down into several beautiful small pools where swimming is possible. The typical turquoise colour comes from the calciferous rocky underground. The lush tropical forest surrounding the water falls contribute to the fairy-tale atmosphere of the place.  

There is a path up to the top on both sides of the waterfall. We went up on the right hand side, a very steep and slippery climb, sometimes on hands and knees ... we were hoping, we would not have to come down the same path. 

On top, the view was a bit disappointing: 

don't go near the fence ...

although some people do.... 

The way down on the left hand side was easier, in meandering serpentines and partly constructed with wooden steps. 

Street Photography

"Street photography" means to mingle with the traffic and disappear in crowds, stroll around without purpose and always be on the casual look-out for unusual moments, where human life, nature or architectural elements  communicate and come into fleeting contact in an unsuspected, unusual or surprising way. 

Hongkong is a perfect spot for this pleasurable pasttime. New York, Berlin or Paris are similarly fruitful as is any large city with lots of activity. 

Here are a couple of cat pictures that I gained from an afternoon when in Hongkong on a "city safari". 

Street signs can be a worthy subject:

 a fishy cigarette break 

trouble, trouble - time for a "Seelensauna"

....  Italian moments ...

or some Graffiti

and again from Berlin : 

A Loss

Kurt Mattern

27. Dezember 1929 - 7. April 2016

We lost the head of our family, my father-in-law, peacefully, but sooner than we had expected.
He grew up in Langenau, Silesia, nowadays Poland. His character was influenced by the loss of his home and everything material after WWII, by flight and expulsion. Through hard work and diligent studies he became an engineer and found success and happiness with his family and his six grandchildren, in whose welfare he took vivid interest, recording details and family gatherings on picture and DVD, giving career and other advice and himself leading an exemplary life with his wife in a happy marriage of nearly sixty years, with modesty and dignity. He is sorely missed by all his family. 

The Caves of Pak Ou on the Mekong, Laos

The Mekong provides the livelihood for very many families in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. An interesting essay in the "Economist" (Febr. 13, 2016 http://www.economist.com/news/essays/21689225-can-one-world-s-great-waterways-survive-its-development) highlights the problems of this river whose spring is across the border in the Chinese mountains north of Laos. 

From Luang Prabang it is a short boat ride upstream to the caves of Pak Ou on the steep banks of the Mekong river. Pak Ou has been a worshipping site for centuries. 

The caves consist of two accessible rooms, one hidden up on the mountainside and one visible from the boat. Both are decorated with a multitude of Buddha statues. 

lower cave

                  

  The upper cave is very dark but well worth the climb.

On the way to the caves, tourist boats routinely stop at a place called "whiskey village". Here, locals create their own rather gruesome concoctions involving dried scorpions and small cobras supposed to help predominantly the male half of the human race ... no one wanted to try .