Macro Flowers - The flower of passion.

Who could be unaffected by this flower, the passion flower. The first time I saw this flower, I was intoxicated...both with passion for the passion flower as well as by the sweet aromatic fragrance that it exudes. It  was at least 15 years ago when I planted my first passiflora vine. I vividly remember eagerly scanning the vine for fresh buds. The appearance of each bud filled me with  giddy expectation. The mornings found me waking up early just to have my rendezvous with this spectacular beauty. Today, I'm no less enamoured. You might want to meet her, so here she is, the flower that fills me with passion...PASSIFLORA INCARNATA.

To view more Macro Flowers, do visit maiaT by clicking on the link at the bottom of this page.

Cydista Aequinoctialis, my garlic vine

My garlic vines on my pergola have started blooming! I'm so happy. That is why I have decided to flaunt the flowers on Tootsie's Fertilizer Friday, and at the same time bring  these blooms to their Debutante's Ball at Carol's Garden Blogger's Bloom Day. My blooms are just shy, young debutantes waiting with trepidation to be introduced to the world of blooms today.

This is the pergola my husband made for me,on his own, without any help! My vines are flowering to thank him for me.

'Garlic Vine' is the common name for Cydista Aequinoctialis. 
Let us see if Miss G-Vine has the 'genealogy' which is appropriate enough for her to be accepted by polite society.


FAMILY : Bignoniaceae
ORIGIN : Tropical America
SIZE : medium vine 6' - 8'
LIGHT REQUIREMENTS : full to partial sun
WATER REQUIREMENTS : average
MIN. TEMP. : low 30's
FLOWER : spring and fall
COMMENTS : when crushed, the leaves smell like garlic 


Oh-oh, I spot a tiny problem here, she might be a little off-putting at a ball if she smells like garlic. Hope she's not crushed when on the dance floor!

The vine flowers only twice a year...what  shy, shrinking violets!

When they do flower, they do it in style and in profusion.

These delightful flowers last only a few days on the vine, appearing lighter in colour each day until they turn fully white.

This one's for you Tootsie, for giving me a chance to flaunt my flowers!

And this one's for you, Carol. Thanks for hosting this meme.

If you wish to see more blooms, click on the Fertilizer Friday and GBBD links at the bottom of this page.

Sky above the Highland Temple

I have been watching the sky, wherever I go. These photographs I took were from the top of the Genting Highlands in Malaysia from the temple grounds.











For more Skywatch Friday, click on the Skywatch Friday link at the bottom of this page.

Patterns of Phalaenopsis Orchids

The repetition of similar shapes in the petals of the orchids below make a fine pattern in four different colours.These phalaenopsis flowers would make magnificent gift-wrap paper, prints or the cover of a magazine or a book.


All the plants below were posing coquettishly at this orchid nursery called "The World Of Phalaenopsis" waiting for me to capture their stunning patterned images.

For more patterns on Blooming Friday, please click on the Blooming Friday button to get to Katarina's blog at the bottom of this page.

Capricious Anacapri Garden

The best of sea, sky and landscape - that's what you get when you take a bit of time to walk up to the top of the highest point on the island of Capri. Well, you don't really walk all the way from the Marina Grande, the largest harbour in Capri. You could take the funicular. Or just take a cab...the cabs in Capri are all pretty classy, white open-top convertibles.

The public garden at the peak is named the Garden of Augustus, after the Roman emperor. The garden is built on the ruins of ancient Roman structures. It is a fabulous location for a garden. You'll love the terraced nature of the terrain, and when you reach the look-out point, you can't help but gasp at the scene. It is just stunning! You see the azure waters and the famous clear blue Mediterranean sky.Then you get to see Capri's famous landmarks, the massive Faraglioni Rocks jutting 100 metres out of the water.








How is the Garden of Augustus capricious?

In my imagination, there is plenty going on in the garden that points to capricious behaviour. Just look at the two characters in the scene above. Balzac must have read the mind of the Classical Roman in the background who appears to be confounded by the modern-day woman sharing his part of the Garden of Augustus. Is he thinking this as he gazes at her: "Love is the most melodious of all the harmonies, and we have an innate feeling for it. Woman is a delicious instrument of pleasure, but one must know the chords, study the pose of it, the timid keyboard, the changing and capricious fingering." But what is the sculpture of post-modernist dimensions thinking? Could she be mulling over what Sarah Fielding is quoted to have 'pondered'? "I had some short struggle in my mind whether I should resign my lover or my liberty, but this lasted not long. I found myself as free as air and could not bear the thought of putting myself in any man's power for life only for a present capricious inclination." But the last words for these two conflicting characters must surely come from Shakespeare: "If then true lovers have ever been crossed  It stands as an edict in destiny.  Then let us teach our trial patience  Because it is a customary cross,  As due to love and thoughts, and dreams, and sighs,  Wishes and tears, poor fancy's followers."
And what about this lone statue with the bath towel? Despite streams of human traffic for company throughout the day, he must be lonely. Eugene Delacroix's words ring true for this character above about the capricious nature of existence: "What torments my soul is its loneliness. The more it expands among friends and the daily habits or pleasures, the more, it seems to me, it flees me and retires into its fortress... .When one yields oneself completely to one's soul, it opens itself to one, and then it is that the capricious thing allows one the greatest of good fortunes...that of sympathising with others..."

In conclusion, Walt Whitman's words seem to be the parting message this garden in Anacapri has for humanity:

"Just as much for us that sobbing dirge of Nature,
 Just as much whence we come that blare of the cloud-trumpets
 We, capricious, brought hither we know not whence, spread out before you,
 You up there walking or sitting,
 Whoever you are, we too lie in drifts at your feet."

Enjoy the beauty this garden has to offer, but also let your imagination run wild... this is the Isle of Capri we are in...the island of romance, where you could find your heart's true love 'in the shade of an old walnut tree'!
Blue Italian skies above (sigh...)but for now, as in the song, we have to say, "twas goodbye...to the Isle...of Capri."