We have Asia regional meetings in Nepal this week so we decided to come early and have a short family vacation here. I’ll write more about our explorations later but I’ll start with another entry in my flower series. This week is the Dashain festival so there have been marigold garlands everywhere and most Nepalis…
Tag: Flowers
ផ្កាម្លិះ | Jasmine
Phnom Penh has no shortage of olfactory stimulation. Most of which might most charitably be described as pungent. Fermented fish, durian, open sewage systems, and garbage sitting out in the tropical heat are smells that were uncomfortable when I first came. Of course there are also many delightful smells – the scent of rain in…
Flowers of Bangkok 2023
This week we had to make a ‘visa run’ to the Cambodian Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand to get Caleb’s visa. The bright side of having to wait for three days for the Embassy to issue the visa is that we had time to explore the city and visit a few of it’s many wonderful gardens…
Monarchs of Asia
In December 2021 I spotted some rather familiar looking caterpillars on a Crown Flower plant that was growing at the corner on the end of our street. Crown Flower, or Calotropis Gigantea, is a regional variant of Milkweed and, like it’s North American cousin, is popular among a certain regal species of butterfly. Crown Flower…
Flowers of Cambodia 2022
One of the blog posts that I have yet to write is about our January 2022 trip to Battambang province. We went for an engagement ceremony but got to see the sights while we were there including many, many beautiful flowers. In the latest entry of my Flowers of Cambodia series, I’m sharing some flower…
Frangipani
Adrienne, from Plains Mennonite Church, and her husband Adam recently started a MCC term of service in Burundi. I’ve been enjoying following her blog and I was inspired by her recent post on botanicals in which she shared her appreciation for the Plumeria. In Southeast Asia, Plumeria are commonly referred to as Frangipani in English….
From Flower to Mango
Last year I shared the wonders of mango season with you. This year is a bit different. Our new house has two mango trees so it’s given us a closer perspective on the delicious fruit and it’s growth. It’s been a blessing to have mangos raining down on us during this latest COVID-19 outbreak. I…
Lotus Imagery in Hanoi
The national flower of Việt Nam is the lotus. On my trip to Hanoi the first weekend in January there was lotus imagery everywhere. But what special meaning does the lotus hold for the Vietnamese? What can be more beautiful than the lotus in the pond? Green leaves, white flowers, yellow stamen. Yellow stamen, white…
Flowers of Cambodia 2019
Following up on Flowers of Cambodia from ’06 – ’09, here’s a compilation of flowers we’ve seen since returning to Cambodia. I want to highlight a few of these. I think this may be the tallest Orchid that I’ve ever seen. It was at a restaurant in rural Prey Veng province. This was on a…
Flowers of Chiang Mai
Back in May, I shared some of my old photos of Flowers in Cambodia. While we were in Chiang Mai, Thailand last month I took a few photos of flowers there. I was still recovering from Dengue and didn’t get out as much as I’d hoped – but a few are better than none. Next…