Lush Greens after the Rains

A month through our rainy season and green is happy everywhere. In our property, only the cemented roads are not green. The wild weeds are not yet blooming, but preparations for the blooms are happily developing. In a few weeks, blooms will be all over.

It definitely is also easier for animals to breath as more and more oxygen is produced by the lushly growing greens. I am so lucky our province is not really very far from the city where i worked, just a few hours on land will bring me home for a cleaner atmosphere for breathing. It is so wonderful to breath without hitches in the nose and throat. And this leads to a clearer mind,  wholesome ways, and wiser decisions, hopefully! Why do we usually get out of the concrete jungles for a taste of the forest or the beach during some breaks? That is to be away from the madding crowd, get that most sought after vacation, and breath well.

 Our property in the province is on an undulating topography. Our house was dug on a slanted hill with plants above us and others below us. This is the vertical drop wall behind our kitchen. This wall is composed of solid rocks, rough rocks, and some soil, parent materials undergoing rapid weathering. During the dry season, nothing is growing here, the bare rocks exposed. But come rainy season and the almost 2m wall comes back to life. Maybe of all the people in our household, I am the only one who loves this immensely. A lot of ferns, silaginella, mosses and a lot of mixed weeds are growing here.

Above are mostly maidenhair ferns starting to grow on another mossy phase of the wall.

a part of the front ground gets so soggy and had difficulty in draining 

 The small street a few meters from us luxuriantly grows the colonizing cogon, Imperata cylindrica, and the talahib, Saccharum  spontaneum   .

 This has not been this lush last year, but full sun exposure allows them to fully grow and invade. The shorter ones in front is the cogon, while the greener and taller  ones at the back is the talahib.

 At the end of the rainy season, this is fully blooming with white typical blooms of grasses, lovely against the blue sky and swaying with the breeze.

 The new leaves from my Cycas edentata, showing very luxuriant growth, as if fully keeping the blessings of the rains. New apical growths usually start after the first heavy rains.

New fruits are developing while the old ones are maturing. Fruits mature in more than one year. Not many fruits develop because I don't know of any male plant near us. I am actually unaware yet where the male inflorescence that fertilize them is located. The pollens are just serendipitously brought here by the wind. 

 Volunteer taro or Colocasia esculenta are growing profusely too. Last year they are mostly eaten by moths' larvae, seems like this time they are spared. But we have a lot of these clumps of taro in the property, so a lot are available for the moths.

This is a clump of the turmeric or yellow ginger, Curcuma longa. A lot of turmeric roots are sold in the market lately when it became famous as a very good herbal medicine even good for cancer patients, increase activity of the immune system, good antioxidants and much more. It is also used in commerce as the famous curry powder for cooking. However, i have not gotten roots from here, as i still buy my own turmeric powder.