Japanese Carpenter Bee is quite ok with nectar from the mango blossom...it pays to be not to fussy during the lean season.
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The rice farm is occupied for about 5 months of each year in the rice crop. For the remaining time it is usually idle. This year there was some water available so we tried a cash crop of sweet corn.
It grew beautifully. Unfortunately the crows were observing progress and so they spoiled about 20% of the crop...most of the profit! At Prasat town market, fried food is extremely popular.
Looks like the vendor is his own best customer... I found the little Olive-backed Sunbird on the ground, when I investigated after noticing noisy, distraught parents in the tree. Na located the nest and put the chick back in it. The parents settled down and started feeding their chick again, despite our close presence.
The next day the chick was still in the nest, and the parents were attending it. Perhaps it all turned out well... This nest is about the diameter of a golf ball. After many weeks of hot, dry weather that has turned Singapore brown, there was a sudden respite in the form of 2 days of soaking rain...it may not be too late for the grass and gardens.
Singapore does not seem to have a system for watering public gardens during times of drought. It is common for builders to live on-site at their job.
Here is their temporary home, which they will occupy for 6 months or so while building our house. This structure, which was built in a few hours, comprises: 1. unwalled livingroom, 2. dormitory, 3. perishable building supplies store, 4.outdoors kitchen. Two charcoal burners provide heat for most of the cooking in this lean-to kitchen. Na's dad makes the charcoal, which makes it very cheap fuel.
That brick/concrete wall is the party built retaining wall that is intended to keep our 4000 cubic metres of added soil from washing away in the monsoon rains. Soon the builders will undertake the beautification of the top half of the wall that will be visible above the raised level of soil Night...the day's work is done...fish have been caught in the pond, the camp fire is nearly ready to do its job of cooking the fish soup that will flavour the rice...
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