The Scarecrow

Welcome!

My Home And Me

This, right now, right here is my home and me. Just takes a minute to be there. Wherever you are, even at the end of the world, whenever you want to, dinnertime, even bedtime. You can come in your daily wear, barefooted, or on slippers. You don’t need to travel by plane, train, or take a car. Just ring my doorbell
http://www.leisurelyreading.blogspot.com/ and there I am and so do I look like.

Leave anytime you like and in a minute you’ll be back home.

Chew GH

My Photo?

Why? Do you want to see my photo? Do you want to see a scarecrow?





The Scarecrow

Self Portrait

And I were jealous,

And I feared,

And I desired the forbidden apple

And I fell

And hurt myself.

Kin to those who’re so human,

To all creatures, all life.

I am Nature’s Child.

My Brainchildren

Blessed with a loving mother’s kiss, they enter into the world.

A Wild Grass Flower

A Wild Grass Flower

My "Morning Glory"

Happy to be welcomed by hundreds, thousands crème-colored wild flowers along the path-way. How pure, how fair, how fresh as a glorious morning. I name it the “Morning Glory” of Indonesia,

March 2011

Note: I will get a picture in the meantime.

My Morning Glory

The Congea

The Congea*

Certainly, the orchid is excellent, exquisite, yet love I the congea more. She looks like an orchid, soft purple colored, a beauty with inner winning ways that doesn’t come to the fore-ground. Warm, rich in full bloom, so fair as a veil up in the air, so charming as a crown adorning a woman's hair.

And I remember the Edelweiss on the Gede mountain, so beautiful that I wish I could hand a branch of it as a bouquet to my bride.

February 2011

March 2012

* Lest I should forget. I'll get - difficult to get one - a picture.

Creek In Cinangka

Creek In Cinangka

Pantai Indah Kapuk

Pantai Indah Kapuk

What The Digital Camera Taught Me

What The Digital Camera Taught Me

I went to Rancamaya in the country and took a shot with my digital camera of a magnificent forest on a hill with giant trees grand with age from a distance. Back home I “played” it back and tried the many picture positions possible and what I found besides the original picture was beyond my imagination. I found beautiful weeds, (like reed) with plumes, “alang-alang” we call it, just so close before me, so artistically framed.

The digital camera taught me to see beauty what I didn’t see before. And it’s just but one and I think there are a many more in the same picture. I haven’t time to explore them all as I have almost 50 now.



August 2010

Original

Just Weeds Says Someone

Lovely Weeds

How grateful and happy I was for having seen, visited this charming world on a little plot of earth before my feet, my eyes.

Just weeds, says someone.

A spot in Cinangka

Cinangka 2

Cinangka 2

Oh, what a joy and I’m just starting to learn it as I think of shooting wild plants, trees, weeds, lovely weeds I call it, having no name, almost unnoticed, unknown, forgotten, except as harmful weed to be extinguished, cleared out.

Wild Grass

Wild Grass

Beautiful, yet they're weeded out as dirt.

Lovely Weeds

Paradise On The Water

Paradise On The Water

Lovely reflections on the water, what I didn't notice before.

Unnoticed Reflections

Paradise In The Sky 2

Paradise In The Sky 2

Rustic Cross-over

Rustic Cross-over

After ten years when I'm ninety then these ricefields, wild plants, this water way, cool air are no more, but the coming generation would never feel it as a huge loss. They never have heard a cock crow, seen a mother chicken with her little chicks, a squirrel, the manyar bird and their boot-shaped nests,   the twitter, warble of birds, ...

The beautiful village Cilenggang, Kapuk, Pluit region, Cipanas ... is no more. All around us,  buildings, roads, real estates, malls, pollution, trafic jams and stress while there's almost no one who would sorrow, defend the sad situation.  



A spot in Cinangka Valley

Lovely Weeds 3

Lovely Weeds 3

You would hardly notice them on the side walk, in barren conditions.




Lovely weeds

Lovely Weeds 2

Lovely Weeds 2

I didn't see them. My Digital camera did it.


Delicate beauty

The sun shines upon you, the rain bless you, artists would paint you in beautiful lines and colors, poets would sing of you, the wind gently rocks you to and fro and butterflies, bees, damselflies, … gratefully kiss you.

Paradise In The Sky 1

Paradise In The Sky 1

Needn't go to the end of the world to find a paradise.


                             Beauty against the sky

Could Find A Paradise Almost Anywhere

Could Find A Paradise Almost Anywhere

I was practicing an oriental health exercise by walking barefooted on “planted” stones in Monas Park. As I lay down on the stones on my back to have my back also “massaged” on the stones, I got a new, wonderful view of the trees with their branches, leaves as something of a beautiful silhouette painting, embroidery against the clear sky. I never observed in that way before and I thought that it would be wonderful to have my bed in the garden and view the trees, the stars, the moon and clouds. As I turned and lay down on my side, I saw the people exercising, walking without feet as though gliding on air. How wonderful. Viewing the world in this way, in a lying down position was new to me.

Viewing from above on a plane I saw the clouds beneath me as wonderful giant icebergs or an enchanted city or country as in the tales of Thousand And One Night.




I saw, felt the beauty of spring when the Mahogany artistically was sprouting new leaves, as delicate as a Chinese painting of plum blossoms or was it cherry blossoms in winter, yet without being in Europe in spring. And I thought of flower arranging. But this was by Nature’s hand.

I remember the exquisite beauty of the blimbing with hundreds of red tiny flowers perching on her stem and branches. And a branch with blossoms of the Lamtoro tree, so fine, so “fragile” with hovering little bees on its woolen-like small round flowers was as seeing a paradise in the air. Not to say of seeing a paradise in a flowering coconut tree from close by, or a paradise in the showers of blossoms of the King-palm tree or the showers of red-, white-, black-colored berries of the Buni tree.

Yellow "Berries"

And just before my feet there was a paradise in the water, formed by a rivulet. Wide, clear and very shallow, so that each grain of sand could be seen, little water palms here and there and the grass half under water and a bit fresh green of algae and an only little fish, the Kepala Timah, Cupang, Beunteur, and there was a blue damselfly perching still on a grass leaf rising from the water or hovering still in the air. And the water further flowing imperceptible, silently, endlessly into a streamlet again to new paradises. How live that water was as compared to water from our taps, fountains or swimming pools.
Then, I saw another paradise in the distance. How green the paddy as a giant carpet, the tall trees surrounding it. How fine to walk, how cool is Nature’s park. And I thought of Adam and Eve wandering beneath the trees, enjoying the streamlets, the fruits, hearing the same birds, feeling the same cool air, wind, seeing the same sun, stars, moon, clouds as happy, delighted, enraptured as I am now.

Paradise against the sky

I’m so grateful as I could see, find a paradise just before my eyes, my feet without searching for a Paradise to the end of the world.


I could find a paradise anywhere. They are in my pictures.

July 18, 2008

The Sad Fate Of The Lotus In Lake Kemuning

Whose Is This Planet Earth?

Is it a matter of course that we should claim it to be ours only? As though other fellow beings on this heavenly body have no right to it? As though we’ve got the authority to judge, to decide the question of their existence, to leave those that don’t harm us in peace or ignore them, or to exterminate those that plague us until they become extinct? Even the lovely Lotus will have the same fate as they are regarded as a harm by the village people when they fill up the lake Kemuning, while there's no one to protect them.

Like the pest that plague our paddy and Lamtoro trees, or rats, locusts, weevils, flies mosquitoes, cockroaches, weeds, narcotic herbs, piranhas, sharks, alligators, tigers, … as though they’re mere evil and have no good at all. Is it their fault to be fated as pest, weeds, sharks, …?

Aren’t we the  greatest plague that haunts other creatures: poisoning innocent, harmless insects and birds through aerial spraying of pesticides with effects worse than the Bophal or Chernobyl disasters or chemical warfare? The harm pests inflict on us would be but a trifle as compared to what we inflict on innocent living things. We are destroying the habitat of flora and fauna, polluting rivers and seas without any consideration for the well-fare of the creatures. We are the generators of much of their calamities and of our own disasters as well.

As our world population rises steadily, the population of many kinds of creatures dwindles rapidly.

Whose is the land, the oceans, the air,  the Arctic and Antarctic? Penguins on Malvinas have as much right to the island as Argentine or England.

Some day we’ll settle on the moon, whose will the moon be? I insist, the earth, the moon, the sun, the stars, the heavens are for all being, human beings, animals, insects and plants as well. All want something like our human rights and to be treated as worthier citizens of this Planet Earth.

The Jakarta Post,  September 18, 1986                   

March 2011

Lotus In Lake Kemuning

Cinangka

Cinangka

“No Sundays, research 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. After every two years the manufacturer has to create a newer model of his car, and of every computer type that is just to be marketed, a newer computer type should be ready, since the life-time of each kind of product is becoming shorter and shorter. Then it is imperative that national productivity should rise from day to day.”

So something like that is said about the Age of High-Technology in our foremost paper in Jakarta with eye-catching head-lines as though to persuade people to join in this movement. It said that business war became fiercer and global. As though man should be raised, trained, formed to become something of a robot, a tool with a high productivity.

“Wow, if welfare, comfort, in that age should be got, be bought with such an inhumanly way of working, as though a machine, on the contrary would I make every day a holiday. There’s no day that’s not a holiday. Leisure time 24 hours a day, 7 holidays a week.” So Pak Arif jested.

I would live, stay in the beautiful Ci Nangka Valley where the Pasanggrahan river passes by, plant, talas, ground-nut, nangka, manggis, mango, … plow my paddy field, tend my buffalo, start learning to play the kecapi, (Indonesian zither) and unlearn what I’ve learned, instead of learning to become a very pintar (clever, smart) robot who lives in a jungle of concrete and towering sky-scrapers in dreary cities with a climate of high-technology.

What I would like of high-technology is that it should be capable of making one work just one day a week to support his family and still be able to travel abroad. Make the student capable to study just one day a week to make him able and pass his exam before the time schedule. Could abolish poverty from the world, make the earth fertile, green and have the people, all creatures live in a happier world.

But not such high-technology that would make man fuss and busy with pressing, preying on one another in a killing competition so highly insensible.” said he.

From Jayakarta, October 13, 1992





Cinangka country road on my travels on a bike. Observe the Scarecrow.

Blimbing Blossoms

Blimbing Blossoms

Tiny blossoms as tiny as a matchhead.

Angon

Angon

Today have I angon-ed (herded, tended) my dogs, yesterday my rabbit, in earlier times my children. Angon is a great joy. I remember a Chinese painting, painting the happiness of a boy just in his trousers, sitting on a trunk of a tree, playing his flute, his slippers below and his buffalo wallowing in a pool near him, I also remember the lovely sound of the flute in the song, ‘Der Hirt Auf Dem Felsen’ (The shepherd on the rock) by Schubert. So do I know the happiness of shepherds and the beauty of the flute. Otherwise wouldn’t have I a share in these joys.

See them live in You Tube: chewginhoa, Rice Field And Two Bufflows In Cipondo.

Lovely Weeds 1

Lovely Weeds 1

Weeds don’t need to be planted, don’t need any care and can thrive even in barren conditions with hardly any soil needed. They can keep themselves alive, - potted plants, can’t -, soften, freshen barren dusty sidewalks, decorate borders of ditches and waterways, cover, drape neglected walls and waste land with their lovely greenery.

Pantai Indah Kapuk

Pantai Indah Kapuk





One day in the future, I believe that the camera will be so supreme that we could wear it on our head or our face as glasses which could “see” exactly as what we see. Then would I wear it on my bike travels and anyone, my wife my sons, daughter, friends could “bike” with me, share the wonderful views, the joys on my biking trips, tell you where I am just by clicking to my camera “station”. But that’s in my imagination.

Yet, with my digital camera now, am I content as I could  have my photo’s in my  photo blog.

Si Upik

There’s No One Who Would Not Love Belo

Si Upik And Belo

Belo, the unwanted, neglected little doggy is so ugly. He looks like a little devil from a distance, is squinting like a cockeyed chicken, one hind leg is crippeled, one eye is blinded by a cataract. Taken up home by si Upik he became so lovely, so loved.


When Belo clumsily walking, almost limping, with squinting eyes, moving his head slowly sideways, then gladly stands on its hindlegs to be fondled, hugged by si Upik there’s no one who would not love him. Yet, he is not as smart, could never outdo Hachiko who came every day to the railway station, waiting about 9 years for his master to return who never came back. Yet Belo isn’t less lovable and si Upik would never, ever exchange Belo even with Hachiko.


Suppose we would give him his freedom, he would rather say: “If I could be free to want, I would want not to be free forever if I could stay with si Upik.”


Healthy, happy and free makes even Belo, every one, every creature beautiful, lovable as is a happy coral fish so free in the sea. It would unhappily languish, die in an aquarium.


April 2010

Lovely Woman

Lovely Woman

“When I cycle to Pantai Indah Kapuk, pass by the marketing office of the real estate, I stop and look from a distance for a long time at her. She didn’t get angry or wasn’t being offended for that. She’s so beautiful, so fair, so slender as only a feminine heavenly being could be, standing in a corner waiting for me. Now, don’t you be jealous. Anyone could see her, but there’s not even a man who would care to see her. Isn’t it a shame? What do you say,you little fool?” So spoke Opa Johan to his wife.

“You’re just boasting again.”

February 2010

Shadows On Pavement

Shadows On Pavement

Bougainville

Bougainville




Bougainville in combination with "nuts"

 

Lake Cipondo

Lake Cipondo

Trees

Lake Kemuning

Lake Kemuning





Lotus Lake Kemuning

Original

Lotus Lake Kemuning

Happy to be welcomed by hundreds, thousands crème-colored wild flowers along the path-way. How pure, how fair, how fresh as a glorious morning. I name it the “Morning Glory” of Indonesia,

Yet, lovelier is the flower I met on the hill in Cinangka. Greeted with a charming smile as in a dream. Not dressed as stewardess, not educated as university student, not as Mona Lisa in a frame, not sitting in a luxurious Mercy, bare footed, without slippers, no make-up and just living in a bamboo hut. That’s, Eve, as jamu (bitter-sweet-hot drinks) vendor.

As a lotus flower in muddy waters, Eve is the most lovely, charming sight.

Lotus

Duck Weed




Duck Weed



You could find it often in Jakarta in former times as they beautifully cover up still waters, ditches, gullies but now it is a very rare sight. I have to bicycle  to  Cipondo to fortunately find them in a drain with stagnant water covering the dirt in it.







Overlooked before

 

Welcome



Pygmy Tree



What A Joy Is Learning
(shooting)

I recently started to learn to handle a digital pocket camera, perhaps the most simple one. But I was amazed. How wonderful it was. I could take beautiful country pictures on my way on my bike and take it home, play it back without going to the foto studio to make the foto’s, up to almost 1.500 shots. The pictures could be enlarged, moved, up and down, left and right. It could present if calculated, each one about a thousand possible picture positions, show it on TV or computer, print, send somebody by e mail, save it in internet and it can even do video recording.

Oh, what a joy and I’m just starting to learn it as I think of shooting weeds, lovely weeds I call it, having no name, almost unnoticed, unknown, forgotten, except as harmful weed to be extinguished, cleared out. I have no intention, pretention to be scientific, that is for those that are clever. Of shooting caterpillars, butterflies, dragonflies, lizards, chameleons, insects, birds, … a lovely girl. Besides, shooting works of art and have my own art gallery in my computer or camera.

I imagine that there will come a time when we’ll have an all surround-video camera, recording pictures covering the entire surroundings including sounds, scent, it’s coolness, the air. We then are as though back again on the same space, same spot while sitting in the room. How wonderful to see it live around us, only we can’t touch them. But that is for our grand-grand-grand-, … children to enjoy.

August 2010

 Welcome