Home Grown Purple Corn & Millipedes

It was sometime end of last year, I went to the plant nursery to buy garden soil for a friend and at the same time to pick up a few sachets of edible seeds. Among them was a sachet of purple corn seeds. I couldn't remember the price of the sachet of purple corn seeds and when I germinated the seeds. There were only 5 to 6 seeds inside the sachet. Out of these only 2 seedlings made it.

This was taken on the 4th January, 2021. I placed both seedlings in 1 big pot.

This photo was taken 21 days later (from the 1st photo), There were 3 ears of corn. As you can see, even the silk is purple in colour.

I waited till the silk turned dark, almost black before I harvested the first ear of corn.

It is not big and rounded, so I didn't expected much from this ear of corn.

I peeled off the husks to reveal the corn on cob.

This is the 2nd time I planted purple corn and this is deep purple corn. The 1st time I planted purple corn, it was not fully purple. It was a mixture of light purple with different shades of beige and yellow. If you are interested, you can click here to read the post.

It is not fully formed, with some parts without any corn kernel on the cob. Since I only have this single corn on cob, I ate it raw as it is and it is sweet and juicy.

Purple corn silk and streaks of purple on the husks.

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My sister-in-law (hubby's sister) wanted to buy Tambun pomelo and have the pomelo sent by courier to her house.

Hubby got in touch with his contact and here we were collecting the pomelos. At that time, these men were unloading freshly plucked pomelo from the lorry (truck). The pomelos were weighed, labelled, wiped clean, and placed into different baskets.

Since we were there, I bought 2 pomelos for my sister and also 2 for myself. Hubby and I love to eat pomelos.

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The following photos and video were sent to me by a friend. She took these photos and video on one of her morning walks.

Photo credited to Shirley T.

2 types of millipedes.

Photo credited to Shirley T.

I have a lot of the black millipedes in my garden.

Photo credited to Shirley T.

I don't know whether the black millipede was attacking the red millipede or inter-mating.

Video credited to Shirley T.

Thank you, Shirley for your contribution.

Linking to Saturday's Critters and Garden Affair.

Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us,

let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith;

if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching;

the one who exhorts, in his exhortation;

the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal;

the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

(Romans 12:6-8, English Standard Version-ESV)

Thankful For A Blessed Day

First, I want to wish all my friends and readers:

HAPPY EASTER & A BLESSED WEEKEND!

I woke up just before the alarm clock went off. It was another warm day and we wanted to start our walk early.

 We were out of the house by 6:30 am.

This is the best moon image I can get with my smartphone camera.

 Fried rice vermicelli with pork and prawns for my breakfast.

Fried flat rice noodle with prawns and egg for hubby's breakfast.

My tall okra plant with the long okras.

Reminds me of "Jack and the giant bean stalk" story. 

Red okra plants bearing fruits.

 This morning's harvest from my garden.

 Accompanied a friend who wanted to eat the above for lunch.

Roast pork, bbq pork & stuffed intestine (siew cheong) & rice.

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I tried out a simple crunchy peanut jam recipe.

 This was the result. Good, but a bit too think.

Home made peanut jam to eat with bread.

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The weather is too warm, not in the mood for home cooking.

This was our dinner. 2 pieces of chapati (Indian bread) with spicy sambal and sardine curry, 10 sticks of satay (bbq chicken) and 1 glass of black coffee with ice.

Chicken satay with peanut sauce.

Vertical garden.

A friend sent me this image of a millipede from her garden.

Then, I sent this image to her of this millipede from my garden.

Whoever uses this stairway will have to get my approval.

Linking to Saturday's Critters.

So use every piece of God's armor

to resist the enemy whenever he attacks,

and when it is all over, you will still be standing up.

But to do this, you will need the strong belt of truth and

the breastplate of God's approval.

(Ephesians 6:13-14, The Living Bible-TLB)

My Garden Guests And Pests

We can have all the healthy and beautiful plants and flowers in our garden but our garden will never be complete without our garden guests and pests. I think they come as a package because naturally all gardens attract these guests and pests.

I have taken photos of my garden guests and pests. Today, I will share some of the photos with you. I will start with my garden guests.

Saw this honey bee enjoying my Japanese rose.

A dainty yellow butterfly/moth fluttering around my Water Jasmine plant, moving from flower to flower. I don't know how to differentiate between a moth and a butterfly.

This one looks like an abstract art piece. I think this looks more like a moth.

Another pretty one settling on my blue plumbago plant.
This one likes to pose - it changed position for me.

This cute, delicate one in white with fine green lines on my blue plumbago plant.

A brown one clinging onto my miniature hibiscus flower.

A bigger one, darker brown and spotted with purple and white.

Posing for my camera.

This is one of the few bird species that frequent my garden but I do not know the name. This is the best photo I can get and so far the only photo that is presentable. The birds are so alert and the slightest movement will put them to flight!

Looks like a big housefly, not exactly the same as the common housefly.

A glowing green fly.

A lady bird on my bird's eye chili plant.

A small glossy black beetle?

One morning after a rainy night, saw these delicate white parasol mushrooms sprouting out from my garden soil.

Can anyone tell me what this is? A worm/caterpillar with a black cap.

Another unknown insect on the mulberry leaf.

Below are the unwelcome guests or pests that I do not want to be in my garden because they do a lot of damage to my plants.

Baby garden snail that can eat up my baby plants especially chili plants overnight.

And this green glutton fella can totally batok or bald my plants.

This nasty hairy thing can cause terrible discomfort, redness, swelling, itch and even pain once it touches our skin.

This tiny black insect can cause harm too. Once I was cutting off some old hyacinth twine and 2 insects fell on my neck. They left behind 2 red spots, very painful, burning sensation and later turned to 2 dark burnt scars on the skin which took quite a while to heal.

Initially I left this alone. I didn't know it can multiply so fast! Later, I found these all over my garden, especially in the soil of my potted plants! Now I am thinking of ways how to get rid of them. They ea and destroy the young roots of my plants.

Once it is touched, it curls up like this - I have seen the big black sized ones in Fraser's Hill which were more than 6 inches long! Scary!

Is this a locust or grasshopper? Saw this on my blue plumbago, sometimes on my orange bauhinia plant. It is not easily frightened away. It is about 3 to 3.5 inches long. I used water to shoo it away but it came back again.

Spotted another one again, or could it be the same one that I saw earlier.

Oh no! One morning when I was watering my plants I saw these tiny grasshoppers on my plant and fence. This is only part of it.

And also on my kaffir lime plant (limau purut). Fortunately they haven't started their work of destruction yet (chewing and balding my plants). The first thing I did was to turn on the tap and hosed them away. Later I saw a few still sticking around and I hosed them again and after that they didn't come back again.

Linking to Saturday's Critters.

"I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten

- the great locust and the young locust,

the other locusts and the locust swarm

- my great army that I sent among you.

You will have plenty to eat, until you are full,

and you will praise the name of the LORD your God,

who has worked wonders for you;

never again will my people be shamed.

(Joel 2:25-26, New International Version-NIV)