The Crystal Eyes of Cerok Tokun

I move on. I enjoy talking further with nature. I have to let go the beautiful past in order to appreciate a better now.

Why not? You see, I am not too old to be surprised by these seductive winks. It is in fact a triple bonus in a row.

The ferns must have known the world better than me from inside out. I am a very happy man though not being able to interpret the answer thoroughly.

Can you see? This is the place I visit every week. We exchange breath with each other. It is a really amazing feeling and an essential moment.

The mystery of Cerok Tokun is refreshed now and then every each time these crystal eyes come and go. They move around day and night; as time goes by, the thickness of the books grows.

The Eyes of Cerok Tokun

I was told I can find myself in the eyes if snapping without flash, so I zoom, I continue to zoom in, unfortunately I find myself not being reflected.

Nature is mysterious; the books of nature are now stacked as tall as Cerok Tokun, so much so that I have not, and shall not read her wholly.

She must have actually kept her eyes on me every moment when I am at Cerok Tokun. This is a new found secret that I would like to share with you.

If you visit nature one day, try not to use flash, tell me then whether you are trapped inside her eyes. Tell me how you feel. Tell me how our world is looking from inside out.

We have then only finished reading one page of the first book.

Weaver ants and us

These Weaver ants came out from my book of nature. I chased them back while they were stretching their necks peeping the surrounding, and before they started to weave their nest in my house, on my bed and on my body, and before they crawled from my toe to my forehead, and before they called my home their home.

I flip to chapter 11092010, they seem to live a normal life over there.

Some of us make our way up to the top of Cerok Tokun, while the others are descending.

At the same time, we would limit ourselves to a narrow path though it can be in fact wider. We always follow our experience or the pheromones trail.

When I am climbing up the guardrail to gaze over a sea of clouds, one of the ant never miss the chance to enjoy the same.

The ant then pass the story to other through tapping with the antennae. We also tap on each other's shoulder, and telling how good the weather is and blah blah blah.

Finally, we are alone; and somehow it is good to be alone for some time.

Wednesday Musing

Where does the time come from?

It twists and turns through a long dark passageway, and it is now when arriving in front of us. Does it lose momentum on the way then we have a longer day? Do our times come from different routes thus we have different moment of truth in a same day?

A piece of fallen wood was frozen in action by a thin but mighty web, where can I find my web to freeze the flowing of time?

(The Blue Monday continues til today)

We are part of the Zoo

Out of sudden I saw this sardonic smile while taking pictures of the monkeys. What did this mean? Did it indicate contempt, rudeness, mockery or malice?

They were staying at the top of a tree in front of me. I thought I could defend myself by swinging my backpack if something should happen, and I saw this one grinned sardonically, so I knew I should not provoke in a same manner.I continued with my shooting carefully.

It was only this scornful tongue that I knew I was surrounded by a colony of monkeys. I must have accidentally intruded into their territories.

I backed off silently, quickly and immediately. They are monkeys.

If you think you have to take a trip to the zoo to keep up with me, I shall say no, no and no. Take a big step backward and pull your camera back, both you and me are actually living in a spherical zoo.

And today is just another Monday in this zoo.

The lives of a stone

"..While yet the rolling earth abides, Men come and go like ocean tides.."

Nu Wa, a goddess in Chinese mythology, mended the heavens with refined stones at the very beginning of the world. With the help of a monk, the only stone that was left abandoned at a mountain was then transformed into a piece of jade and descended to the worldly world. It returned to the mountain in its original form finally, but with stories of these three lives being recorded on it.

This was described in the preface of the book "The red Chamber".《红楼梦》: 石有三生: 思凡－悟空－归情. 因空见色，由色生情，传情入色，自色悟空.

It is a norm for me to ponder over and aver again each and every time I pass by these stones at Cerok Tokun. They seemed to be very mysterious to me with unknown stories archived deep inside.

I may go into their stories if I lay myself on them.

My Canon 100mm F2.8 Macro Lens

Macro photography reveals the detail of the small worlds which seems so familiar but is actually much unknown to us. It magnifies our excitement at the same time.

I like the feeling after pushing myself to the limit upon reaching the peak of Cerok Tokun. It is like releasing my final breath and ready for another rejuvenation. It is addictive. Similarly, macro photography is addictive too, but instead it makes me feeling like losing my last penny and cent: I have bought a Canon 100mm F2.8 macro lens recently.

This dragonfly welcomes you to turn its pictures into your desktop wallpaper. The more it appears, the more I’ll justify my investment.

Of course, I have put myself as one of those in the nature again. I used to assume so each and every time. They never complain no matter how I talk about them. Do you remember I have claimed that a mushroom has been climbing up a tree? It never writes a letter of protest since then.

Kingfisher

It started to drizzle but I decided to take a chance; I continued to cycle around the sport complex in Kangar knowing that birds, though never participate in any games, must be perching here and there in this quiet place, in the morning.

I was proven right when a Kingfisher was spotted beside a drain. There were no fish inside this small drain. I knew that, and it should know as well.

It changed my simple understanding about a Kingfisher in the next minute: a "fisher" catches not only fish, this king feeds on centipedes as well.

But then, is a butterfly a piece of butter that flies? Maybe a butterfly will let me know the next time I visit Cerok Tokun.

A Desperate Fantail

I met this fantail early in the morning at my in-laws' place in Kangar. My experience tells me that it should be very alert to human being; it was not true this time.

I had had enough close-ups of it; I even move around for some different angles without fearing of losing it.

I used to test their response by inching closer during photography, but it was this fantail that tested me this time, thus there were countless funny body languages all the way.

It tried to think and to judge the situation; it would not leave anyhow.

It flew away, only leaving the post and landed on the nearby black bin.

We met each other for the first time; it never had my track record. I was not labelled as a good guy on my face, even if I was, it could never understand.

So, what had made it ignoring the potential dangers and stayed for so long on the ground? There was no magic trick nor extraordinary power by me, except a mesh of rotten oranges laying between me and the bird.

We used to say: Men die for wealth, and birds die for food. There are endless examples on the portion of human being, but I only grasped the meaning on the later fully after today.

To you, Ratty

They are with you, Ratty. Please do take all the time that you need to recover.

They are thinking of you and sending good wishes your way. They are praying for you.

They have their own way to cheer you up!!!

Have a good rest and they will do all the actions. If anything involves squirrels, just say it. They will help to iron out this simple problem.

They are sending SMS to the being that made the universe ; you will see rainbow the next moment you look at the sky.

I shall be away for two days without reading and commenting in any blogs.Hope all will be well, hope you get better by the time I am back.

By the way, are you willing to accept their hugs?

Fern's Reflection

Thanks to the rainy day, I see reflection in the sky.

Though not a crystal clear piece of mirror, I can see the reflected images of fern leaves.

This is another casted image that shows how mighty the mysterious fern leaf is; from a single crozier that unfurls into multiple fronds that in turn release all the lives that went into hibernation centuries ago.

These ferns grow in abundance at a higher altitude, and every one of them get reflected. I wonder whether anyone of them is called Narcissus? Has this Narcissus seen its reflection for the first time?

On the other way, if Li Bai, one of the greatest Tang Dynasty Poets, managed to see the reflection of moon in the sky, he might not then opt to dive into the river in order to dredge it up.

If you happen to hike at Cerok Tokun, you have to exert yourself and go further up until you see my favorite ferns. Spend some times there, take a look at them, you will be inspired, and thus welcome to the gaga club.

Sometime Somewhere

Day in and day out, sun rises and sun sets, you have your, and I have my stories, and the same story may be interpreted differently at different time.

I see the same thing as I hike along, and "there may be nothing new under the sun, what is old is new to us and so rich and astonishing that we never tire of it".

I always have a brief stop at my secret corner looking at the bees zipping about from one flower to another. The same porter weeds that I used to see appeared differently this morning.

They seemed to dance under the state of stillness; wind was not blowing, the only thing that is blowing is time itself.

I tried to search through my old photography archive; I should have taken the pictures of a tree sometime ago.

I remember it was never as naughty as now to show a Playboy logo at its very top; but I failed to prove that my memory is good finally.

That tree may change again sometime later . Sometime later I'll definitely change, and so you will.

They had started the attack

I always like to indulge myself in day dreaming, so much so that I saw mushrooms parachuting from nowhere and making their landing at Cerok Tokun this morning.

They must be on a secret mission.

They landed on a slope,

They then moved up the slope trying to look for cover,

and finally hid themselves behind a piece of leaf.

"Why do they follow me to Cerok Tokun?

What is their secret mission? Are they going to study who I am; whether I am a fake philosopher a hiker an adventurer a dreamer a photographer a silly little old man....?

"Ahhh...........!!!!!!"

They had started the attack.

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"Where am I?"

"Where are all the mushrooms?"

It is a shock to find both of

my

my legs are having fungal infection. The mushrooms have implanted themselves into my body; they are going to have an in-depth study on me.

How am I going to explain this to my doctor?