Birds and The Papaya Tree ...

Aglaia Odorata (Chinese Perfume Plant) -  new growth !

Now that I have a bird nest that I can monitor the progress each day and a small  Chinese Perfume  Plant (see post dd 6/6/2011)  to delight me as I spot new shoots coming out ..... I guess I am pretty contented with my gardening efforts  in general ! 

I suspect the baby birds may have hatched. This morning, the mother bird left the nest and was back in no time. She seemed to be in a feeding posture, standing over the nest with its beak moving left and right in rapid movements, before settling down agin.  The last couple of weeks the mother bird had been sitting diligently on its nest ...and  I envy its patience ! Can you imagine sitting still day after day......?  The bird nest is rather high up on the mango tree, and I dare not venture too near  since I do not want to frighten the mother bird. The  puzzle is  - where is the father bird?  

It  certainly is a nice feeling to know that birds are breeding so my garden is now  officially a bird 'sanctuary'  :- )  ! I noticed that different birds are visiting these days  as well,  this morning there was this small yellow bird with the long beak feeding on the papaya flowers. I hope I get to see more birds and their nests in future. I just love to listen to their songs.

 Beautiful Papaya Flowers 

Oh yes, about the papaya tree? Yesterday morning,  I noticed a white car driving past slowly as if in search of an address or something. I noticed  the same car had gone a couple of times around.  Finally  the car stopped and a sweet voice called out to me " Auntie...auntie" (here in Malaysia it is common to address  people as 'auntie' or 'uncle').  Thinking perhaps the young malay girl wanted to ask for directions, I was pleasantly surprised when  she asked for a couple of  papaya leaves instead.  She explained to me that her friend was in ICU (Intensive Care Unit) in hospital, apparently from dengue fever.  How was she going to use the papaya leaves, I was curious enough to ask ?  She said she would blend the leaves and make it as a drink for her friend.  So was there any other plants that she might need? She said she was looking for some guava as well, but the guava must be that of the type where the fruit flesh was red, not white.  Unfortunately I regretted not being able to help her there.

Somehow after the young lady left  with the papaya leaves, she left behind a good  feeling within me, that I was able to provide her with something from the garden. However this incident also reinforced to me that I should be more vigilant about removing stagnant water retained on the flower pot plates after a rainfall. I certainly do not want to be the perpetrator for mosquitoes breeding and causing harm to someone! Also it  occurred  to me that perhaps I should be growing plants with medicinal value in case one day someone comes searching.  That was what my mother said when I asked her why she was growing all those herbs when she had no use for them. She would read those  Chinese magazines and newspaper articles on herbs, then when she saw any of the plants sold in the market she would buy and plant them.

Leaves cut for a good cause

Update : 31st August 2011 :  In today's paper  I saw this article " Doc: Papaya leaves can cure dengue" (check out this linkhttp://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/8/31/nation/9402609&sec=nation).  Interesting ... !