270/2011 in lilliput land, originally uploaded by rosipaw.
Couldn’t you just imagine a tiny fairy, with transparent wings, hiding behind this umbrella-like cutie, on the thick and soft, mossy-green carpet 
It seems to be a really good mushroom year. Some colleagues boast about dozens of kilos picked in the forest. Sadly, I am not that keen on eating them but find them interesting to look at on the ground.
247/2011 persistence, originally uploaded by rosipaw.
To have the persistence of weeds! Despite being constantly pulled out, they keep on sprouting, even throught he bamboo carpet on our patio. Then again, it’s also wise to know when to give up, and direct your energy elsewhere.
Mint is going wild in our garden. We once planted a few stems, and they just keep multiplying and taking up more space every summer. We don’t mind really, as we love the smell! You only need to slightly touch the leaves, and the fresh, toothpasty smell fills the air. Lots of mojito nights ahead, I think
I wonder when they will develop digital smell sensations. Extensive audio and visual features already exist – surely it’s only a matter of time? I remember they already had ‘scratch and smell’ history books in the US when we spent a year there back in the middle 90s! Then again, imagination is a powerful tool, too – pictures often evoke strong smells in my mind, just as smells bring back subconscious memories. What a blessing all our senses are!
118/2011 growing cress, originally uploaded by rosipaw.
I got tempted to buy a set of tiny little pots, and packets of seeds to grow my own cress in only 7 days. Well done, Jamie Oliver with his marketing team, for selling them in gardening shops exactly at the right moment!
102/2011 new life, originally uploaded by rosipaw.
Yes, yes, yes – this is what I have been waiting to see for so long! These flowers must have started sprouted under the snow, as the moment the snow disappeared, they were already there, ready to grow. I think they are the mini-daffodil bulbs we saved from our balcony boxes, and planted last autumn.
228/365 a classroom with a view, originally uploaded by rosipaw.
I liked today’s Daily Shoot:
Make a photograph of a plant today. It can be a small one in a pot, a big one in the park, or a tree in a forest.
I take a lot of photos of plants anyway, so this was a good reason to see what was going on with plants around my school and our home. So many other people seem to be into plant photography, too. Obviously, plants offer a wonderful variety of colours, shapes, textures, sizes, changing stages – you name it. They also stay still most of the time. And, of course, you avoid most of the privacy issues that you have to take into account when uploading photos of people.
I chose this picture today, as I see this bush through the window of the classroom where I mostly teach for the first term period this year. I don’t know the name of it (in any language!) but I love the big white blooms – even though they slightly remind me of snow, too (which I don’t like that much!). Whenever students are working by themselves, I stare at these flowers and float into my own dream world.
I think every teacher – and student, too, for that matter – should have something pretty to look at in the classroom. Either a nice picture on the wall, or an interesting or pretty view from the window.
Here is the set of plants that caught my eye today.
215/365 nature’s art on the wall, originally uploaded by rosipaw.
Daily Shoot sent me looking around our garden for thngs growing there.
How does your garden grow? Make a photo of something growing in your or someone else’s garden today.
I then noticed that our vine had started to spread into our neighbour’s wall a bit. I hope they won’t mind as the shapes of branches and leaves and the negative wall space in between look quite artistic and bring life to the otherwise dull brick wall.
Uncontrolled growth often produces unexpected results. I will remember this when the urge to exert too much teacher and school rule control hits me next school year!
142/365 vine, originally uploaded by rosipaw.
Green is the colour of life. Right now it signifies
Climbing by the side of our balcony, this vine is a perennial delight. It has only just turned green, and looks really lovely.
127/365 hairy monsters, originally uploaded by rosipaw.
Before, I had only seen ramboutans peeled in tins drowned in syrup. I had no idea that they looked like this fresh! I needed a lot of guidance to be able to peel them to find the fruit inside. What a treat, though. I love exotic fruit!
Here is a picture of what it looks like inside.
119/365 banana flower, originally uploaded by rosipaw.
Some of us were taken for lunch at Bollywood farm by the principal of our host school. It was an interesting place, built and developed by an eccentric Indian woman. She had her own villa on the grounds, too – strictly closed from nosy tourists by fences and gates, though. The gardens were wonderful, full of the most curious plants, all of which are used in the food in her popular restaurant, too.
I never knew that banana trees have got flowers – and this big and unusual as well! It was a very close afternoon, and soon after taking this picture a horrendous thunderstorm broke out. Luckily, it cleared the oppressive air a bit.
