Beautiful Sunday: visiting my neighbours and admiring their flowers.

The afternoon was pleasant with clear blue sky and warm sunshine. I decided to cycle along the dirt road to visit my neighbours to check out new orchid blossoms and other flowers in bloom. They told me two weeks ago that new orchids would blossom and I should take some photos. I was so lucky to have kind neighbours who liked to show off their flowers. The two sisters lived in houses next to each other. Their parents divided a big plot of land among five siblings. So, two sisters lived had their houses built next to each other’s with a connecting gate so they could get in and out of each other’s house easily.

The older sister and her husband had an old style Thai house built on the land over ten years ago. The youngest sister who married a wealthy American had her house built about two years ago. This family’s house looked very grand and expensive as money was not a constraint for them. So, they could have big old trees planted in their garden and had people to design their garden and do landscaping. We were shocked by the high prices she had paid for all the work on the garden. She was used to spending dollars which made prices in Thai baht seemed very cheap. Recently she had realised that various people had been over charging her for everything and some builders didn’t completed their work project properly. It’s rather sad to know that some people liked to swindle rich people’s money.

I had to see my wealthy neighbour to enquire about the repair of the water pipe. One of her gardener had damaged the pipe supplying water to my house, the leak had affected the water pressure and flow of water. We also found out that the workers didn’t install a new water pipe for her house; they connected a new pipe from the pipe leading to my house to save time and money. The job was badly done and leaking problem had began to seep to the surface. So, I had to wait for my neighbour to have new group of builders to repair the leak and lay a new water pipe for her house.

After discussing the water pipe situation, we went to admire new orchid blossoms in her garden. The two sisters seemed to have a competition on having the best orchid blossoms. The elder sister had been doing gardening for over ten years so her garden seemed more well organised and well established. The younger sister had bought lots of pot plants from nurseries and ordered fully grown trees for landscaping her garden. So these big trees needed some supporting frame as the wind could be very strong during rain storm. Within two years these trees have started to bear fruits.

Her orchids seemed to be doing very well; they liked to grow on mango trees. So, I would have to put some of my orchids on mango trees as an experiment. These small purple blossoms were very cheap and they grew very fast being attached to mango tree barks. So, my neighbour used a sharp knife to take new shoots for propagation. She gave me a small baby orchid in a pot and I put it on the mango tree later on. The annual town fair would take place in early march so my neighbour planned to get more orchids from the gardening stalls.

Lately, I have found that shopping online for plants and saplings seemed to be very reliable and satisfying. I had discovered that many plants and trees I bought from the market during the annual fair tended to die after a few weeks. After digging up the trees, we found that these trees saplings had very few roots. Most vendors didn’t own a nursery at home; they just bought newly cut and treated trees in bulk to sell at the fair. These plants looked very good during the first week as they were given lots of chemical fertilisers and boosters.

On the other hand, online shopping has gathered many nurseries with hundreds of pot plants and trees from genuine gardeners. But the cost of transportation could be very expensive. So, it’s better to wait for promotion time when delivery would reduce by almost fifty percents. My neighbour was too impatient to wait and would rather have her plants delivered immediately. She offered to get me some orchids next time she went to the annual fair. She’s a very keen gardener wasn’t afraid of height. She would climb up trees to cut branches; so she did a lot of pruning in her older sister’s garden. She’s a super tough gardener!

The fruit garden in front of house began to look much better than before as she had order truck loads of soil to level the empty ponds. She has planted all kinds of fruit trees making sure that there would be fruits every season. There’s also a big plot of marigold plants and other flowering plants. I often found her weeding in the flower beds in late afternoon. No wonder she’s very fit and healthy. We often chatted by her garden for almost an hour; her older sister was more quiet and reserved though she’s much more giving towards poorer villagers. They have become used to my strange outlook on life and untypical attitudes for a Thai person. Most people are too passive and afraid to offend or displease others by expressing their thoughts in the open; the fear of causing people to “lose face” kept them quiet and smiling to placate any unintended displeasure.

The downside was that they would become repressive and grumbling behind others’ backs. Sometimes they could burst into emotional outpouring of strong words as they couldn’t seek justice from being outspoken in public. The non-confrontational culture had worked beneficial during some past international crisis in Siam. But these days, the rules of western engagements have become radically changed and less gentil than those in the past where rules, protocols and agreements were respected. As we become more westernised, we could absorb all their norms and attitudes in the near future.

However, it would take decades to shift our deep cultural values unless all the older generations of people were gone. In addition, a new batch of genetically designed generations of population with social engineering or programming could establish a radically transformed Thai culture in the AI era. I don’t think the old concept of gardening would ever be the same again then. So, I’d better enjoy the simple ways of gardening and the beauty of ordinary flowers in these garden.

Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.

Stay strong and cheerful.

#beautifulsunday hosted by @ace108.