The pinks of yesterdays among the whites of today ...

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim
 اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِ مُحَمَّدٍ

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh

Alhamdulillah syukur ... for kampung ... and the reason for going back to kampung ... abah and emak ... because what is kampung tanpa abah dan emak ... May Allah SWT reda dan kasihankan all abah dan emak, yang masih ada juga yang telah kembali kepadaNya, ameen Allahumma ameen.

~

thursday i drove back to kampung ... i'm not kidding our kampung is so ulu that mobile access at our (kampung) house is very limited. So our parents had only that land line ... and that past few days they could not be contacted ... the both of them are quite fragile but very independent ... there are relatives and neighbours but they are all a motorbike (since they don't cycle :) distant away. So i decided early in the morning to drive back ... and since i was on my own (husband at work) ... i took my own sweet time lingering and enjoying the route and what it had to offer ...

please let me share ... the sweet life i noted on the road (what can i say i'm a simple kampung girl :)

~

there's a stretch of straight road in Ulu Bendul ... just before the Ulu Bendul Mosque ... and right smacked by the sawah, i stopped at a small warung-only-for-breakfast- served-till-11.00am :)

by the way this was a very small but very populated warung ... you can see from a distant, cars parked by the roadside ... since that stretch of road was quite straight, cars zoomed by ... and i thought that that was a very dangerous parking stretch ... i hope the warung owner will do something about a safer parking area for his customers ...

the warung served Nasi Lemak with all its condiments plus beef rendang and fried chicken, Roti Canai and its variation, mee kari, mee sup, etc. i ordered for home ... but my eyes were glued to a plant with so many beautiful big white blooms and what looked like red buds by the entrance to the warung ...

while waiting for the order ... i wandered out and got some images with the old telephone of mine ...

the plant ... from the back of the warung ... and a glimpse of a customer enjoying his breakfast in situ ... click on all the images for a better view :)

the gorgeous white bloom about 6-7 cm across ... sorry my tel camera really really did not do justice to this beautiful creation ... masyaAllah

the pink ones were not buds ... they were actually spent flowers ... you can see different smaller buds ... and it was most interesting when i was told by the lady owner that the blooms started white but by noon they turned pink and stayed on the plant for a while before dropping off ... and so you'll see the pinks of yesterdays among the whites of today ... what a lovely life!

but ... its name ... i asked the owner who did not know either but the staff supplied me with a most amazing answer ... "bunga tombong boghuk" she said ... apa dia? i asked again ...not believeing my ears ... then she said "ada oghang panggil bunga tisu" ... when i came home ... i googled "bunga tombong beruk" (i'm not going to translate this okay:) and "bunga tisu" ... but unless i've an ancient version of google (hehe tame joke) ... there was no information on this name! 

i hope someone can enlighten me :)

the warung from the back ... with the tail end of Banjaran Titiwangsa still in mist in the background ... and the plant ... and the small stream that our NSembilan of old refer to as "bonda" mouth opened wide for the "a" ... not bonde as in ibu :)

i was standing just next to the car parked dangerously by the roadside ... but alone ... i'm always always a slow very curious cat ...

while taking the packed breakfast ... i requested the owner for cuttings of the plant ... and she happily obliged ... her staff with a sharp parang gave me a branch that she cut into three small cuttings ... they are easy to grow  she said ... it appeared that impressed customers regularly requested for these cuttings ... masyaAllah.

and i hope to see them starting soon in my mother's Laman Besar Sikit (in contrast to my Laman Kecik :)

~

next ... just after Ulu Bendul ... Terachi ... and this was what made me stopped by the roadside again! this time the verge was quite wide ... right befor the exit to Restaurant Warisan in the middle of the reclaimed padi field ... 

i love the look of this brown earthy lumpur ... those were the days when i was young, kicik and loud with my cousins in kampung "gotong royong" in the sawah ... :)

i can smell the earth ... :)

that was only about a quarter of the journey ... more later insyaAllah ...

take care all ... syukur again AlhamduliLLah for kampung ... seeking and remembering the pinks of yesterdays among the whites of today ... and teardrops slowly searching the corner of my eyes ...

:)