Day 6, Friday celebrating the ordinary and ubiquitous

How can it already be day 6 of Marie’s challenge? What a rhapsody of images, emotions and insights int the lives of so many blogesses.  What a wonderful week it has been!

I have to confess to be terribly backlogged though – trying to read all of the posts, trying to select and upload images myself in an connectivity challenged setting.  So I am very happy that the weekend has now arrived and I can try and catch up with the wealth of posts and respond to your very welcome comments.

But first, while I have electricity and a reasonable connection, here is my Friday Day 6 contribution.

We are in the midst of monsoon, and monsoon here is very, very monsoony!  Furthermore, there is general consent that this year the monsoon has been even heavier than usual and many areas have serious flooding. I am listening to torrential rain as I sit here writing this, wondering if it will continue all night.  Waiting for the rain to ease and the frog and toad chorus to start.  I too wonder if the smell of our rain is indeed different to that which Brenda talked about?  I think it certainly smells different to the rains which we have in Scotland. And seeing a snow-laden sky in Nancy’s post brought a rush of memory, bizarrely, of the smell of approaching snow.  I can always tell if snow is on its way – in Scotland I could predict snow by the very particular scent on the breeze.

Thanks to the rains and the humidity, thought, we have the most lush vegetation and beautiful tropical flowers. (Just like Paw Paw Salad in Darwin). One of my favourite pastimes is looking out for freshly fallen frangipani in the morning on my way home from my dawn swim.  I like to pick up those morning treasures,  take them home and put them in a little tub of water.

Every day, we have a delivery to our house.  Not milk. Nor a daily paper. No, the daily delivery is a string of jasmine and other scented flowers which we put in our Buddha room.  The flower seller brings the flowers each morning and hangs them on the gate.  Once a month she calls to collect her flower money.  She is happy with regular business, we are happy with our daily flower offerings. And it is a beautifully appropriate offering for the Buddha.  A perfect arrangement.

As if one budget line for jasmine is not enough, I also have another arrangement.  On the way to work every day, either walking or if it is too hot or wet and by taxi, I have a standing arrangement where I buy jasmine or other scented flowers from the jasmine seller at the traffic lights.  Those scented flowers are taken to the office, and I put the on the Buddha in the office.  This morning’s picture shows what are called golden flowers.  I am not sure of the correct name, that is the translation from Myanmar.  They smell exquisite, and very similar to jasmine.  You can also see the corner of a 500 kyat note which is part of my taxi fare, scrunched up in my hand.

We are surrounded by flowers and lush tropical vegetation, and I never tire of it.  I never tire of photographing it too!  And one of my very favourite sights at this time of year, is that of a flower glistening with monsoon droplets following a torrential downpour – an irresistible everyday image to celebrate.