Life is no longer boring today

Today was a tiring day. Nevertheless, tiredness in this way still makes me feel fulfilled and happy. Boring day, on which you do not know what to do but fool around or stick with the TV, is the day that really makes you feel tired and languished. So, the best way to keep you away from being tired or bored is to find something interesting to do for the day, and do not just idle there to await something or someone interesting to alight on you. However, the problem always comes to the fact that how you would know which thing can really interest you for the day.

Today, I chose to farm and brush cut my farmland, which is around 50 minute drive from where I live. At the beginning, I was not quite sure that it would be interesting. However, since the weeds there have been as high as my knees, I have to cut them or my neighbour may complain, for it would probably invite pests, such as fruit flies, moths ... etc, to infest our fields and bite off their crops. Eventually, after working in my fields for over 4 hours, it came to my surprise that I felt so happy and fulfilled with my work. Though soaked with sweat deep to my skin, the evening breeze from the river, which is behind my farmland, did conclude a wonderful day for me, on which I felt neither tiredness nor boredom.

When we drove home, I was wondering what I should do for tomorrow. Will it be another interesting one? Hope that my dream would tell.

What I learnt from the recent flood

 

It seems the blistering summer has come to a close for the year, after the recent light typhoon which brought us a horrible amount of rain but only a little wind. In recent years, typhoons in Taiwan have no longer been like the typhoon that we know since childhood. We like them more and more, because they don't blow that much, while they always bring us the precipitation we need for the rest of the year.

However, that recent typhoon did cause quite a few small floods here in Taiwan, and it really made me worry about those crops and trees I grew in my little farm. Driving for almost an hour from where I live in the city, I, along with my wife, arrived at our farm, located in the foot of Mount North Da Wu. After soaked in the heavy rain for three consecutive days, everything there had turned pleasantly green, fresh and clean. When contrasted with the snow-white clouds around the waist of the mountain, the green scene and fresh air paid off all the efforts we made on keeping this plot of farmland in the foregone year.

I found, the sponge gourds I grew seemed quite resistent to the rain. They didn't show any signs of languishing, and, on the contrary, they grew few more female flowers and baby gourds. I then bagged those baby gourds to protect from the attack from those nuisance fruit flies -- as a matter of fact, they have already imposed a big loss to me on my gourd harvest. However, the bitter gourds I grew seemed not so lucky. They suffered quite a bunch of yellow and withered leaves. And they also lost most of their baby gourds, which either deformed or yellowed right on their tendrils. 

The recent flood in my farm cause limited damage, while still teach me a good lesson -- bitter gourd is vulnerable to heavy water, and they don't grow or fruit once there is no abundant sunshine. So, to be a farmer, you always have to learn to stand or live with a high sun.