Love the Forest

I wake up every morning and the first thing I do is opening my apt front door. I like to breathe fresh morning breeze and am especially fond to see the greenery surrounding me. I don't think I will live inside a small forest like this again anywhere in the world. Good thing they placed this student apartment inside a small jungle in the heart of the city (one reason is because all the loud parties students held every weekend here won't bother the neighbor). I wonder how far people would do to preserve the forest inside a city. Have we thought about what we have done to the forest of the world ?

The forest is not a trash bin

I felt eerie to read news about the forest fires in my country, Indonesia, which had lost 2.1 million hectares of forest every year. Silly illegal logging, so many wood wasted without the thought of restoring and rehabilitating the forest again....most of the time the trees was cut for economic reason without considering the ecosystem balance...wherever would we be without trees ?

and how far people would go to make efforts to preserving the nature....it would be a challenge for us but there might be a way to overcome this. I know that conservation efforts are not going to be cost-free. But the ecotourism ideas might  be a good idea, people might want to experience living inside a forest, for example like staying in this tree hotel ? In the future we certainly don't want to end up only enjoying the nature through a background picture or wall poster like this cafe below.

a cafe in front of Post-Dam Platz Theater in Berlin

WHY ARE RAINFORESTS IMPORTANT?

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Rainforests are important to the global ecosystem. Rainforests:

• provide a home to many plants and animals;
• help stabilize the world's climate;
• protect against flood, drought, and erosion;
• are a source for medicines and foods;
• support tribal people; and
• are an interesting place to visit

The last important reason..that a forest is an interesting place not only to visit but to live in also are my reasons why I wrote this post. I still want to enjoy the beauty of nature and hope that my children will too. Hope you feel the same way too...

"It is a blessed act to plant a tree even if it be the day the world ends"

(Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) narrated by Al-Bukhari and Ahmed)

‘and the leaves of the tree were for the healing and the restorations of the nations.’

 The Bible Revelation Chapter 22 verse 2

*both quotes above are taken from the book of 1001 Muslim Heritage book

Sign of Spring

Spring is almost here. I saw fresh wild flowers are blooming already.

 Plus the weather is warmer these days, today is 10° C...
 although cold breezes still made us shivered.

It's a sign of hope..winter is almost over...

Time to clean up the rubbish on my tiny garden. 

It is full of dried leaves and dead plants stomped by frozen snow. 

I've got a little help here by my little assistant..

I am planning to plant some flowers this year.

 I didn't succeed on nurturing the last chili plants ( yes it's dead), 

but perhaps I want to give it another try this time. 

I may not enjoy it when it blossoms, but I would just do for the love of it...

"Where flowers bloom, so does hope"

-Lady Bird Johnson-

let's plant..shall we ??

Chilly Plant

Whoa..I just bought one beautiful chilly plant from the Marktplatz. I hope it will grow beautifully in its new home. I place it on my windowsill, I thought it was a perfect spot for my newbie. The lady who sell it to me said that it needs a lot of sunshine and warmth, and not to water it too much...

I admire the nice lady who sells these beautiful plants. Not only she is a true green thumb-er, I can say that she has so many affection for all the plants in her stand. Selling me one pot of chilly plant was like handing me her own pupil. She had poured so much love to this plant that it grows into a very attractive plant, and her only wish is only that this chilly plant has been taken care properly so it can live and grow...

What is more is that I made a new friend today, this man is also a gardener and he explained to me briefly about plants and fruits that have been displayed there...in English of course (as i still can not communicating in deutsch). He gave me his email address so i can write and ask him anything about plants..(i hope i won't write panickly about my plants being dried becoz i forgot to watered them..*chuckled).

Anyway, what are you doing this weekend ? As I wrote this post, it is 1.30 AM here, I can't sleep somehow though my body ache so much. Something is lacking inside me I don't know what...perhaps it was just a feeling of homesick. Honestly, I felt a little bit too tired and I miss my friends in Jakarta, so many things I wanna to tell them, like you have so many stories to be shared and they were all locked inside your head..I hate this kind of feeling...I miss being me (don't read this too seiously, I might just daydreaming writing all of these)...ah I better sleep for couple of hours before dawn is here. Ciao !!

Plant Action !!

It's a trending topic today how we must preserved the earth. What is your contributions to change your daily routine to save our planet ? A little while ago I wrote about my plan to start planting something. Looks like my wish is granted pretty soon.

This is Nila or the latin/botanical name is Indigofera Tinctoria, a plant for natural coloring. Commonly used in Indonesia to colored Batik cloths, the color would come out blue or purple (my favorite color) from the processing the plant's leaves. According to this site it is not very difficult to plant true indigo, it needs a lot of sunshine which is plenty in Jakarta.

I got this plant as a souvenir inside a goody bag from the previous Wastaprema event, the organization aim to support the usage of natural coloring in batik industry. There were three plants that had been gave away in that event, Pohon Nila (indigofera tinctoria), Pohon Jati (tectona grandis L), and Pohon Mahoni (swietenia Mahogani JACQ).

Isn't it wonderful if there are more people give away greenery things as souvenir from their events ? I also got a pack of starter seed of Pohon Trembesi (samanea saman) as a souvenir from one of the event I attend recently.

Yes that one is a keeper and am going to bring it to DA.
Happy Earth Day everyone...

Wanna be a gardener

I don't know why I always like plants and flowers, something about them is 'like' inviting me in. Perhaps because people surround me loves plants too, my late grandmother once had a bed of roses on her backyard and she always labeled her plants with its botanical name (or so my mom told me). Perhaps it is in our blood, how we love plants that is -my cousin, K, is a florist because she loves flowers too.

Ahh this is not what I want to rambling about. Two weekend ago when I went to Bandung with my mom and my son, we stayed at my aunt house . When I woke up on that Sunday morning, my eyes was struck to see a luscious green garden on the backyard of my auntie's house.

Wow..what a view..My auntie is a very good gardener or what people called a green thumb-er. She has this 'cold hands' that can nurtured any plants and grow them beautifully. For a moment there I am kind of inspired to be a gardener too. But I was always feel like a black thumb-er because all the plants I had been nurturing was killed eventually (in crispy mode a.k.a kering kerontang..kind of) so I was feeling a little bit hopeless case on the gardening issue.

But as I was observing the patio where my auntie nurtured her plants, I wondered whether one day I could have one skill like hers too.

So I promised myself to try growing another plant (again) and will try harder not to kill it along the way (haha). I am soo excited when I found the perfect blog where I could learn a lot as a beginner. I also wants to search for this book so I can grow my own organic food one day and of course lots of flowers..I wish..I wish..I wish..

Kebun Kecil

Akhir – akhir ini saya menyadari betapa belanja harian untuk masakan di rumah memang benar – benar membengkak. Contohnya saja, untuk sayur bening, bayam seikat 2000 perak, jagung manis 1 biji 2000 perak. Lebih menyedihkan lagi ketika saya berbelanja ke pasar tradisional bumbu dapur seperti daun jeruk purut, daun salam atau daun kemangi, mahalnya luar biasa.

Saya jadi teringat oleh cerita ibu saya, beberapa waktu yang lalu, ia mengunjungi rumah seorang kenalannya dari Thailand yang terletak di Pondok Indah. Di pekarangan rumah ibu Thailand tersebut ada sepetak kebun yang ditumbuhi tanaman bumbu khas untuk masakan Asia. Jadi sang ibu yang gemar memasak itu tinggal jalan ke belakang rumahnya kapanpun ia butuh bumbu – bumbuan. Ibu saya yang memang suka menanam tanaman obat seperti daun cincau, daun dewa dan daun karuk, tapi sejak bertamu di rumah Ibu Thailand tersebut, beliau jadi terinspirasi untuk mulai menanam tanaman bumbu dapur di halaman rumah. Nah, sekarang kalo si mbok butuh cabe rawit, ia tinggal jalan ke depan rumah kami, pohon cabe tumbuh subur di sana.

Seringkali kita membiarkan lahan kosong di rumah kita untuk tanaman yang hampir pasti kita tidak tahu apa nama dan kegunaannya. Suatu kali saya pernah ingin mencoba resep masakan aceh, dimana salah satu bumbunya adalah daun temurui/daun kari/daun salam koja, saya mencari di pasar manapun tidak ketemu daun tersebut. Ternyata tetangga di depan rumah saya menanam daun kari tersebut, dan diapun tidak tahu daun apa namanya serta fungsinya. Untung saja ia membolehkan kami memetik beberapa lembar daun temurui yang tumbuh lebat di halamannya.

Suatu saat nanti saya ingin juga punya kebun kecil yang ditumbuhi tanaman daun jeruk, daun salam, belimbing wuluh, dan semua bumbu – bumbu dapur yang kebutuhannya hanya sedikit ketika kita memasak tapi tanpa satu lembar daun saja, kadang masakan hambar rasanya.