Favorites Photography – April Photo Hunt

This is my contribution to Karma’s When I Feel Like It Blog’s April Photo Hunt. This month’s hunt is to get to know us a little bit better, and she has two objectives in this month’s choice: 1) to give you a creative spark and 2) to find out more about you! Karen is asking us to photograph at least four (more than four are most welcome) of our favorite things. The deadline is Saturday April 28, 2012, you are welcome to join in the fun.

As most of you know that I’m a Buddhist, there are more than one hundred gestures of a Buddha statue but I chose this one for a reason.  Those that are Buddhists know right away that this is a Monday Buddha statue. It is a statue  stopping the relatives from fighting and overcoming disease.  The Buddha is depicted as standing with his right hand in abhayamudra. The left arm falls to the side, gently touching the robe. Source. And yes, I was born on a Monday, and I’ve to say that I have been playing the role of stopping conflict throughout my life.

I’m Laotian and my favorite Lao food is Nam Kao or Laotian Crispy Rice Salad.  I had to use a photo from my archive, I hope Karen doesn’t mind.

My favorite room in the house used to be this room until Max came along.  The room has a bay window, and overlooks the garden, so it is a room with a view and Max loves it.

Now a place to sit back and relax is my living room.  We have two 55 gallon fish aquariums for Bo’s Jack Dempsey Fry, and a 30 gallon tank for more Jack Dempsey Fry.  Bo has successful bred 2 sets of Fry. Studies have shown that aquarium is a health benefit that can help to lower blood pressure,  calm the mind, and help to alleviate anxiety. It is relaxing to sit in the living room and hear the sounds of the water, and not to mention seeing all the beautiful fish swimming around can be entertaining and mesmerizing at the same time.

These are a few of his first batch, and the Jack Dempsey Fry are now 8 month old.

I am an organic gardener and have been gardening for several years now.

I was fortunate to receive seeds from a fellow blogger, and the Spinach vine seeds finally came up.

My garden has an urban look, and might be because I was raised in New York City. I planted my vegetables in containers and raised beds to utilize the small space in my garden. This is my first year planting snow peas and I have to make teepee trellis for them to climb soon.

BONUS/CHALLENGE: How well do I think I know Karen?  How much have I been reading over the last two years?  I think Karen will like this photo because I know she is a gardener too. 🙂

All photos were taken with Canon T2i, and EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens.

Long Tail Comets and 7 Month Old Jack Dempsey Fry

Correction notice: The video should read Long Tail Comets and not Butterfly Koi

Click here to view this video on YouTube

I finally have a chance to do a video of my sister’s Butterfly Koi long tail comets.  She gave us 2 long tail Comets, 1 Koi and a few Comets after her pump died on Tuesday.  She doesn’t seem to have much luck with her pump, one died last Summer and she lost most of her Koi.  She was devastated then and had to go out and buy a new pump the next morning. She is giving up her fish pond this time, and will be covering it up with dirt.

The long tail comets seem to get along with the 7 month old Jack Dempsey Fry and their new home is a 55 gallon aquarium.

The Jack Dempsey Fry aquariums are a lot of work for Bo to take care.  He has 4 tanks (one 55 gallon, two 30 gallon, and one 10 gallon) that he constantly has to change the water.  Lee’s Betta fish is a lot easy to care for, she has this one for a while now and she could change the water herself.

The Betta fish is also known as the Siamese fighting fish or Pla Kad, and a popular species of freshwater aquarium fish.  Back in Laos and Thailand they would fight these fish. I guess very much like a cock fight but might be more for kids than adults, Bo used to fight them when he was little. The wild ancestors of the Betta fish are native to the rice paddies of Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and Cambodia. This one is a male, kind of strange that the male species are a lot prettier than the female and it goes for birds of feather also.  It makes me wonder about the human specie, perhaps that’s why some females have to put on so much makeup.

Photos were taken with CanonT2i, EF50mm f/1.4 and EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens.
The video clips were shot with CanonT2i, EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens, tripod mounted.

Wednesday Random Photos

One of my co-workers asked why Chinese restaurants have fish aquarium, does it bring good luck?  If that’s the case, we must be the luckiest people around.  My sister’s fishpond pump recently died and she has decided to give her fish away.  Bo went and got some today, and here is one that he left in the 55 gallon tank with the Jack Dempsey Fry. The first batch Fry are 7 month old now and they seem to get along with these new butterfly koi long tail Comets. Her fish look fat because my dad over feed them and this one needs to go on a diet.

Here are 2 more 7 month old Jack Dempsey Fry.

The mother Jack Dempsey and her 3 month old Fry are in the 30 gallon tank. If we were to count, I think we might have close to 1,000 Jack Dempsey Fry.

I won’t be eating fish for a while.  This is Thai Ladna from a new Thai Restaurant that’s owned by a Lao family.  The food is pretty good and they are not stingy with their chicken.

And updating on my seedling, the pickle cucumber plants look pretty good.

As for the cherry tomatoes, I think Lee dropped too many seeds and most came up. I didn’t pull them out fast enough. The ones that I left are very thin, they don’t look too good to me.

The beets in the garden came up also and a good thing that we have been getting a few good showers in the last week or so.

The Blue holly flowers are in bloom.  This made me think of a coffee plant, but the floral scent doesn’t smell as good as the coffee flower.

The bees are buzzing and doing their thing.

Bo once mentioned that if his Zoysia grass came up, he would roll on it for us to see.  I see that Max has beat him to it.

I almost cried when I saw this, but I couldn’t say anything to Lee. My poor flowers.

It is a beautiful flowers carpet in my front yard.

All photos were taken with CanonT2i, EF50mm f/1.4 USM lens.