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Hi folks,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shanlung/sets/683469/
MangChow
is one of my favourite bloom in Taiwan. It
is
not colorful like the rhododendrens or other
seasonal
flowers that from time to time splash out
different
shades of the rainbow from the roadside or
mountain
sides.
MangChow
is the flowering tops of the tall wild grass
here
very similar to the Pampas grass. They seem to
herald
the onset of autumn when fields and clumps of
silvery
tops move and wave in sinuous unison with
every
breeze over them.
My
love for Mangchow started 20 over long years ago
before
I even set foot in Taiwan. There was this
movie
" A Touch of Zen" by Director King Hu who can be
mentioned
in the same breath as Akira Kurosawa and
Stanley
Kubrik. That is one of the greatest and most
beautiful
martial arts movie.
http://www.kungfucinema.com/reviews/touchofzen.htm
There
was this scene there of a haunted house heavily
overgrown
by flowering Mangchow that I enjoyed. I
enjoyed
that scene even more after I heard KingHu
drove
his financial backers to distraction by waiting
3
months for the blooms to be sufficiently matured to
shoot
the scenes there.
I
was told by a Taiwanese friend that Mangchow
represent
a melancholic beauty being an autumn bloom
touching
on themes of exile and separation between
loved
ones.
I
watched and waited 3 weeks for these series of
shots.
Those
shots are not even titles as the photo number
will
show that I uploaded entire sequences as I did
not
have the heart to drop any of them.
On
18th Sept (yes, photo date is one day earlier and
Bill
Gates refused to allow me to change settings on
my
camera)when coming down from Lung Yen, we caught
sight
of the mangchow growing along side of this
river.
The
problem was the mangchow was on the other side of
the
river. While I and Tink were more than ready to
clamber
down the bank, Joy made all kinds of
inexplicable
excuses such as the bank was too steep
and
other noises. So the photos had to be taken with
the
mangchow in the distance.
Sequence
starting with P9170169 had Joy to the back of
me
taking Her Grace as she prepared to land on me.
Sequence
starting with P9170169 is most interesting.
Tinkerbell's
line snagged and you can see it getting
taut.
She powered on and pulled the line from my reel
to
make her way to me. It is so important that the
line
must be smooth without splicing knots which would
have
caught in snags.
The
next sequence showed her flying high up before
circling
and hovering in a 180 degree turn landing on
my
shoulder.
Two
days later, we came across another beautiful clump
of
mangchow without a river and steep bank to clamber
down
to. The shots taken here illustrate the size of
those
grass.
You
are welcome to
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shanlung/sets/683469/
It
may be a good idea to use 'view slideshow' to see
those
sequence, or even to run 'view slideshow' on one
window
while you do other stuff. This is as after
'view
slideshow' and you want to look at the photos
separately,
the paging to next photo is very much
faster
=====
With
warmest regards
Shanlung
- lackey to all below
Joy
- wife, Tinkerbell - CAG & surrogate daughter
Halftail
the Bimbo - beautiful sweet silly cat
Zorro
- ferret which loves parrot pellets
Bim
and Zor are with other loving families now
I
will remember them for the happy times they gave me
earlier
emails and photo links on Tink -
http://www.geocities.com/shanlung9
(erratically
and sporadically updated)
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