Yellow-Abdomen Spider (The Real Thing)

Two days ago, I posted a photo of the Spiderman in action on Cihampelas street. This one is of a real spider that lives here.

I spotted this yellow-abdomen spider in the front yard garden of my house the other day. It's about 2 centimeter long. Honestly speaking, I don't know which species it is. (If you happen to know, please do kindly let me know.)

Please don't blame me for not knowing. There are nearly 38,000 species of spider that have been identified up to this date. With such a huge number, I think it takes a specialist to really pin point which species this particular spider belongs to. For a rather comprehensive introduction to this magnificent animal, you may want to read this Wikipedia article.

Skywatch Friday: The Colors of The Sky

Bandung's sky has been cloudy most of the time this week. It's been raining almost everyday. So, the photo for my participation in this week's Skywatch Friday meme is not exactly a photo I took this week. It is another photo that I took at the same time as the one I posted on 2 January 2009. Again, this is a straight shot or an as-is image as recorded by the camera.

Many of us already know why the sky change colors at different parts of the day (yellow, orange, amber, or red at sunrise and sunset and blue at a clear day time). For those who forget, here is a reminder:

The change in sky's colors as we perceive it (blue in a clear day time and amber or red at sunrise and sunset) takes place because of a phenomenon that physicists call "scattering", a process by which the light coming from the sun is scattered by the earth's electromagnetically-charged atmospheric particles.

Here is how it happens. The light that comes from the sun actually consists of a spectrum of lights of different wavelengths. On a clear day, blue and violet rays that have shorter wavelengths are dispersed more than the other colors in the light spectrum. Hence, we see blue sky. (The violet is barely visible because the retina of our eyes cannot perceive it as well as they do blue.) At sunrise and sunset, because the sun is low on the horizon, the sunlight has to travel a longer distance to reach our eyes and pass through more "layers" of atmospheric particles. Because of this, the blue and violet rays are exhaustively scattered to the point where they become nearly invisible to our eyes. That is why we only see longer wavelength spectrum light elements of red, orange, amber, and yellow, which are less dispersed.

The explanation for the change of sky colors at different parts of the day was first found by John Tyndall in 1859. That is why this explanation is called the Tyndall Effect.

The Lavender

Because of its elevation, mild climate and temperature, and fertile volcanic soil, Bandung highland is a very good place for agriculture. A lot of non-native plants grow well here, including a lot of varieties of flowers like this lavender, which is grown in several places in the northern hills of Bandung. This particular patch of lavender garden is part of the recreational and educational camping ground at Vin's Berry Park at Cisarua where my son and his classmates were camping a few weeks ago.

Lavender (the generic name for the 39 species of the flowering plant of the lavandula genus), by the way, is a native plant of the Mediterranean, parts of Africa, the Middle East, and India. It has a variety of uses. Its dried petals, for example, can be placed in the wardrobe to keep the clothes fresh and fragrant and repel moths. The oil extracted from its flowers is believed to have antiseptic property and is good for aromatherapy. In addition, lavender flowers are also rich in nectar that is a good feed for honey producing bees. (Bees fed with lavender nectar is believed to produce high quality honey.) In some countries like France, lavender is also used as some sort of "spice" for a variety of dishes, and even made into syrup (French lavender syrup).

Lavender is also believed (and has scientifically been proven) to have medicinal properties. A particular species of it, lavandula angustifolia, or the English lavender, has long been used to make balms and salves that can reduce inflammation and soothe and heal insect bites. Furthermore, its fragrant oil has the soothing property that can help reduce headache and naturally induce better sleep.

Despite its proven medicinal properties, however, it should be noted that lavender oil is also a very powerful allergen. Therefore, those who are prone to or suffering from allergies should avoid it.

Flying Fox

This thing is called flying fox here. According to Wikipedia, the term is of Australian and New Zealandian origin. In the United States it's called zip-lines, and in the UK it's aerial runways.

Flying fox is getting very popular here. Many recreational places and camping grounds have this equipment now. This one is at Vin's Berry, a berry farm and camping ground on Kolonel Masturi Street, in the north of Bandung, where my son had an outbound camp with his school friends yesterday and today. My son loved it very much and wanted to repeat it again and again. As for me, I just watched and photographed the children doing this.