How to tell the parts of the world in forest

As we walked through the forest to our favourite spring for collecting some fresh drinking water, Mamma called us to the one of the trees, saying that she wanted to tell us something. She asked us to look closely at the bark of the tree all around, if we could notice anything. Upon examining the tree, we saw that one side of it is covered by moss. Mom then told us that all the trees grow moss on the northern side of their trunk to protect themselves from the cooler northern winds. Thus, the side with the moss on is facing the North - and from there, you can easily figure out the rest of the sides of the world - South, East and West.

It is helpful to know this quality of trees in case you get lost in woods, so you don't end up going in circles, while figuring your way out. It is also helpful for determining the direction of prayer. For example, if we know that in Latvia the direction of prayer is nearly Southwards (a little towards East), looking at moss on a tree can help us determine the approximate Qibla.

Karachi spring

One lazy afternoon, Uzair was complaining of nothing to do. So Mom decided to send him on a secret mission. She gave him a camera and told to go outside in our lane to take photos of all the spring flowers he manages to find. Here you can see what he came up with.

Little gardener

As Asma's getting more and more mobile, she's also becoming increasingly interested in plants and all other things out there behind the door of the home. Hafsa was spraying the leaves of plants in our car-porch - Asma insisted she needed to have a try of it.

A Day in the Life of George

George came to us very unexpectedly - by accident actually - and we did not have a clue that he will share a day of his life with us.

We were sitting at the dining table and cutting bhindi (ladyfingers) with our Mom, when suddenly a strange looking bhindi turned up. It had a good-sized hole in the middle and right from that hole, a big green worm with black eyes was staring at us. It was so big that we thought it is filling up the entire bhindi! On seeing the worm, Hafsa asked, if she could keep it as a pet. And mom said: "Why not?"

Next, of course, we had to find a name for Hafsa's worm. Since it was green in colour, it was agreed that the name should start with "G". "Greenie" would be silly, "Georgina" sounded too long - so we finally arrived at "George", which became the name our worm got. 

Now Hafsa had to decide, where to keep George and its bhindi. The best option she thought of was to put it in a plant's pot in our carporch. So she did, and we forgot about George for a while, happy that it didn't get fried along with bhindi but found a nice new home instead.

Later the same day, Mom heard Uzair yelling from the carporch, where he was playing cricket with his friend Misbah: "Mamma, Hafsa, come, come quiclkly - George is on my wicket!!!" And indeed he was. George had climed out of the plant's pot, where Hafsa had placed him, and was on a run. But why? Hafsa looked at the cosy bhindi-home George had left behind and was shocked to discover that it was all covered with ants! So that's why George was on the run. This brought back to our mind the "Insect Invaders" book of "Magic School Bus" series, which we read a couple weeks ago - ants can and do eat worms, if they get a chance at it. Many of them pile over the worm and inject into it their venom, which paralizes the worm. Hence, our George was fortunate enough to escape a sure death.

Hafsa once again picked up George and this time put it outside the gate - in the soil of motia bush. And that's the last we saw of George. We wish all the best for George, thank it for the lessons it taught us and hope it is still alive today.  

Frosty morning adventure

All our friends know that we came to Latvia this year with really huge hopes of seeing real snow for the first time in our lives. Well, snow hasn't come yet, but something else made us jump with joy one morning - frost. When we woke up and looked outside, we couldn't believe our eyes - all the grass was white! At first, we got so excited, thinking that it was snow, but then mamma calmed us down saying that it's only frost. Nevertheless, we couldn't waste any time (what if the sun comes out and melts it?) and jumped right from our pajamas into warm jackets and were out of home for checking out the frost even before eating breakfast. When mamma called us home for breakfast, we brought for her some leaves with thick layer of frost on them. Even the cars parked outside our aparment building were covered by frost. Later, we did some search online to find out, how frost gets made. We found this really neat site, which gave this explanation:

Have you ever heard of something called “water vapor”? Water vapor refers to water, when it’s in the form of a gas, instead of in the form of a liquid (like drinking water) or a solid (like ice cubes). It might be a little hard to understand, but it plays a big role in our weather! One thing that happens when water vapor freezes is that snowflakes can form, but another thing that can happen is frost! Frost refers to the white or clear ice crystals that cover surfaces such as plant leaves, windows, sidewalks, and more! Unlike snow, which forms in the air and then falls from the sky, frost grows closer to the ground on cold surfaces. Frost is the result of water vapor in the atmosphere that freezes directly into its solid state (ice) without first passing through its liquid state (water). Neat! (
http://www.whyzz.com/what-is-frost )

Real hail

This Wednesday was really windy, rainy and haily! Yes, for the first time in our life, we saw real hail - small pieces of ice 'raining' down from the clouds. No, it's not snow - snow comes in flakes. Hail is solid pieces of ice falling down. In the photo below, you can see one - it looks almost as a small pearl. But our mamma told us that sometimes hail comes in much bigger pieces - so big that they hurt when they hit you and can hit holes in the leaves of trees. Big pieces of hail are especially unwelcome by all the garden-keepers, as they tend to damage severely the delicate leaves of plants.

The beauty of the fall

Have you ever wondered, why the fall is called the fall? To Uzair and Hafsa is pretty obvious - because the leaves fall! Today, we went in the forest for a stroll to pick good handfuls of colourful fall leaves. The weather was just perfect - no wind and wonderful freshness of just 14 degrees outside. We had a long walk and were looking for as different colours and shapes of leaves as we could find. We took the leaves home and put them for pressing between pages of books - this way, they will get pressed straight and will dry out. Later, we will use them for some nice fall season crafts. Come back to our blog later on to see what we would make from our leaves! Meanwhile, enjoy walk with us through our photos (read also the descriptions) here: stroll in the fall 

Migrating birds

The fall has arrived in Latvia, and the birds have began to head south for spending the cold season in warmer lands. When we are in Karachi, during winter we can feel this influx of birds from up north countries (Russia), as in the mornings we can wake to the singing of so many different birds! Today, we were lucky enough to see two 'hooks' of wild geese travelling over our village - you can se them in the photos below.

We see the great wisdom of Allah (swt) in all creation, Subhanallah. One of Allah's (swt) great miracles is this migration of birds - the birds of Latvia travel thousands of kilometers every year back and forth, in search of food and warmer places to live. The geese we saw today arrange themselves into a 'hook' type formation for their travel, which is not just a coincidence. The first bird in the hook gets the strongest winds and has to make the most effort for flying. The waves of air formed by the first bird's wings give uplifting effect to the second bird, easing his flying. The waves of air from the second bird give relief to the third, a.s.o. The last bird in the line gets the easiest flying time, as his flight is suppored by the uplift of air formed by the previous birds. When the head bird of the hook gets tired, it retreats to the very back of the hook, giving his place in the head of the hook to the next bird in line. Thus, the tired head bird renews his strength at the very end of the hook. This way, the birds can fly for long periods of time, without sitting down to rest, Subhanallah.

Colourful tomatoes!

Did you know that tomatoes come not only in red colour but also in yellow, pinkish and even green (yes, ripe!)? Take a look at all the varieties.

Fog

August is the month of beautiful fogs in Latvia. Nearly every morning, we could see it out of our window. Sometimes, it was really thick!

We searched the Internet to see, what fog actually is. It turned out that fog is water droplets that have condensed from the air. The same as clouds! When air has been warm and humid during the day, evaporated water molecules are spread thoughout it. Then, when the temperature drops, the cooling air causes the water molecules to turn from a vapour (a gas) into liquid droplets. These droplets are so small they can hang in the air. But they are heavy enough to lie low near the ground. Sometimes they attach to the grass forming dew.

In August, our Vecmamma takes special care of her tomatoes in the greenhouse - even though the nights are warm, she has to make sure that the doors of the greenhouse are always shut. If the fog manages to come into the greenhouse and settle on the unripe tomatoes, then they will not get ripe any more - without turning red, they will turn black and start decaying instead.

These pictures of fog we took from our balcony early in the morning.

Asma in the garden

Asma is really enjoying in Vecmamma's garden! She loves to look at the nature around her - everything is moving in the wind!!! So many things to look at! :) In these pictures, Uzair is holding Asma, while sitting on Vecmamma's well with a huge water pump. In the background, you can see our garden neighbour's bee hives. Just today, his wife offered to kids a mug of freshly taken honey! Absolutely yummy!!!

The higher, the better!

Do you know, what was Uzair's most favourite acivity in vecmamma's garden? It was climbing trees and any possible ladders - the higher, the better! Boys are boys, aren't they? :) In one of the smaller apple-trees, Uzair made his very own 'playplace' by hanging all sorts of things in the tree. Also for eating apples sitting in a tree seemed to be the best.

His most favourite time was the apple harvesting season. Since vecmamma has 8 apple-trees, it took quite many days to pick all the apples, which meant that the ladders were in very frequent use. As soon as mamma or uncle Ralfs was down from the ladder to empty the bucket full of apples, Uzair was on the ladder! Time to time, Hafsa also joined in on his mischiefs. Believe it or not, but not a single accident of falling happened, Alhamdulillah. :) So whenever you need a good strategy for climing a tree, call up Uzair! :)

Natural 'water dispenser'

Living in Karachi, we've learned not to drink tap water, if we want to avoid any stomack problems. Instead, we are drinking water from water dispenser, which has a huge mineral water bottle on the top. Water is one of the most wonderful blessings of Allah (swt), the taste of which is so refreshing as nothing else in this world!

In Latvia, we can drink water from the tap at home, without risking our health. However, we prefer once in a couple days to walk along with our mom to a 'natural water dispenser' in the nearby forest and fill our big 5 litres bottle with crystal clear spring water, which gushes forth directly from a mountain! Nearly all the village comes here for taking the drinking water, as the taste of this water is so much better than of that at home in taps. For their own convenience, the village people have constructed the outlet of this spring in the shape of a well, which has a pipe inside it with water coming directly from the mountain.

As soon as our mom fills the bottle with water, Hafsa is right there to ask for a drink. She loves the freezing cold taste of freshness! The water, which comes from this natural 'dispenser', is much colder than that we're getting from our refridgerated dispenser in Karachi! We're guessing that if this water is so cold even on the hottest of summer days, then the inside of the mountain must be freezing! Subhanallah!

We passed under a rainbow!

Yesterday we had yet another great experience with rainbows. We were coming in train from Riga (the capital) back to our Vecmamma's (grandmother's) home, and so it happened that it was just the right weather for another rainbow. This time, however, the rainbow stretched over our train!!! We saw one end of it through the left side window of the train, while the other end - through the other side window! What a bright and beautiful rainbow it was! But the most exciting thing was to observe, how train was gradually moving closer and closer to the rainbow. Eventually, the train passed under the rainbow and we lost the visibility of it - can you believe that we actually were under a rainbow??? :)

A Huge Stump-Mushroom

As we walked today towards the playground, we noticed in the grass right next to the side-walk a plate-size mushroom! We had seen mushrooms in the forest before, but, strangely, this one had made its home right in the middle of the city. It was 'sitting' comfortably at the side of an old tree-stump. We couldn't help but take a closer look at it.

Did you know that mushroom is not a plant but a fungus? If plants use nutrients and sunlight to get their food and stay alive, then fungi (plural of fungus) take food from their surroundings - this is how they are different. Mushrooms do it by breaking down material into basic nutrients. This is exactly why wild mushrooms usually sprout from old leaves or damp old logs. The fungi is breaking down the dead material to use as food. Because fungi decompose (or break down) things, they are also called decomposers. So here is the answer to why the mushroom we saw was so comfortably growing directly on that old stump! And, if you look carefully enough, you will see on the downside of our mushroom a small snail, who LOVES to eat mushrooms. :)

Rainbow in a fountain

Last week, we went to Riga, the capital of Latvia. Riga has many beautiful parks. In one of these parks, we saw a rainbow closest as you can get! A channel was going trough the park and in that channel, there was a huge fountain. Since the day was very warm and sunny, we saw a beautiful rainbow right in that fountain!

We asked our mom to tell us, how it is possible for a rainbow to come in the fountain. We had seen a rainbow in the sky before, but this was something different.

Our mom told us that a rainbow is made by the sun-light bouncing back to us from the insides of raindrops. Ordinary light, like that from a light bulb or from the Sun, is called white light. White light is actually a mixture of seven colors. Light bends, when it passes through water. Each color bends a different amount. When white light enters a raindrop, the colors get separated. The white light splits into seven colors that we saw in that fountain. These seven colors always appear in the same order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo (bluish-purple), and violet (purple). Now we know that it is not always necessary to have dark clouds and bright sunlight for seeing a rainbow.

Our first rainbow in Latvia this year

It wasn't even a couple weeks yet, since we arrived to Latvia, that Allah (swt) blessed us with the opportunity to see our first rainbow. Unlike in Karachi, rainbows are quite usual here. The recipe for a rainbow is very simple indeed - all you need is some dark rain clouds on one side of the sky and some bright sunshine on the other side. And... as you can see in the pictures, the rainbow is 'ready to see'.


This time, Allah (swt) gave us a special treat of two rainbows (although sometimes it is possible to see here even three at the same time). If you look at the pictures carefully, you will see that a little above the the actual bright rainbow, there is a reflection of it in the sky. That's how we get the two rainbows - the real one plus the reflection.