Relaxing in Melaka

Its wonderful being home in Malacca at last. It feels as if we hadn't been back in ages though we did come back last week - just one day. There's so much to do here - weeks of dust to vacuum and so on. Oh yes, Cindy came with the new curtains and they are really pretty. The living room curtains are in apple green stripes with small pink roses and a rose sheer for the dining area. Upstairs Shasha's room is very retro, with bright green polka dots and Sarah's room has pale lilac stripes with pink roses. My room is the only one wthout new curtains. Even the kitchen gets a new one - a sweet pink and green with pictures of cups and kettles with roses printed on them. Looks like the theme is green this year as opposed to the browns and greens of previous years. Outside the garden is bloomimg too. I've added some more roses to my collection and hope these will stand some neglect because I sure can't be here all the time for them.
Ramadan here in Malacca is a peaceful time. Just being in Malacca is enough to banish all our stress. Repin especially gets to relax completely here though his idea of a stress free weekend is to sleep the day away. However he did get up top accompany me to the garden centre where we got more soil and some plants to add to our burgeoning garden. My hibiscus and the canna lillies are really blooming. After cutting off the diseased plants, the new shoots are coming back nicely now.
The week before I visted Yah in Shah Alam and she took Sarah and I for a drive around her housing area. She wanted to show me a special garden - all roses! And it was a real treat. I was so fascinated by the ability of the house owner to plant her roses I rang the door bell. The lady was so generous and friendly. She even shared with us her tips on growing roses - she used fish meal as fertiliser. She said that she bought fresh fish from the market (normally slightly stale 2 day old fish are cheaper she said) and chop them up into small pieces before blending them to make a fish paste. These she would bury inside the soil and around the rose bushes. And the roses really came out looking great!