Fancy bicycle made from unwanted materials( Recycle )

There is no end in finding out when and how recycle came to us. Some said it was introduced in the 1970's while some said, it was 12,000 years ago. Well, to me, it doesn't matter who or  when was it invented. The main thing is that recycling helped the world to reduce unwanted waste and turn it into a useful material, thus minimizing the whole globe from overfilling unwanted waste being dumped into the earth, sea and air. 
When i read an article stating recycling began about 12,000 years ago, i believe so. Many years ago, our ancesters had been doing recycling too , but there was no plastic in those days. A very simple example was, using dirty rice water after washing the rice to water the plants. Not only it save water from wasting but dirty rice water, can make our plants very happy.😊😁 

Recycle is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. 

We should guide and trained our young ones on the awareness and the importance of recycling, Helping to keep our world a safer place to live in and recycle is one of them. The young should be encouraged to use creative ways on how to reuse the  recycled  materials. There are many DIY creative ways and smarter ways of such materials.

Last month, as I was having lunch at my one of my favourite noodle shops, Lintas Pan Mein,
I saw a bicycle, made from recycle materials, parked at the side of the shop. I found out it belongs to the cook, Encik Seju Yohanis, who was preparing the noodles for customers at Lintas Pan Mein. He always rides his battery operated bicycle to work. It took him two weeks to complete his bicycle. He used whatever people threw into the bin. He collected any unwanted metal and created this battery operated bicycle on his days off. Seju only spend a few dollars for a small battery and paint.

Switch for lights, small black box with blue top is the battery and a plunger looking item infront of the battery, is the horn 

short video of the bicycle

References:

https://www.plasticexpert.co.uk/who-invented-recycling/
https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/recycling1.htm

White Brinjals / Egg Plants / Aubergine

Brinjal, also known as Egg Plant in USA, Aubergine in the UK, Terung by the Malaysian or Kathirikai in Tamil. There are many more names for these brinjals depending on which country you are from. A doctor friend from Singapore called it "Albino Brinjal"! 😂

There are purple, green and white brinjals. The most common are the purple coloured while the rare ones are the white brinjals. They are versatile plants rich in Potassium,Magnesium,and Vit B.

Brinjals can  be grown in pots, raised beds or straight from the ground. I started them with seeds bought from the supermarket. A packet cost me 3.20 Malaysian Ringgit. I was not disappointed with this product (green world) because all the seeds in the packet turn out well!

From seeds

In Pots. 

They grow well in full sun and well drained, rich soil.😀

Raised beds and in the ground

 Plants beginning produce purple flowers and then after that, little white brinjals start forming. 

14/4/2019

The pure white brinjals, hang out like beautiful ornaments in my garden, looking so unique.

Twin brinjals. 

Very rare but I was fortunate enough to witness one of my plants produce a twin!😂

Beautiful, matured, nutritious  white brinjals

The Indian like to cook it with curry,  

Link on http://karileaves.blogspot.com/2012/05/brinjal-and-prawn-curry.html for the recipe.

     

The Chinese (Hakkas) love the famous deep fried Yong Tau Foo

               

But I prefer it roasted / grilled ..using an airfryer😂😂. Look for the recipe below:

An Airfryer has been well known for making healthy low fat meals, it leaves a cleaner kitchen without any unwanted oil, spraying all over a kitchen and perfect to cook a small meal just for two.😜😜😜

Roasted / Grilled white brinjals with garlic spread

 Ingredients:

5 young brinjals- fresh from my garden ( young ones has less seeds

and more tender)

Garlic spread to spread on the prepared brinjals

Method:

1. Cut the brinjals into 1/4 size as shown (depends on your liking.I like this size).

2. Spread the garlic evenly onto the brinjals. No oil is needed because the garlic spread has butter in it.

3. Line the tray with foil because the butter will melt during grilling.

4. Set to 200 degrees Celsius and timer to 10 mins or until the skin is brown and cripsy

It was so delicious and light. Once i started eating them, i find i can't stop😋😋😂😂

Though my husband is a very fussy eater, he too enjoys it😂😂😂😂

A simple beautiful framework of plants

I never thought such a simple,cheap and cheerful wooden rack,would look so pretty for my plants. My indoor plants were expanding.Even though, i have made use of them for my fish pond, they are still expanding and the little corner for them gets a bit cluttered. So i decided to move some of them to a special place, where i can hang them .

A friend send me a photo of a beautiful simple wooden rack for indoor plants. I was facinated by it and decided to make one almost similar,but by using cheap wood, and place it at the back of the house, because there was an "empty wall",

Getting wood from the warehouse

the woods cost less than Rm30 (less than S$10)

The warehouse was only 20 mins drive from my garden

Arranged frames together. 

Two and half feet apart in width from right to left. One foot apart in height from top down

Putting up the frame on the free space wall at the back of the house.

Put the frames together with screws. I used a battery operated drill to screw easily without using strength.

I couldn't wait to see how it looked like with my plants hanging on it, so i started putting some on the rack even though it's only 3/4 complete. They do look good I must admit, but it would look even  better when i have  finished painting it, and all the plants are in place, ie, all hanging.

Painting completed 23/5/2019

24th May 2019 - Painting has dried. Pots of plants were up. I used transparent fishing lines to hang the pots so they look like floating in the air 🤣🤣🤣

Winter Melon and Tea

Winter melons are nutritious fruits and easy to grow, without much care needed. The species I picked was Emperor. The plants had big leaves with huge bright yellow flowers and the vines spread very quickly. The fruits are round and covered with white powdery ash-like on the surface when matured.

There are 10 Seeds in this "Green world" packet

 Link on https://www.gwgenetics.com/product/winter-gourd-emperor/

The female flower has a little "belly" with a sticky stigma to hold the pollen from the male flowers for pollination. After pollination, the female flower started to wither, dropped off and the little "belly" will start to grow bigger

Male flowers look the same as the female except they don't have any bulging little melon .

Male and female flower 

5/3/2019 - Little melon beginning to grow bigger after the flower withered.

6/4/2019 - Little melon getting bigger

22/4/2019 - Emperor Winter Melon maturing fast

22/5/2019

More leaves and the Emperor Winter Melon still holding strong 💪 on the trellis. 

23/5/2019

 It's 5.5 Kg. One of my friends still think, it's too early to harvest but I feared the melon might drop to the ground and  smashed into pieces.  So I decided to harvest it and let it mature further in the dark room or store. Better safe than sorry😜😜

Big winter melon 5.5 kg & Small melon 3.1kg

Learning from mistake. When i planted the first plant, i had not ideal 

when to harvest the melon, and harvested this one too early -21/1/2019. It was my daughter's birthday.  

When I showed it to my friends on watsapp, they told me it's too young for soup😂😂😂 but can be stir fried as vegetable or just let it sit in the dark room or storage to mature further.

 I decided to wait, since matured or unmatured melons can last about 5-6 months without going bad.

21/5/2019  ( 4 months later) I decided to cut it to make winter melon tea which my mother used to make .

1/4 of the winter melon

50gm rock sugar (according to taste- I don't like too sweet like those sold in packet)

Remove the skin on the winter melon, cut into cubes as shown.

I added 6 dried dates for extra flavor.

1 liter water

Cook it on a slow cooker pot for 2 hours

Winter melon tea can be served hot or cold. I preferred  hot  winter melon tea served in a bowl.

Cold refreshing winter melon tea on a hot humid day is ideal

There are many ways to make winter melon tea.

Link below to see a few more bloggers who posted their winter melon tea

https://www.submerryn.com/2014/07/winter-melon-tea-recipe.htm

https://www.chinasichuanfood.com/winter-melon-tea/

https://dailycookingquest.com/winter-melon-tea.html

http://www.tastehongkong.com/recipes/winter-melon-and-dried-longan-drink/

Benefits of Winter Melon:
1. Potassium is good for the heart.
2. Fibre great for bowel movement.
3. Vit B12 good for vision
4. Vit C excellant for  immunity booster
5.  Vit  B2 an excellant energy booster
6. Excellant source of anti oxidant

That's the pros , what about the cons?
1. Not recommended to pregnant women especially the first trimester - didn't mention why but our elderly believe it's too "cooling" and may cause miscarriage to those with "weak womb".
2.Too much fibre can cause indigestion.
3. Not recommended for those with history of Asthma - Again didn't mention why but Chinese folks think cooling fruits like winter melons and pineapple can trigger asthma attack.
4. Not recommended to those who has allergic reaction before from this fruit.