Showing 1 - 5 of 5
The tree of life
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 08/11/2015
» I received an invitation to a symposium recently. Well, I thought that was what it was, for the invitation and the programme were in Vietnamese and there were only three words that I understood: Hanoi and Morinda citrifolia.
A prune with a view
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 04/10/2015
» A friend of mine has a roadside tree in front of his house. It had become so dense that he could not see through it from his second-floor window. Last month he had it trimmed.
An offer I couldn't refuse
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 20/09/2015
» Out of the blue, I heard from an old friend I have not seen for decades. “Would you have time to come and see my villa in Khlong Luang, Pathum Thani?” she asked. “It’s very close to Bangkok and I would like to have your opinion. I’ve owned it for over 30 years, starting from scratch by digging up ponds. It is not for anything but pleasure and respite from Bangkok.”
Leave those trees alone
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 12/07/2015
» I was on my way to fetch my grandson from school last week when I passed by workmen busy trimming tamarind trees along Si Ayutthaya Road outside the Chitralada Palace compound. As branches cut from the trees fell to the ground, other workers picked them up and loaded them onto a lorry. They were still busy working on that particular stretch of road when I passed them on the way back.
Living art in miniature
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 01/06/2014
» During a trip to Japan years ago, I visited a village in Omiya, in Saitama prefecture outside Tokyo, where more than a dozen families grew and sold bonsai. “We get visitors from all over the world all the time,” Saburo Katoh, owner of Mansei-en nursery and founder of the Omiya bonsai village, told me at the time. “But the bonsai season is in October and November, when seasoned bonsai enthusiasts come to buy plants.