• LIFE

  Embracing bee season

  B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 31/07/2016

  » I was standing on the veranda of our country home when I noticed a swarm of little white butterflies milling around the canopy of a rainbow eucalyptus. The tree was in bloom, and as I watched the butterflies fluttering from flower to flower, I could not help but marvel at the wonders of nature. Where did the butterflies come from? Other plants were in bloom as well, but why were they only attracted to this particularly tree? I had no doubt in my mind that the flowers were also pollinated by bees and other insects, but why were they visited by only one kind of butterfly?

• LIFE

  Sparing some expense

  B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 21/08/2016

  » When my now adult children were in primary school, bananas were so cheap that we fed kluay namwa to our pet birds. My late father, who was visiting from the Philippines, made it his duty to feed the birds while my husband and I were at work and the children were in school.

• LIFE

  Exploring the world garden

  B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 05/06/2016

  » During my visit to the Philippines two months ago, a good friend of mine gave me a bag of pistachio nuts which her sister, Pin, had sent her from the US. Pin and her family live in Delano, California, and she regularly sends food packages that includes pistachio nuts, almonds, dates and raisins to her sister in the Philippines.

• LIFE

  Reach for your buzzers

  B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 10/07/2016

  » I know that bees gather nectar and pollen from flowers to produce honey to feed their young. As they fly from one flower to another they pollinate the flowers. I also know that there are beekeepers who raise bees for their honey. The bees are let out in the morning to gather nectar and return to their hives before nightfall.

• LIFE

  Clearing the air

  B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 18/09/2016

  » I posted a photo of a plant on Facebook and was pleased with the interest that it aroused among some friends. "What is it?" several asked. "Is it aloe vera? Is it malunggay [maroom in Thai]?"

• LIFE

  Turns for the better

  B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 11/12/2016

  » Unlike the Philippines, which is battered by no less than 24 typhoons a year, Thailand is hardly hit by typhoons. Thais, therefore, did not know what to expect when Typhoon Gay hit the Gulf of Thailand on Nov 3, 1989. With gale-force winds of 120kph, it killed 529 people, including fishermen and offshore oil rig workers, and rendered 160,000 homeless in the southern provinces of Chumphon, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Surat Thani and Nakhon Si Thammarat.

• LIFE

  Seeds of change

  B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 16/10/2016

  » There is a question asked time and again on Facebook: "Should children be taught how to grow their own food as part of their schooling?"

• LIFE

  Not just the bee's knees

  B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 24/07/2016

  » Following the column on pollination two weeks ago, regular reader Bob Neylon wrote from Pattaya to say that he had a small vegetable garden as well as many fruit trees and shrubs. A couple of years ago, he bought a hive of the stingless variety of bees from the local agriculture department to pollinate his plants. "They have been OK but no real big deal," he wrote.

• LIFE

  The plants are bugged

  B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 03/04/2016

  » There’s a sad footnote to the story about Petchsuporn Rapley’s date palms in Doi Saket, Chiang Mai (Green Fingers, March 6). For those who did not read the article, Ms Petchsuporn planted some 100 date palms as an experiment a little over three years ago. A year later two trees started to flower, followed by a few more last year. Braving sharp-as-nails giant thorns, she and her workers cross-pollinated the trees manually and these successfully bore fruit for the first time last year.

• LIFE

  Nature’s cure

  B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 24/01/2016

  » After more than two months of intensive care at Ramathibodi Hospital, popular actor Tridsadee “Por” Sahawong finally lost his fight against dengue haemorrhagic fever. He died on Monday, just five days short of his 38th birthday.

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