• LIFE

  The best way to turn over that new leaf

  B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 03/01/2016

  » I have a young friend who lives in Fresno, California. She teaches science in high school but does volunteer work in her spare time, taking a group of elderly people to a public park to do gardening. “There are plots in the park where the elderly can plant flowers or vegetables,” she said when we talked on the phone recently. “They love it. They find it invigorating. Growing plants has given them a new purpose in life.”

• LIFE

  A landscape on the rocks

  B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 15/11/2015

  » Frederik Majoor and his wife, Patraporn, live in a tropical paradise just a seven-minute walk from Surin beach in Phuket. They own three villas that boast a lush, beautifully landscaped garden, complete with a waterfall and a large pond designed like a stream and populated by 99 colourful Japanese carp, or koi.

• LIFE

  Space invaders

  B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 02/08/2015

  » What’s in a name? It may not sound funny to you, but I find it amusing how American lawmakers could waste so much time and energy, not to mention taxpayers’ money, deliberating over what to call a fish. Last year, Senator Bill Hoffman of Minnesota was concerned that the name “Asian carp” was “hurtful” and “offensive” to some people so he sought to change the name to “invasive carp”. And guess what, the Minnesota Senate approved the bill.

• LIFE

  A place in the shade

  B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 14/06/2015

  » I was enjoying my favourite phad thai at the Sampran Riverside’s Inn Chan restaurant when I overheard someone telling resort owner Suchada Yuvaboon that her family have been regular guests of the resort for decades. She said they would either spend their weekends there, staying overnight at the hotel, or drive from Bangkok on Saturday or Sunday just to have lunch at the Inn Chan. Not just every now and then, but nearly every week.

• LIFE

  Growing farm fresh kids

  B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 03/05/2015

  » Not many teachers would use a farm as an educational tool for grade school children, but Preciosa Soliven, PhD, is no ordinary teacher. As the founding president of OB (Operation Brotherhood) Montessori Centre, which operates five schools in and around Manila in the Philippines, she motivates children to develop into self-dependent adults from the age of three.

• LIFE

  Neighbour-friendly fermentation

  B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 20/04/2014

  » Ramon Encinares is a Filipino who lives in Samphran, Nakhon Pathom province, in a house surrounded by pig farms.

• LIFE

  The imaginarium of pandanus

  B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 16/03/2014

  » Pandanus tectorius, commonly known as screw pine or beach pandan (toey talay in Thai), has become the iconic symbol of Kamala Beach in Kathu district, western Phuket. Lining the beach alongside casuarina trees, their strong prop roots have held the sand in place and kept erosion at bay since Kamala was established as a popular beach resort in the 1970s. The tree also enjoyed pride of place in the beautifully landscaped garden of an exclusive condominium on the beachfront, until the property owners decided that its roots had become too ugly and obtrusive, and had it removed. Now they are in a dilemma over what to replace it with.

• LIFE

  Casuarina and effects

  B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 23/02/2014

  » For some people, the mention of “sun, sea and sand” calls to mind a clear blue sea and a beach fringed by coconut fronds. For others, it evokes having a picnic or lazing the day away by the sea under the shade of a casuarina tree. The truth is that the former is a sight common only in travel brochures; from Rayong in the East down to Phuket in the South, it is Casuarina equisetifolia, commonly known as ironwood or horsetail casuarina (son talay in Thai) that is an integral part of Thai coastal areas. There are more casuarinas on Thai beaches than coconuts.

• LIFE

  Pharmacy on the forest floor

  B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 10/11/2013

  » After making a name for herself as one of Thailand's top marine biologists, Hansa Chansang took advantage of an early retirement scheme to pursue her other passion: growing trees. She cleared most of her family's rubber plantation in Cherngtalay, near the popular Laguna tourist area in Phuket's Thalang district, and planted it with many different species of forest trees. Visiting her plantation recently, I marvelled not only at how tall her trees have grown since I last saw them five years ago, but also at the diversity of wild plants growing on the floor of the man-made forest.

• LIFE

  Stop the madness _ let roadside trees reach their full glory

  B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 14/07/2013

  » I was travelling along Rama IV Road last week when I saw that some of the Pterocarpus indicus, known in Thai as pradoo, trees on the roadside had flowers. Pradoo usually flower in April and it is now July, so these were late bloomers. Especially spectacular was a tree across the streets from Chamchuri Square. It was small but it completely shrouded by flowers, which was unusual as pradoo shed their leaves two or three months after the end of the rainy season and develop new ones before or during blooming time in the summer, so the golden flowers are always accompanied by lush green leaves.

1 2 Next Last