Ploughing Painting

I took this oxen ploughing painting picture at Lahore museum. I liked this painting because it shows a part of our culture, which is now almost out of practice. I'm not sure whether it is an historical painting or just a painting shows an old method of farming, where our farmers used to plough with the help of oxen. When I was a kid we had two pair of oxen and I saw my father ploughing all the day. But now you will hardly see any farmer in the village keeping oxen.

Ploughing with Oxen Painting

Black Banded Snake

Last night, my brother called me "would you like to take snake picture". In spite of the fact that I'm really afraid of snakes, I ran away to the snake with my camera. This was the second snake we found in our house in one week. I took a few pictures in the state of fear, of course of very bad quality. This snake has brown color with black/dark brown bands and is consider to be very venomous snake. Both the snakes we found in our house were young ones, probably from a new hatch, measuring about one and half feet. The first one was almost band less, while this one has developed bands, but all are not turned black yet.

Black Banded Snake

The place where we found the snake first

Carpenter Bees

Carpenter Bee

Carpenter bees ( genus: Xylocopa, subfamily: Xylocopinae, family: Apidae) are solitary bees i.e they live individually rather then colonies. However some species have tendency to live in simple social group. They have large (up to one inch) hairy bodies and found in shiny black, yellow or metallic blue color. They are named carpenter bees because they bore tunnels in wood to make their nests. They feed on pollen and nectar from flowers and thus play an important role in pollination of flowers and trees. However they also damage wood. Their damage to wood initially is minor, however repeated use for many years of the same wood can eventually cause considerable wood damage as they enlarge an existing burrows. The male bee does not have a stinger and thus are harmless to human. The female carpenter bee does have a stinger, but sting only if captured or handled.

Carpenter Bees

Carpenter Bee Nest

Carpenter Bee Stinger

Wild Fig Tree

This wild fig tree (Probably Ficus variegata) grows in northern areas of Pakistan. The strange thing about this tree is that the figs (fruit) grow on trunk and mature branches and that is why it is called "Trunk fruiting fig". Contrary to common figs which ripen in June, these figs ripen in August. It is called "Urmal" in local language Pashto in district Buner, NWFP.

Wild Fig Tree

Aloe Vera Plant and Flowers

Aloe vera is a species of succulent plant. It's is a stemless or very short-stemmed succulent plant growing to 60–100 cm (24–39 in) tall, spreading by offsets. The leaves are thick and fleshy, green to grey-green, with some varieties showing white flecks on the upper and lower stem surfaces. The margin of the leaf is serrated and has small white teeth. The flowers are produced in summer on a spike up to 90 cm (35 in) tall, each flower pendulous, with a tubular corolla 2–3 cm (0.8–1.2 in) long. Some other names of Aloe Vera are burn plant, lily of the desert and elephant's gall. For detail visit: wikipedia

Aloe Vera Plant

Aloe Vera Blooms

Brown Speckled Katydid/Bush Cricket

Here are a few pictures of an unidentified short-winged katydid/bush cricket (family: Tettigoniidae) sitting on a wild marijuana leaf. It has a greenish brown body with black/dark-brown speckles on its body and that is why I called it brown speckled katydid. It will be more suitable to name it as 'brown speckled short-winged katydid'.

Any help regarding the correct identification will be highly appreciated.

Brown Speckled Katydid/Bush Cricket

Yellow-Black Digger Wasp

This yellow-black digger wasp (A specie of digger wasps) is a solitary wasp belong to family Sphecidae. They dig hole in the ground or use pre-existed hole to construct their nest. Females capture and sting the prey to paralyze it. The paralyzed preys are deposited in the burrow. The wasps lay their eggs in the provisioned nest, on the body of one of the prey insects. When the larvae hatch, they feed on the paralyzed insects. They are not aggressive and do not sting people unless they are aggravated or captured by hand.

Yellow-black Digger Wasps

Ground Digger Wasp Nest

Flowering Pomegranate

Here are a few flowers pictures of Flowering Pomegranate (Punica granatum) also known as Noshi Shibari or double flower pomegranate. I brought the cutting of this plant from Gomal University D.I.Khan in 2000. As I plant the cutting in inappropriate place i.e under my grapes plant, therefore it took 9 years to start flowering. This plant generally produces flowers in most part of the year, but my plant stop flowering in July. It produces vibrant red colored blooms, which turn white with passage of time. This pomegranate does not bear fruits. My camera failed to focus on these flowers, that is why the pictures you see here are not very clear.

Flowering Pomegranate Flowers

Old flower

Teddy Bear Bee

Teddy Bear Bee (Amegilla cingulata) is an Australian native bee. It belongs to the anthophoridae family of insects. They have golden-brown or yellowish-brown colored furry body with black stripes across the abdomen. It's a solitary bee that nests in shallow burrows in the ground.

Teddy Bear Bee

St. Andrew's Cross Spider

St. Andrew's Cross Spider (Argiope keyserlingii) belong to family Araneidae. This spider can easily be recognized by the silk woven zigzag cross in the middle of its web, which resembles the cross of St. Andrew and that is why it's called St. Andrew's Cross Spider. The spider sits with the legs in pairs. Females have a silver, yellow, red and black banded upper abdomen, with two length wise yellow stripes below. The males have a red-brown colored body, with no pattern on their abdomen. The female has a body length of 15mm. The male is much smaller than the female, having a length of about 5mm.

St. Andrew's Cross Spider

Common Baron Butterfly

The Common Baron Butterfly (Euthalia aconthea) belong to family Nymphalidae. It is a medium-sized butterfly with a wing span of 55-80mm. Though it's not colored like other species, but still has a remarkable shape and shades. Common Barons feed on rotten fruits vegetables and plant sap . However, its larva host plant is mango tree. Common Barons are found in India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, China, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Sunderland.

Common Baron Butterfly

Electric Poles

Here are some pictures of electric poles and cables. It would be more suitable to call them "Non Electric Poles", as the electricity pass through these poles and cables just for 6 hours a day. Among other crises Pakistan facing, one and probably the major problem is electricity shortage. This shortage is compensated by load shedding during which the electricity is cut off for about 18 hours in a day. There is no specific time or schedule for load shedding. The load shedding is directly proportion to hot weather. Here I'm not going to discuss the inverse effects of electricity shortage on economy. Actually I don't have factories for which I need electricity nor I have AC installed in my house. The 160 million people of Pakistan including me just need electricity to run a fan.

Electric Poles in Pakistan