Hanoi this time

Today, driving in streets, I noticed that all kinds of summer flowers have started blooming. I don’t realize when is the first time I saw them this year, perhaps I was too busy with other things, or have forgotten to picture simple beauties in my eyes. I would like the first reason much more than the second. Anyway, red and purple colors still haven’t covered here yet, they have just started to show their face to remind people that soon they will complain about the heat and want to run away from this city.

At this time of the year, walking in Hanoi usually makes me feel as I’m lost in a river of time. Yellow leaves covered many streets, and green color of new leaves is stronger than ever. Many tiny flowers, which have a special color mixed of milky white and light green, falling on the ground. Sấu (I found an English name on Wikipedia: Dracontomelon) really knows how to make it become special: it chooses the time to put down all the old leaves when their new leaves grows enough to cover the whole tree that nobody has a chance to complain about an old leafless tree even in a second, and it also decorates itself with those tiny flower at the same time. When people are still surprised with summer, their fruits will grow so quickly that we would think they are always there, prepare well to become a part of our meal on hot days. I don’t know when this kind of tree started to appear in Hanoi but this city has been well-known for the sour fruits for years. I knew about the fruit in novels and poems before I tasted it and I must say that I love it. My friends showed me many years ago that we can eat new leaves of it. And today, I know we can also taste the tiny flowers falling all around.

My little friend picked up five flowers, put them into my hands while smiling and told me that I should try how they were. That was a perfect way to finish a Saturday afternoon, don’t you think?

Add here two pictures I found on internet to show you how this kind of tree looks like this time:

and their flowers falling on ground:

Have a happy weekend 🙂

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New friends arrived

After saying that we would bring home some golden fishes for several times, my roommate and I finally rode our bike to a fish store and picked up two small golden fishes, a small glass bowl for them and some other tiny things to prepare for their new home. And so, our room now looks more vivid with a vase of white lily flowers and a bowl of fish, not to mention about two bright faces with big smiles.

Honestly, none of us has any clue about taking care of a golden fish. When I was a kid, sometimes I played with fish as my toys: pick up some tiny colorful fishes, put them into a bottle which used to a wine bottle and look – that was all I did. Therefore, our little fishes have had to be patient to see two crazy old women look at them curiously, wonder how to change the water, when they should do this or that. Thanks to Mr. Google now we can easily find information about almost everything but reading and doing what you read is not so easy.

Anyway, my roommate always remember that she shouldn’t let me carry the fish bowl to anywhere – she already saw what happened when I took care of our vase of rose and after some minutes she had to be hurry to sweep many tiny pieces of what used to be a vase and clean the floor.

Add:
Finally, after trying many different tricks, I have a picture that you can see them, hehe. These little fishes still need time to get familiar with their friends 😀