Water Lilies

Watch this video clip to find out.

Birds in Singapore - new blog

The weather this week has been rainy, the days gloomy. Since I do not have any photos of flowers worth sharing, I thought I should divert my attention to another of my favourite photographic subject - birds in the parks and those that come to my garden to perch on the branches of my bougainvilla shrub.

My blog on birds is at http://birdsinsingapore.blogspot.com

Hibiscus

This looks like an ordinary hibiscus shrub with beige/pinkish petals. Look at it more carefully and you will discover that......in the same shrub that was grown from a single cutting, there is a red hibiscus amongst the blooms. The lady who planted this shrub was curious about this phenomenon and so was I. Some explanations given to her had to do with some mix-up in the roots of the cutting she had and another had to do with the bees crossing over from one type of hibiscus shrub to another during pollination. Maybe its genetics. I do not know. She gave me cutting from this shrub and I am looking forward to it growing and flowering in my garden.

South African sausage tree - Kigelia pinnata

This was how the tree looked when I saw it last week in the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

I found a website that contained good information about this tree here: http://waynesword.palomar.edu/sausage.htm

Egrets/Herons coming home to roost

Today:

• I learned how to edit videos using Microsoft Moviemaker; and
• I signed up for a YouTube account and learned how to upload the video below.
  
  
  
  
  

The video clip is part of a longer video that was recorded with my Canon IXUS 800. We were staying at the Mahkota Hotel over Christmas with some friends in one of the units on a high floor. While admiring the view from the balcony we witnessed this wonderful phenomenon. It was truly an amazing sight.

The video takes time to load but if you can wait, it will be worth your patience. While waiting, you can look at these photos:

Dance of the Banana Flowers

Singapore Botanic Gardens

The Illawarra Flame Tree - Brachychiton acerifolius,

It's not yet Christmas and yet this tree in the Singapore Botanic Gardens reminds me of a tree bearing gifts of the season.Bright red flowers and buds decorate the bare branches.

Viewed from certain angles it looks as if it has been dusted with red powder. Here are the flowers gathered for appreciation:
I have only seen this tree or one like it while I was driving. I remember that I was coming onto the main road from a slip road and this beautiful cone-shaped tree laden with clusters of red flowers was standing right in the middle of a road divider. The location of this tree when I saw it at least a year and a half ago was somewhere near the beginning of Commonwealth Avenue West.

For days after I noticed that tree, I longed to stop the car to take a closer look. That being impossible I just took in as much as I could of this rare tree until I figured a way to get to it. Of course I never got to the tree before it lost all its flowers. So when this tree beckoned me from a walking distance, I made up for the opportunity lost previously by photographing it as if it were a celebrity making a one-day only appearance.

A few weeks later the tree is almost bare of flowers.

When will this Illawarra Flame tree bloom again?

Personal References Updated

Guide books on nature published by the Singapore Science Centre are inexpensive and great value for money at around $5 each. They are pocket-sized, easy to read with photos that are worth a thousand words each and are dedicated to specific topics on flowers, plants, trees, animals, insects etc. Great for quick references. These are the guides on flowers, plants and trees:

I also collect guides on birds, animals and butterflies.
I like books that contain good photos that would help me identify the flowers, plants and trees that I am unfamiliar with as well as giving me information that is precise without my having to read a whole lot of scientific or technical details. I chose these books because they meet my needs:
These are expensive books that are around $40. I usually wait for bookshops to have storewide sales of with up to 20% discounts on books. Kinokuniya and Times were pretty good in making such offers once in a while. The book on the left was purchased in Hong Kong at the Cable-car station on Lantau island. It was not more than SGD$20 and includes a CD. It was really money well-spent because it gave a neat presentation of the flora and fauna of Hong Kong with colourful photos and drawings. The book on the right was bought at an airport in China during my trip to Jiuzhaigou. It is written in Chinese but the names of the plants are in English.
I bought these books because my other passion in life is art.
This particular book has a special place in my heart. Unfortunately it fell apart in my hands not because I mishandled the book but because the binding was poorly done. I hope the second edition of this book has a more reliable spine..
The most beautifully illustrated book in my collection is this book.
Each fruit featured had been the artistic effort of an Indonesian artist. The layout of the pages is fantastic. I bought this book some time back at a well-known book store that offered it for $10.50. I bought two. I should have bought ten because they made lovely gifts to friends who can appreciate either the subject or the artwork. If you go to the shops now, this book is twice what I paid for.
The books here were purchased for less than $12 each. The one that is purple in colour on Mint plants cost only $2. Unbelievable but true and I was one lucky gal! The Garden Flowers book was picked up at a small bookshop that has since closed down at Marina Square. Got it for only $8 and it has plenty of photos of flowers. The book on 1001 perennials cost only $3 and my daughter bought it for me. These two books are full-colour and printed on high-quality glossy paper. Love them!
Other than flowers, chancing upon fungi during my walks always make my day. I have more photos on fungi of all sorts than I can handle. Though I have these books, I will never dare to identify the fungi that I have photographed because fungi types are too numerous and complicated. The book in Chinese is thick and heavy and was given as a present by my Taiwanese friend when I visited her a few years ago. If you read Chinese and are interested in Fungi, this would be a book dropped from Heaven.
Books on birds, insects and the Chek Jawa Guide book.
Books, booklets and publications that have been given to me free of charge.