Singapore Botanic Gardens

Blue skies and everything nice - that was this morning at the Singapore Botanic Gardens. Many plants and shrubs were in bloom. They were on the verge of fading but still looked good. I photographed the flowers that I have seen many times before in the gardens except that this time I paid special attention to the sky in the background. What a lovely morning!

A bit of the sky in the pond.

Plumeria (Frangipani)
Sterculia foetida (Indian almond, Java Olive)

Origin: East Africa, Tropical Asia

Alocasia macrorrhiza (Elephant's Ear)

Origin: Tropical Asia Kopsia flavida?

Brownea capitella

Lophanthera lactescens

Family: Malpighiaceae
Common Name: Golden Chain Tree
Origin: Brazil, Uruguay

Blue skies make everything nice.

Singapore Botanic Gardens

Flowers in the Singapore Botanic Gardens lured out by the rains. Droplets on petals, flowers that are fresh and brilliant because they are young. Pagoda flowers (yellow), ginger, heliconia, clerodendrum bungei(rose glorybower), frangipani, palm fruits - I saw them and what a difference they made to my life.

Bukit Timah Hill

View of the disused quarry at Bukit Timah Hill.There were no flowers in sight but there were other interesting things to look at. In the fading light, I had no choice but to make use of the camera flash to take these lovely fruits.

Dying trees.
Makes me think of Japan.
A squirrel that was lightning fast.
A monkey carrying her baby whizzed past me and went up a tree.

Roof-top garden

Traveller's palms make walls less unfriendly.
What else do you see? Canna, plumeria and something on the window sills I cannot make out. What a lovely place to call home.

Where is this garden?

The first person to email me and tell me where this beautiful garden is gets a free lunch from me. Just kidding! I just want to show off the photos of the lovely orchids without having to labour over what to write as it is already past midnight. The answer will be on my website soon.

Garden in an educational institution

In a place of higher learning

there is a piece of paradise

where carps swim and greenery rules

Sometimes it is good to just rest your eyes

and gaze into the ponds and feel

the sensation of calm and peace

How nice if every place of work

contains a glorious space like this.

SIM University at Clementi Road.

Singapore Botanic Gardens

At the Economic Garden, the bougainvillas were blooming profusely.

The garden was peaceful and quiet on a weekday afternoon. Parts of the garden reminds me of the gardens in UK in summer.

I saw the usual black swans swimming in the lake but a strange whistling call drew my attention to these two ducks. The looked and behaved like ducks.

But these ducks do not quack! What ducks are these? By chance I came across a book on ducks at the National Library that had a picture of this duck. I found out that it was a Radjah Shelduck that is found in Australia. Did they fly all the way here or were they flown here as a gift from Australia to Singapore? More information could be found in Wikipedia here.

Upper Seletar Reservoir

I came back from my jungle retreat
That I had thought was dark and deep
that I thought was filled with plants and trees
animals and insects never seen

I thought there was a river
winding through thick vegetation
I imagined hints of reptiles
eyes gleaming at the water's edge

Now I am back home
and when I climbed a tower
to test my stamina
and be closer to the clouds

I saw beautiful tree tops and greenery
the jungle in my mind
was right here at home
all the time.

Look-out tower at Seletar Reservoir Park.

Tall, shady trees all around.

A bird's eye view of the lush greenery at the top of the tower.

Not a river but enough water to soothe the eye.

Trees as far as the eye can see - is this really Singapore?