28 February 2011

LABRADOR NATURE RESERVE

Why so glum, you little schnauzer?

There are many boats of the coast of the park and this huge cruise ship was just passing by. I have never been on a boat cruise before and I don't think I ever would because I don't enjoy the activities on board. Moreover it is quite costly.

The roundabout of interesting palms is actually a highlight at the entrance to the park.





WHITE

For months now, this landscape reminded me of snow because of the white colour flowers and variegated leaves. Some of these plants were posted by me before and one plant is noticeably missing although it is on the site. The one that is missing in action is the white flower Oxalis. The others are:
  1. Orthosiphon aristatus (variegated)
  2. Clematis aristata
  3. Pennisetum alopecuroides
  4. Panicum maximum (variegated)
  5. Angelonia cultivar
There are several cultivars of Angelonia angustifolia (common name: Summer Snapdragon, Angel Flower; Family: Scrophulariaceae) and this one could be any of the following. Some links are attached below:
  1. http://www.ballhort.com/Landscapers/plant_info.aspx?phid=004904608005863
  2. http://www.ballhort.com/Landscapers/plant_info.aspx?phid=004902212005886
  3. http://www.flowersofindia.net/catalog/slides/White%20Angelonia.html









MIMOSA DIPLOTRICHA

I think this is the Mimosa diplotricha (common name: Giant Sensitive Plant; Family: Fabaceae / Leguminosae) and in my opinion, it is so beautiful with its nice leaf texture and cute tiny pink flowers.


HAMELIA PATENS

The new team transplanted this bonsai-looking Hamelia into this pot at the Golden Garden and I think it is a wonderful idea. What is lacking now is the cascading groundcover at the base of the plant.

This specimen is flowering and fruiting and I think the nursery should train more of this sunbird attracting plant into a bonsai-like shrub and plant it in the general landscape out there to add variety.



27 February 2011

THE RITE

I watched "The Rite" recently. That's right, I watched a demonic possession and exorcism movie based on a true story.

Starring Anthony Hopkins as Father Lucas and an unknown Colin O'Donoghue, at least to me, as a young man Michael Kovak who left home in search of his calling. The movie traced his journey from an initial skeptic till the end when he eventually overcame his own disbelief and embraced his status as Father Kovak in real life.

His lack of faith and his disbelief in God and Devil brought him all the way to Rome to attend a class on exorcism. After meeting Father Lucas in the suburbs, he witnessed how the latter conducted various sessions of exorcism on victims with demonic possession and still thought it was all a hoax. After one of the young girl victim died, he was even more disillusioned and all ready to leave since he felt there was nothing he could do and that the victims needed psychiatric help more than anything else.

His test came when Father Lucas was possessed by a demon, who tried to challenge the young priest. Due to the dire circumstances, he had no choice but to perform the first exorcism of his life and cast out the demon from the body of Father Lucas after regaining his faith in the religion, and belief in the existence of a God and a Devil.

While there weren't much special effects, I guess such movies are not meant for the weak heart. Demonic possession and exorcism are not things to be taken lightly and it is not something we usually see in our daily lives. Whether one believes it or not depends on one's experiences but if one comes across it, I am sure it is not a pleasant sight to stomach.

Anyway, I love Anthony Hopkins's acting in the movie and once again, it shows how good an actor he is. A link on the movie is below:

22 February 2011

DARK GLASSY TIGER

This post is supposed to be about the Dark Glassy Tiger (scientific name: Parantica agleoides agleoides; Family: Nymphalidae) but I couldn't resist taking a photo of the Plain Tiger (scientific name: Danaus chrysippus chrysippus) on the Lantana camara.

Anyway, the Dark Glassy Tigers were congregating on the Crotalaria retusa (common name: Rattleweed; Family: Fabaceae / Leguminosae) despite the very badly attacked plants. In fact, they can be seen perching on the seed pods and piercing their proboscis through holes in the pods to feed on some toxic chemical compounds pyrrolizidine alkaloid and use it for their defense against predation.

Such an effect is similarly noticed on the plant Artemisia scoparia.

A link on the Crotalaria is attached herein for reference:

LEARNING & SHARING

Coincidentally, I just realised that today on 22.2.11 at about 2:22 pm, we had an informal learning and sharing session and the turnout was overwhelming with about 200 people. What a coincidence I wonder?

The session turned out better than I expected since I have never seen such a big group of people for the past few sessions and the audience seemed to have enjoyed themselves. This is very encouraging to me and I feel the 2 months of thought provoking hard work I poured into it was well worth it. Since taking over this role, I strive to do my best to serve the target audience and introduced new ideas to make it more interactive, interesting and refreshing. Whether it is really so remains to be seen but I guess the feedback forms would give an inkling of what the audience truly felt.

Well, at least the feedback from management was positive and now we have another deadline to meet. Can we make it to meet the expectations? It seems like we are left with no choice now and have to deliver an excellent product.

The deadline is looming near and I suppose the only thing I can do now is to remain optimistic and confident of what we set out to achieve. When we believe, half the battle is already won, right?

20 February 2011

HOME AQUARIUM

Ever since the crystal shrimps died, the aquarium was quiet with hardly any life. Recently, the aquarium short-circuited and all the electrical switches in the house were suddenly turned off. It happened on one of those days before I went out to work. So I had the tank cover removed and disposed off.

Just last week, I bought a half-moon Siamese Fighting Fish (scientific name: Betta splendens) and 2 Cherry Barb fishes (scientific name: Puntius titteya). In addition, I purchased a Tiger Lotus (scientific name: Nymphaea lotus; Family: Nymphaeaceae) for some colour. Since then, a Cherry Barb committed suicide by jumping out of the uncovered tank. Everything else is doing fine.

ROOF GARDEN

This roof garden has been around for a while now. It has been planted with a whole range of plants e.g. Tradescantia discolor (synonym: Rhoeo discolor; common name: Boat Lily, Oyster Plant; Family: Commelinaceae), Ananas bracteatus (common name: Red Pineapple; Family: Bromeliaceae), Agave and Sansevieria trifasciata (common name: Mothers-in-law Tongue; Family: Ruscaceae/Agavaceae), that are drought tolerant.

What is interesting is they all have almost the same form. Some links on the plants are shown here:
  1. http://pheladelfia.com/plants.asp?PlantID=271
  2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ananas_bracteatus

OCHNA INTEGERRIMA

This is a small tree version of the Ochna I posted recently. Known as Ochna integerrima (common name: Vietnamese Mickey Mouse Plant; Family: Ochnaceae), the ones planted at HortPark's Floral Stitches have an almost non-existent crown with few leaves. One of them was in flower recently and these are the photos taken just days ago.

During the Chinese New Year a few years ago, this plant was sold as a small bonsai-like plant under the name 满地黄金, which translates to floor of gold, presumably because of its yellow flowers. However, it didn't quite catch on.

Some links are attached here: