Ella - 蔷蔷

3 days ago was your 3 months death anniversary. I am dedicating Ella's song to her dog to you:

還記得你　喜歡咬著我的手
然後給我你嘴裡的球　要我陪你玩丟丟
你喜歡我　摸摸你的小耳朵
窩在我的身旁　沒有煩擾　在夢裡遨遊
好狗狗　好狗狗
謝謝你陪媽咪這麼久
你並沒有離開我　是搬到天堂生活

蔷蔷　你要記得我　你不要走丟　
快快找到天使　在天堂給我保佑
蔷蔷　不要忘了我 還有親愛的阿姨叔叔和你的朋友
你永遠活在記憶中

還記得你　喜歡咬著我的手
然後給我你嘴裡的球　要我陪你玩丟丟
你喜歡我　摸摸你的小耳朵
窩在我的身旁　沒有煩擾　在夢裡遨遊
好狗狗　好狗狗
謝謝你陪媽咪這麼久
你並沒有離開我　是搬到天堂生活

蔷蔷　你要記得我　你不要走丟　
快快找到天使　在天堂給我們保佑
蔷蔷　不要忘了我 還有親愛的阿姨叔叔和你的朋友
你永遠活在記憶中

蔷蔷　你要記得我　你不要走丟　
快快找到天使　在天堂給我保佑
蔷蔷　不要忘了我 還有親愛的阿姨叔叔和你的朋友
你永遠活在記憶中

CREATOR

I read with alarming interest in this morning's papers "the new paper" and "Today" that this genome and DNA researcher Dr Craig Venter synthesized an organism with man-made DNA, common microbes, a DNA synthesizer, a computer and 4 bottles of chemicals.

In simple terms, it seemed all beneficial and totally harmless. After all, the original organism that spawned this new "life" was a bacterium that causes mastitis, which is the inflammation of the breast tissues, in goats.

In all things, there are always boons and banes. There are always separate camps and schools of thoughts for and against it.

Those for it would cite all the medical and scientific breakthroughs and benefits it could potentially bring e.g. algae that could possibly remove excess carbon dioxide from air. They would claim it is no different from what humanity has done all along - to control nature e.g. domesticating animals for our use. They would blur the line and say this is not creation of life but just merely mimicking it. Afterall, this is just a micro-organism, they would say.

Those against it would ask if he is playing god and cite all the unethical issues? Has he opened the Pandora's box to unleash what would inevitably come as a result of such scientific work e.g. environmental calamities, biological weapons? Would this open the floodgates for more and bigger artificial organisms to be created?

I for one, is against this kind of DNA work. I applaud the genius and talent of Dr Venter but I guess there are certain things that we should never venture into. Usually, all these medical advances were carried out with the best of interests for mankind, but there is no denying the possibility of things going wrong in the end. No matter how remote it is, it can still go wrong. What Dr Venter did is now in the open. What about the other experiments and projects that were not thrown into the light?

First, there was Dolly the lamb that was cloned. Now this. What's next? Perhaps I have been watching too many movies, such as "28 Days Later", "28 Weeks Later" and Will Smith's "I am Legend", which by the way I loved very much. These movies and other similar ones struck fear in me. I know I don't and cannot live forever, but I don't want our world to be exterminated and our lives to be cut short because of some scientific experiment went wrong. In "Jurassic Park" and its sequels, we learnt what could go wrong when we play with nature. Whilst the above were just movies, they present possible scenarios that could occur just by accident or deliberate actions and the escape of these unknown organisms out of the laboratory could mean the end of some other lives. Micro-organisms are very capable of mutation for survival. Haven't we learnt of how the H1N1 mutated into several strains, with some being more potent than others? How would we know that this would not happen to this new single-celled organism?

They can deny all they want that they are not playing god, synthesizing life etc, but seriously, who are they kidding? Call me a skeptic because I don't have good feelings about such breakthroughs and I can only hope that our world would not be thrown into a spiral by the acts of man himself. Like what uncle Ben said to Peter Parker in Spiderman "with great power, comes great responsibility". Only time will tell whether we should be grateful or not to this brillant man behind all these.

CATERPILLARS

We saw this pair of caterpillars on the Gardenia gjellerupii (Thai Gardenia) at Aspley's Nursery.

How interesting they looked. They must be adult butterflies by now.

CARPHALEA KIRONDRON

This is a 25-year old 2 m tall Carphalea that was planted by Robert's dad. Now they use it for propagation of stock plants.

I was at a loss of words!

ABELIA

I was in love with Abelia since the time I saw it planted by a colleague at Singapore Botanic Gardens almost a year ago.

In Australia, they seemed to have various varieties of the variegated Abelia. The small white flowers are also slightly fragrant. In addition, the small pinkish sepals are a great contrast with the green or variegated leaves and white flowers.

When I saw the huge clump of normal green leaved Abelia grandiflora with long arching branches at Aspley's Nursery, I was mesmerized. I could not remember Robert Percy mentioned how long it took this plant to grow to that size. All I remembered was how spectacular it looked.

UNKNOWNS

I saw these 2 unknown plants at the Aspley Nursery.

I was particularly attracted to the herbaceous looking plant with blue flowers. From afar, it looked slightly untidy but close-up, I felt the blue flowers looked really lovely and can be used as a meadow plant. Too bad, I didn't manage to collect any seeds for growing.

VIOLA HEDERACEA

I love this tropical Viola. Whilst it may not be as showy as the other Viola, it forms a nice low carpet with whitish-purplish flowers.

I wish I can get hold of some of these for growing in HortPark.

NB on 21 Jul 13: I think the correct name could be Viola banksii instead.

HIBISCUS MUTABILIS

This is a beautiful double-petaled Hibiscus that resembles a rose plant. The flowers take on a whitish light pink hue before gradually turning dark pink. The leaves are also slightly lobed, making it an unusual Hibiscus.

Along the street, we saw this beautiful clump of Hibiscus from afar in a weeding garden that looked like a small tree. I wonder how long it took for it to grow to this size.

Too bad the flowers are ephemeral and don't last very long.

WEED

Throughout the road trip around Brisbane, I keep seeing this beautiful tree with pink flowers. However, I wasn't able to stop the vehicle to take close-up photos of the plant.

After numerous inquiries later, I was told this is an invasive weed in Australia. Hence, this plant is not on sale in any of the nurseries.

How disappointing.

WATER MONITOR

I think they called it the water monitor. This was actually a juvenile that froze on the palm of Gavin, our guide in Australia.

SUNRISE

We took the early morning flight to Brisbane on the morning of 15 Apr 10. What a beautiful sunrise on board the budget airline.

Here was the beginning of a new day in Brisbane!

DIRECTIONAL SIGN

We saw this interesting directional signpost at one of the traffic junctions of Cairns.

It gave the direction of some of the areas in Australia e.g. Sydney, and some other cities e.g. London, in terms of km around the globe.

How funny!

CAIRNS ESPLANADE

Cairns Esplanade reminded me a little of our East Coast Park, although it was less busy and more quiet.

The road abutting the esplanade was literally without much vehicular traffic and the air was clean and fresh.

Interestingly, I was told this area used to be a mangrove mudflat and the esplanade was built on a higher platform level than the muddy seafront.

Physically, it was quite a drop in terms of height from the edge of the timber deck walkway. But surprise surprise, there were no railings at all to prevent people from falling onto the mud. I suppose their culture is so different that they really do not need a physical barrier to protect their safety, unlike in Singapore where the slightest drop in height would likely illicit feedback of hazards and danger from the general public. So I guess they are more responsible and conscious of their personal safety.

The seagull and other shorebirds were comfortably strolling in the mud, supposedly looking for food amongst the planted or regenerated mangrove saplings.

There was nothing really unusual or spectacular about the walkway and there was no conflict in terms of pedestrians and cyclists etc. Come to think of it, there were very few cyclists along the roads or at the esplanade.

What I really love was the big open swimming pool. How I wished I could take a dip in the clear shallow waters. It was interesting why a public swimming pool was constructed next to the sea. In fact, it seemed quite ironical, if you think about it. But that aside, to me this was really the highlight of the place.

They also had an interesting signage that showed the daily temperature and weather etc. How refreshing!

And yes, I absolutely love the stout Cassia with beautiful pinkish yellow flowers.

The walkway linking to the Pier was planted with 2 linear rows of Moreton Bay Ficus (Ficus macrophylla) that provided lots of shade to the area.

Well, this has to be the post with one of the most photos. The record is 16 photos here.

WHITE BRACKETS

These white bracket fungi are so prettily pure looking, amidst a dark background of the tree trunk.

I always fancy them, not just because they taste good, but because they can occur in many forms, shapes and colours. Their natural beauty is sometimes what sets apart an artificial environment from what is created by mother nature.

FLECKER GARDENS

The rain got heavier when we left the ABS for Flecker Gardens.

The Flecker Gardens is just part of the Cairns Botanic Gardens. Due to time constraints, we could only visit this garden.

The tropical garden was very lush and focus their display on colours and variety in terms of foliage patterns and contrast. I was particularly drawn to the Begonia, Episcia, Calathea etc.

The beautiful Colocasia esculenta leaf collected the nice beads of water droplets towards its center. The lilac-flower with water droplets is that of a Dianella ensifolia. An interesting tree was the one with orangey curved fruits, that reminds one of chilis. In fact, they were the fruits of the Pinwheel Flower (Tabernaemontana species) although I had no idea what species it belonged to? The fruit after that which reminds one of durians is that of an unripe Corkscrew Pandan (Pandanus tectorius). Lastly, the tree with the purple flowers is the Kapok, Silk Floss Tree or Floss Silk Tree (Ceiba speciosa, or formerly known by its synonym Chorisia speciosa).