Showing posts with label glasshouse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label glasshouse. Show all posts

14 March 2012

ENGLISH LANGUAGE - CAR PARK OR CARPARK

Today's weather - sunny






I think I should start with this post, otherwise I will spend time posting photos and this will be relegated to the back of my mind and never see the light of day.


I shall start with the easy one first. I am certain everyone knows what a car park is, so I shall not spend time explaining it other than saying it is a place or area where vehicles are parked. So is a carpark the same as a car park? Or is there really such a word as a carpark?


car + park = carpark?


I failed to find the word "carpark" in a dictionary with the same meaning. How or where does it originate? Frankly, I have often seen it being used locally in newspapers, magazines, brochures and so on. So I think it is one of those words that is unknowingly created locally and used so blatantly that it sort of became accepted here. It looks so natural together but I am inclined to think there is no such word at all. I mean, we can't put two words together to form a new word, can you? 


There are similar words e.g. artwork, waterfront, seahorse, glasshouse, walkway, like these and how many of them are really acceptable?



12 March 2012

HORTPARK 2

Today's weather - sunny
It is always such a a joy to visit HortPark and sometimes they bring back so many fond memories.


I love this native climber Tetracera indica that I planted at the Irrigation Pond area to conceal the manhole behind it.


The Clerodendrum quadriloculare across the Hands-on-House decided to show its beautiful pink tubular flowers that earn it the deserving common name Starburst Bush.


Over at the Prototype Glasshouse, the attention seeking Impatiens walleriana cultivars and the Tibouchina cultivar were wooing me with its amazingly beautiful flowers.


Then at the Golden Garden, I saw for the first time the unknown red flower Bulbophyllum in bloom. Since planting it, I have never seen it flower and I was definitely secretly excited by the excellent growth exhibited by the orchid on the Rain Tree fork. I hope they don't prune it away someday.


Just beside the Fruited Vegetables Garden, a clump of Strongylodon macrobotrys (common name: Jade Vine, Emerald Vine) flowers were hidden amongst the dense leaves covering the shelter.


Further up at the Floral Stitches, a sun lizard was so well camouflaged against the trunk of the tree that I almost missed it.


The unknown Terminalia was also fruiting for the umpteen time. As someone pointed out, the winged fruits reminded her of the plastic balls commonly used in washing machines to prevent the clothes from tangling together. Instead of having two glands on the underside of its leaves, typical of Terminalia trees, there is only one small gland on this one.


At the former Arbor Garden was a small bed of Lobelia chinensis, which I grew in waterlogged areas in the Car Park Garden in the past and which I have not seen in recent times.