FLOWER DOME

These were photos taken from the Flower Dome. Some of the interesting plants captured include:

• Pseudobombax ellipticum (white flower)
• Anigozanthos cultivar
• Grevillea cultivar
• Gazania cultivar
• Plectranthus cultivar
• Camellia japonica 

SINGAPORE BOTANIC GARDENS

I think I took these photos at the Singapore Botanic Gardens near the Eco-lake. I couldn't remember the name of this tree but it reminded me of the Adinandra dumosa (Common Name: Tiup Tiup).

I was walking to the MRT station when my attention was drawn to the abundant cauliflorus fruits along the branches of this tree.

KHOO TECK PUAT HOSPITAL

These are some fauna sighted or found at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital. 

The Red-Eared Slider terrapin commonly found in our ponds is a alien species and its abundance is due to the release of these animals by pet owners who lost interest in keeping them after they outgrew their adorable sizes.

The posters on birds and fishes have also been updated and are almost full now.

WEED

I recently realized I had a lot of photos in my camera's hard disk because on the few occasions when I forgot to put in the memory card, the camera continued to take the photos and I totally forgot about them until recently, that is. Only when the camera indicated that the memory was full that I knew of all these "hidden" photos.

So here I am posting these photos, starting with this one on an interesting legume weed I saw almost a year ago.

And the island in the last photo no longer looked like that a year later. The turf is completely covered up with shrubs now. Too bad I don't have the photos to compare the difference.

THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER

I too watched this coming-of-age movie about 2 weeks back but I was too lazy to post about it.

The 3 main leads are Logan Lerman, whom I remember from "Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief", the household known Emma Watson, from the Harry Potter movies, and Erza Miller, who is an unknown to me.

This is a movie where Emma Watson tried very hard to get out of the shadow of Hermione to play a different role Sam to remind the audience that she is not only capable of being in the Harry Potter movies but can be a character actress to take on larger and more serious roles.

Logan, on the other hand, played the main character Charlie effortlessly and brilliantly to portray a nervous and self-conscious teenager with a mysterious past. There was no semblance of the confident and sociable half-god half-human Percy Jackson at all.

The movie explored the relationships between the three characters and their close-knit friends and how they dealt with the angst and tribulations of growing up, amidst grappling with teenage love, homosexuality, child molestation, suicidal issues. However, despite all the hardships and suffering they went through, the message was clear that they still had youth on their side. Such is the consolation of being a youth in these days.

So did I enjoy the movie? Well, it wasn't the kind that would seriously appeal to me though and that's my answer.

TAICHI 2

I watched this movie about 2 weeks back, I think, and this sequel starred Daniel Wu and Feng Shaofeng on top of the earlier main cast.

I am not going into the details about the storyline but somehow I enjoyed this second part more than the first. When is the third coming out?

DAMSELFLY

I couldn't remember where I took these photos of the Common Blue Damselfly but it looked quite of cute.

HIBISCUS MUTABILIS

I saw a beautiful clump of rose-like Hibiscus mutabilis (Common Name: Confederate Rose, Cotton Rosemallow; Family: Malvaceae) in Australia almost 3 years ago that took my breath away. 

Before that, I already planted it at HortPark and was honoured to witness the beautiful flowers, which opened white in the morning and gradually took on a pink colour till it turned a dark pink by the end of the day. Such physiological changes never fail to amaze me, especially when there are multiple flowers on the plant and one can see a range of white to dark pink flowers since they open on different days.

So here I am, waiting for the same plant species at the Chinese Garden to flower, so that I can once again be enthralled by its ephemeral but timeless beauty. In ancient China, beautiful maidens were sometimes referred to as 出水芙蓉, which refers to the Cotton Rosemallow out of water.

CAMPSIS RADICANS

Frankly, I didn't know that we can grow the Campsis radicans (Synonym: Tecoma radicans; Common Name: Trumpet Vine, Trumpet Honeysuckle; Family: Bignoniaceae) in our outdoors here. But we don't try, we would never know right?

Just about 3 months ago, I saw an entire wall of Campsis in Europe.

HUB

This is one of my favourite display of bromeliads because of the strong contrast between the leaf colours, shapes and sizes. Sadly, every time I look at bromeliads now, it reminds me of the late Harry Luther, who passed on just about a month ago.

AGERATUM CONYZOIDES

This is one of my favourite wildflowers and I was disappointed to find that a clump of healthy looking ones were removed recently from one of the planting beds. Now some butterflies have to look elsewhere for nectar.