BAUHINIA SKIPPER AND BUTTERFLY

I saw this cute skipper on the Bauhinia flower at the Singapore Botanic Gardens' Botany Centre.

A close-up photograph of another butterfly is also attached below.

500 DAYS OF SUMMER

I watched '500 Days of Summer' on Sunday.

It was about a greeting card writer guy John who believed in love and a girl named Summer who was the exact opposite. He was convinced that she was the soul mate for him. His philosophy was a person does not believe in love because he/she has not met the right one. She had commitment phobia, was disillusioned and did not believe in the notion and existence of true love since her parents divorced when she was young.

The movie trailed their brief relationship over 500 days, starting from the day he met her as a new colleague in his office. Over time, he tried to engage her into his life but found that she became elusive and non-committal. Slowly she drifted away from him and strangely enough, got married suddenly to another guy because she finally met the right one.

John was all heart-broken and thought he may not get over her until he met a new girl at a job interview after he quit his greeting card writing job after the breakup. Interestingly but predictably, the new girl was named Autumn, and there began another chapter of his relationship. That was how the movie ended.

It's good they had Joseph to play the part of the guy who was not hunky, handsome, macho etc. He was just a regular guy next door looking for true love.

BRUGMANSIA

My Brugmansia is making me happy. it has grown so much since the last flowering.

this time round, there were about 20 flower buds. When i moved them in to take photographs a few days ago, I damaged a few and there were about 17 left then.

Now there's only 10 left. But it's rewarding enough because of the nice fragrance and sweet pink flowers. I moved it back yesterday so I could see the flowers drooping over the parapet wall. I certainly hope they do not get stolen!

FOURTEENTH DAY

This was taken on the 14th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, just a day before the mooncake festival.

The moon was already so round and shining so brightly.

It was simply beautiful watching it. Too bad there was no cloud cover, otherwise you can see the part moon, part clouds effect.

NDP 09 THEME SONG

I love this song performed by our local indie band 'Electrico'. The lyrics are meaningful.

There’s a jewel on the ocean

A gem upon the sea

Where the future is an open book

A land of destiny

We could set our sights into the wind and sail the seven seas

Or climb the highest mountain top As long as we believe

What do you see

What do you see

See the moon and the stars

Look how far we have come

Look around at our faces

They shine brightly in the sun

With our hopes and dreams

Imagine what tomorrow it may bring

What do you see

What do you see

Now the time has come to reach out

To open up to see

That we stand together in this land

Cos we are family

As thoughts of reaching to the sky are carried on a dream

With hearts and minds united

Our dreams we will achieve

What do you see

What do you see

See the moon and the stars

Look how far we have come

Look around at our faces

They shine brightly in the sun

With our hopes and dreams

Imagine what tomorrow it may bring

What do you see
What do you see

When life makes you take on a mountain

You'll see that nothing's gonna stand in your way

Together we can share

The strength of a million and the courage of a million more

See the moon and the stars

Look how far we have come

Look around at our faces

They shine brightly in the sun

With our hopes and dreams

Imagine what tomorrow it may bring
Cos the sky's the only limit when you're not afraid to dream

What do you see

What do you see…

THE FINAL DESTINATION AND SCANDAL MAKERS

I watched two movies last weekend - 'FD4' or otherwise known as 'The Final Destination' and 'Scandal Makers'.

I must admit that I love to watch the final destination movie series. This one appears to be even more gross and highly graphic in the death scenes. There was a lot of decapitation, body disembodiment, that can be really stomach churning at times. I was gripping onto the seat at times.

In real life, I do not want to see anyone die such a grotesque death in front of me.

Then I watched 'Scandal Makers'. I really love Cha Tae-Hyun. He is so so cute.

I have not seen his movies for quite a while and kind of miss him. So it's good to see him again in this movie.

WAVES

This was taken on a recent trip that I made to Penang. I subscribe to the formula below:
waves = sound = peace

BIRD'S NEST FERN

I found you at the base of my neighbouring block yesterday and adopted you. I do not know where you came from, because there were no trees in the immediate vicinity of the area.

I don't normally adopt any plants when I see them but somehow you were too pretty for me to ignore. Your glossy green healthy appearance caught my attention. You were so small, but yet I noticed you. Guess this is fate, isn't it?

A tiny leaf is now appearing within the crown and I hope you grow quickly with the nourishment of the new soil.

RAIN LILY

Rain lilies, as they are called, are such pretty plants.

Though the flowers are small, they come in a few colours - white, cream, yellow and pink.

I love all of them, particularly if they are planted together. When a dry spell is followed by rain, they all bloom in unison, hence their common name.

I love rain!

BULBUL

I saw this pair of Bulbuls yesterday.











They landed on this cane wreath. I didn't have my camera with me so i had no choice but to snap them using my mobile phone camera.

The quality didn't come out too well, but they still looked so loving and lovely.

SNAKE

I saw this interesting ad yesterday on the MRT home.

What caught my attention was not the actual product but the accompanying text and graphics that brought a smile to my face.

This one reads: the most venomous creature in the corporate jungle, the office snake's favourite snack is a new colleague. The ultimate saboteur, the snake will slither its way into your confidence, before ruthlessly suffocating your career.

Don't we all recognize someone in the office who behaves like this? In fact, there are more of them e.g. vulture, that are equally amusing to read.

Which one of this is us?

WATER FEATURES

I love water features, especially when it is beautifully landscaped with cascading pools, rocks etc.

Nothing beats having a water feature that calms your nerves down and provides the sound of moving water.

I also like the peek-a-boo planting where you can see some plants only at certain angles.

LIME PUPA

I have a bad feeling that you are not developing normally. Although I am new to butterfly breeding, I have seen quite a few pupae already.

Somehow your pupa case turn brown soon after you pupated. In fact, I saw some black liquid oozing out and dripping onto the leaves below.

What happened to you? Are you parasitized by something? I am watching you everyday and hope that someday you will emerge fine. I cross my fingers.

ION

I saw two huge supertrees at Orchard Ion the other day. Or should I say, two artificial trees with super huge trunks and branches that were supporting the extended roof of the iconic development along Orchard Road.

The development is not completed or opened to the public but the multi-faceted colourful display screens and the supertrees etc already captured my attention and imagination.

Initially, I thought why did the developer or architect choose this tree structure? Then I saw the real trees that were planted and which probably gave rise to this unusual design concept.

The trees that were planted are cotton trees. I have never seen any development thus far using this tree as the focal point, much less this species of planted tree of such a tall height. So this is really unique. I am not sure if this tree is really suitable for this location, only time will tell. But kudos to the courageous architect for choosing this interesting tree for the development at this most important crossroad.

You can sort of see the tiered branched effect now. To know how big and majestic this tree can grow to, just look to Singapore Botanic Gardens' grand bandstand for the idea. It would eventually have a massive trunk and take on an imposing look.

If you are lucky, you may encounter a 'snowing' effect after the tree blooms are pollinated and the fruits release the cotton wooled seeds. I think it would look nice during the Christmas season when this happens.

I am already looking forward to this year's Christmas!

BOUGAINVILLEA

Do you know that the multi-coloured papery leaf-like structures of Bougainvillea are modified leaves known as bracts and are not the flowers?

The actual flowers are the three small whitish structures within the colourful bracts. This beautiful, reliable and easy to maintain plant comes from tropical America but can be found almost anywhere in Singapore, especially the espressways and overhead bridges.

Here are just some snapshots of the beauty of this commonly planted shrub.

GOLDEN TREE

I usually don't think much of or pay attention to street lighting or even bother to take a second look at it.

Somehow on 19 June 09 as I made my way home, I saw this Yellow Flame tree at the bus stop and it was lit up by the street lamp. It looked like a golden orange tree! The photograph didn't quite capture the actual lighting and the beauty, but it's still a pretty sight to behold.

Now I have to learn to appreciate street lighting more. I really need to consciously learn to stop amidst my busy schedule and smell the roses.

BAT

I found you on the grass patch on 19 June 09. You looked so small and inconspicuous.

I didn't know how long you were dead but it must not have been too long because you were not decomposed yet.

How old were you? What happened to you? Were you attacked by something? Was that why you were not with the rest of the group?

Good bye, my little friend!

WEEDS

This pretty flower is not a white rose, although it reminds me of one.

It is actually the flower of a weed, that I found growing amongst the grasses. The flower was actually taken at close range and is only half a centimetre across. But it stood out from the low lying grass blades.

We often overlook such beautiful weeds. In fact, most have small dainty flowers, if we care to stop and admire them. Imagine that we are ants and these would be giant flowers standing in the field of tall grasses.

Such wild weeds are often ignored because they do not immediately capture our attention, but they are beautiful in their own subtle way. Perhaps we should try to conserve some of these weeds for education before they disappear from our world without us even realizing it.

If we can learn to appreciate the beauty of all things big and small, then there will be no weeds in this world.

Until such a world exists when all, regardless of whether we are strong or weak, pretty or ugly, are treated as equals, some of us may also be regarded as weeds in our own families and society. I can only live in hope that this world do exists in our time.

MOSSES

When you look up the trunk of this tree, what do you see? The small lumpy growths are actually clumps of mosses that have been dried out by the recent dry weather.

If you look at them close up, they are made up of beautiful individuals. I collected some back and hopefully with some watering, they will recover their original lush green look.

BEGONIA

i love Begonias, especially Cane Begonias because it is a combination of two things - a bamboo-like plant which i like and a flowering plant.

But do you know some plants have separate male and female flowers? I don't know Begonias have different flower sexes until a friend showed it to me. Interesting?

The ones you see in the foreground are the male flowers and the ones in the background are the female flowers. Confused already?

Fret not. The female flowers look like this. Behind the petals appear to be this winged sac, which is apparently the ovary carrying the seeds. Can you spot the difference now? Nature must have its purpose and reason for producing different sex flowers.