Arts...Travels...Writing

In celebration of Mother's Day, I've selected some of my favourite flower shots. Sharing them here and thinking that even if we could gather all the flowers in the world, they still would not be enough to express our gratitude to all the great moms out there! Happy Mother's Day especially to my mom who truly loves flowers and plants, and takes genuine pride in and pleasure from the blooms in her garden. TulipMania 2014, Gardens by the Bay Maldives. This flower that had just fallen off from its bough stood out from the pristine whiteness of the sand. Along a street in Amsterdam, where hydrangeas seem to abound. Glad to see them in natural bloom, and not just in a vase. On the doorstep of a temple in Little India, Singapore Foxglove near the gate of a temple in Bumthang, Bhutan Lotus pond, Bay East Side, Singapore. Mornings when the lotuses are up and blooming are a real visual treat. With global warming and climate change though, lotu...

I've never really explored the entirety of Gardens by the Bay, but last week I was delighted to discover a lotus pond near the Marina Reservoir promenade. And it helps that it is in a quiet area too:-) Here are some of my snaps: Lotus is considered a rare gem for its ability to grow out of a mud. It is an important symbol in Buddhism (it can mean purity, fortune, faithfulness, the stages of a Buddhist' life - depending on context and colour)...and many books use the analogy of lotus and mud to explain the role of murk (suffering, etc.) in the bigger scheme of things, i.e., the lotus flower (beauty) needs the mud (suffering, etc) to bloom and grow...one such book is Thich Nhat Hanh's No Mud, No Lotus Bees season! There's a whole stretch of them at Gardens by the Bay The flowers apparently bloom in the morning or with sunrise, and the older ones shed off their petals in the afternoon This is what's left after the bloom...it lacks ...

Singapore Botanics is a huge place, and I don't think I've covered the entire place despite having visited a few times. I've posted some snaps of the Jacob Ballas Children's Garden earlier. Today, I was with my fellow photography enthusiasts, and we explored that area near the Tanglin Gate. We started our trek, very early in the morning, from a nice quiet patch behind Food for Thought, and walked all the way, stopping by along a pond, and ending at the waterfalls (I know, I know, there are many waterfalls at the Botanics, and I don't remember seeing the labels). The sun had just come out, and it was not too glaring or too hot yet. It was a pleasure to walk in that kind of weather, a pleasure magnified by the fact that it was not too crowded being a weekday morning. Some foliage and floras along the way: A new bulb emerges as an old one withers In search of a good meal A picture paints a thousand words they say Patience is the na...

Thanks to my visiting nieces, I finally had a chance to visit Gardens by the Bay last May, and as luck would have it, Tulipmania was still on at that time. The Flower Dome was a visual feast with a dome-ful of tulips in a variety of colours; even a little girl wearing a flamenco dress was lost in all the colours. And at the Cloud Forest, there was a variety of rare orchids in wonderful bloom - a testament to the feats of modern botany. I'm sure I'd be more thrilled to see these floras in their natural habitat :-) Gardens by the Bay is a good place to let kids run around especially at the Children's Garden where there is a huge playground for the little ones, with slides, monkey bars, spins, among other things that kids enjoy. There's also a tree house somewhere in the middle, which seems to be a great hit among tiny people. And there are bath fountains where water babies can freely splash around. If you're planning to go though, just know that it can be very ...