Flower Power

Just this morning, husband emailed me this postcard perfect photo of flowers he took in the park where he biked around earlier on today. So pretty. Today is the first day of September. Down there where husband is currently based, it's the opening of the season of Spring. Husband said he didn't notice or hadn't seen these flowers the last time he was there which was two weeks ago and winter yet. Then he realized "it's indeed spring already". Then he thought of me and sent me this photo. Fyi : I'm never a flower lady and he knows it well, he never gave me a single flower in the course of our #decades of marriage cos he knew I would never appreciate it.

But this photo? Whose wife is not going to melt by the gesture and the beautiful flowers. I'm enthralled <3. Besides, I'm not really anti-floral through and through. I also get to appreciate and like some flowers. Mostly wild and not as common as roses. Those flowers in the photo are just my type. I also happen to like orchids cos they got lots of character and mostly distinctly exotic.

Hence, I guess I could no longer ignore the piles of orchids photos in my files and just let them get wilted and withered by time_ not posted. Right in this post would be beautiful photos of orchids  I had long ignored in my files. I made a total of 3 posts on SG Botanic Gardens ( here, here & here ), not yet including this one. Not up and until this day that I found the interest to do a post on this beautiful and exclusive part of SGBG which is called V.I.P Orchids. This is one garden there that has entrance fee. Exotic orchids being exhibited inside are named under famous people like presidents of different countries, celebrities even royal families. I have to confess thu' that most names were unknown to me or somehow not of importance to me, hehe. I actually just wanted to see two orchids_ of Princess Diana and Pres. Cory Aquino. I thought I hadn't seen not even one of them but when I checked my photos, I found out that I had Princess D's orchid.



The flower is named Denrobium Memoria Princess Diana. The princess hadn't seen the flowers cos she died before she was able to make the trip to Sg and should have had seen the actual orchid.

In sync, I gathered from the news that Aug. 30, 2012 was the 15th  death anniversary of the Princess and in this regard the Duke and Duchess (Wills & Kate) are coming to Singapore to see Princess D's orchids and also have orchid named after each of them. photo source

I have to warn you thu' that that's the only V.I.P. orchid I'm naming here. Come on, don't make me work on this, haha. I just wanna share you the beautiful images of these exotic orchids. The followings would have no captions but they would surely capture your eyes :

aww, so cute. . well this is a little distraction if you were like me who easily get overwhelmed ( in a negative way) when surrounded by lots of pretty flowers..

forgive me, for not being "so girls love flowers". I'm just like these  little kids by heart. I'd rather have many other things than flowers.

I'm so unlike of my girlfriends who are so girly flowery women. My bestfriend here who has been living in Singapore as expat for decades now, is one flower lover. Whenever I get to visit her in SG, she would always want to take me to Botanic Gardens cos 1}. it's like in the next avenue from her neighborhood, so pretty accessible and 2}. she loves the orchids there! But me would always like, no more Botanic Gardens, I've been there once and that's quite enough. Ofcourse, that's an alibi. You can't tour the whole place in one visit, it's so huge.



Okey, before I end this post, here's another one for you.

Now, if you'll excuse me.. can I go now to some art exhibits? outta here :)))

The Cool House

13 days before Christmas. . parties and get together happening bi-weekly, people crowding the malls and bazaars buying gifts, and the flux of vehicles in every road of Manila at the heaviest. Well, what's new? That's so December. If you're in a cosmopolitan area, I'm sure you can relate.
Can you feel it? The pressure rising as we approach the Yuletide season.
Got a few minutes?
Escape with me. .

. . in a place to unwind and refresh.  .

Back in college, a professor would always make us stared the green wall of our classroom, for like few minutes a day. He said that would refresh our tired eyes. So up to now, I practice the habit of staring green matters when my eyes get tired.
Above greens I found in the midst of the sprawling gardens of  Singapore Botanic Gardens.

Everything was pretty relaxing except  the scorching tropical sun. Was so relieved to find out that there's an indoor garden there_ the Cool House.








Imagine. . coming from a long walk of hectares of garden under the heat of bare sun, then enter an air conditioned, simulated rain forest garden. . is that perfectly awesome or what??




 



Inside the Cool House were native mountain plants of South- East Asia, arranged to simulate the vegetation of a tropical mountain forest.




exotic ferns. .

flower or fruit? can't say which. .but sure it's so beautiful. .

this one I was pretty sure _ an orchid but I doubt if anyone of you could grow one in your backyard. .

look very closely. . can you spot its pair of eyes and a nose ? I do . .look it even has a mouth open ready to snap any meat available. I think it's one of the carnivorous plants they housed there.

the mini falls at the side of the bridge with the rushing flow of water completed the feel of a rain forest. .

giant tree trunks are covered with heavy moss. .

little white orchids. .looking like there were millions of them. .  the mirror reflections did the work. .




Well. .back to  n o w !!! If there's any consolation, the happiest season of the year is rushing in.. .
Merry Christmas to you all!!!

SG Botanic Gardens

Let's take a walk of this 52 hectares garden located in the centre of  city-ful Singapore. The garden is called Singapore Botanic Gardens.

I was tempted to sneak  shots of the Pinoys ( I was sure they were Filipinos, I heard them talking in our vernacular) that I assumed were OFWs off their jobs cos it was a Sunday. They were on the grasses, under the trees having picnics  in groups. They were happy and seemed to enjoy their day offs. But I stopped myself in respect of their privacy.

girl biking, luveth!

There was a Koi pond but what really amazed me was the size of the fishes. They were huge!!! Not that astonishing  in the above photos but the actual sizes were like longer than my arm. Some were even bigger.

The giant white garden pagoda is a sweetheart.

I found this maze (don't know what kind of plant) really interesting.

I thought this area was sad. I always connect sadness with bareness. The branches with few leaves and flowers ( they seemed to be in a fall season) looked so lonely to me.

cute lil' blondie boy :D

We went inside the National Orchid Garden. Admission - Sg$5.

I spent time looking for orchids named after Princess Diana and Pres. Cory Aquino. Two of my favorite women in the world.




I didn't find their orchids. haha.

Flower people esp. those who love orchids would surely be ecstatic about the fantastic collections being exhibited in this private garden. Only, I'm not one of them, so I really didn't know what was exotic or what. I just took a photo of these purple orchids cos I like the color. Period.

So I attempted another shot of this exotic looking orchid. Regardless of my ignorance, I was pretty sure this one was of  highly categorized breed. They look so pretty to me.



After hours of walking under the heat of open sunny sky, we entered a sweet area.

This was glass encased and fully airconditioned.

I asked, why they didn't make the whole place like this area. Immediately, I found answer in my head. Ofcourse, plants like people varied from each other. Others need to reside in a colder area, others flourish in a hot temperature environment.

There were lots of ferns . Reminds me of those I've seen hanging in Cotabato. See here.



Lemme end this post with this heavenly white orchids. They are gorgeous, aren't they?