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?

Lost in a Garden

Lost??? Do you still get that feeling? I do, once in a while. And when I do, I clasp my palms together and really pray hard for direction.



God is so good, He turns me back to my old friends and life becomes familiarly brighter.

When was the last time you see a bff?
Happy Monday  everyone !