Chūn Xiǎo 春晓 Mèng Hàorán (Táng) 孟浩然（唐） Chūn mián bù jué xiǎo, 春眠不觉晓， chùchù wén tí niǎo. 处处闻啼鸟。 Yè lái fēngyǔshēng, 夜来风雨声， huā luò zhī duō-shǎo? 花落知多少? “春晓(chūnxiǎo)” refers to a Spring Dawn. The Tang Dynasty poet, Meng Haoran (689-740) describes how in his deep slumber on a spring night, day has broken…
On a mild January morning, the female Brown-throated Sunbird (Anthreptes malacensis) applies herself diligently to the business of collecting nectar as her mate keeps her company with watchful eyes and chirpy delight. Thus runs the kingdom of the tropical garden, a never-ending kaleidoscope of flora and fauna providing sounds, sights and the odd surprises, as…
The male Brown-throated Sunbird (Anthreptes malacensis) is shown here on the Red Button Ginger, with its confident dawn roost and throaty calls while the female is demonstrably more flighty and darts around rapidly whilst feeding on the Heliconia psittacorum. (Lumix GX85; M.Zuiko 40-150mm January 2018)
The bright red flowers of the South American Costaceae species Costus woodsonii (Red Button Ginger), competes with the Heliconias in the garden for the Sunbird, with its nectar-feeding beaks, to pollinate its flowers. In their native America homeland, it is the Hummingbirds that does the work. (Lumix GX85; M.Zuiko 40-150 mm) (Convergence evolution) …
As the uncharacteristic rains continue to pour in mid-January, the plants take on this wonderful water-laden sheen, droplets and moisture, amidst the mildest of a mid-day sun, as nature takes a break from its industry, to savor a retinue from the sky, that has come to pay homage to the Creator’s subtle work of beauty.…
The Calling of Saint Matthew is a masterpiece by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, depicting the moment at which Jesus Christ inspires Matthew to follow him. It was completed in 1599–1600 for the Contarelli Chapel in the church of the French congregation, San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, where it remains today. It hangs alongside two other paintings of Matthew by Caravaggio, The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew (painted…
In the stillness of the late afternoon, as rain continues to drizzle relentlessly in the wettest January in recent memory, the flora in our narrow west garden sparkles even as the day dims. Nature bestows her life-giving water, beauty, and continually sustain the earth. I have come that they may have life, and have it…
“Walking through one of the buildings where I hadn’t been before, I came across a reproduction of Hazard Durfee’s beautiful flute player with the text by Henry David Thoreau: ‘Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps…
The island of Pulau Ubin, off the northern coast of Singapore, has been featured here over the past few months – one of the last few refuge for a green and laid-back lung. Relatively inaccessible except by motorized boat (10 mins ride; S$3 each way), we revisited it on an ‘off-day’ in its weekly cycle,…
The Yet Con restaurant (established 1940) at 25 Purvis Street, Singapore has been serving its chicken rice, roast pork, and steamboat menu since we first visited in the mid 1980’s. Historic Purvis Street is a stone’s throw from the Raffles Hotel, Beach Road, the Bras Basah Book Complex (literary), and the new National Library,…