When the aerophytic orchids bloomed in March in tropical Singapore (where there isn’t really a Spring season), they were besetted with the approaching parched and dry sunny weather. Yet Mother Nature gives as it takes. On a mild Sunday morning in June, an overnight tunderstorm has refreshed the air, moistened the flora, and blown down…
The Pictures of the New Year were always going to be a little bleak, emerging as it were, from the Year of the Pandemic. In a time when it had become ‘acceptable’ to be distanced and disdained, this cold and wet New Year weekend cast a cold but familiar shudder onto a world seeking warmth…
As dusk beckons, the macroscopic view of life in the garden reveals not just the beauty but the beasts; the fragile and the stoic, delicate shards of the spider lily petals, pubescent bauhinia leaflets, and roses like soldiers at the end of their mission, must surely shed their armour, and reveal their inner hearts, for…
A few days’ ago, I had a noodle meal topped by sweet potato leaves and an egg, garnished by a sprinkle of dried shrimps and an oriental belachan chilli paste (chilli padi with garlic and malay shrimp paste). Sweet potato leaves were the high point of the meal, since they were plucked from the garden…
These are the pictures of a young bulbul chirping on our Peacock tree (right) with the mother looking anxiously on (left) . Can we trace them back to their lineage from a year ago? The Yellow-vented Bulbuls (Pycnonotus goiavier) has revisited our home, after we spotted the species laying their eggs almost year ago. This…
(Week 42) The Bauhinias are in fully perennial bloom – and they are joined by a rare flowering of an epiphytic pink phalaenopsis orchid on the adjacent black bamboo (Phyllostachys-nigra)in the garden. A rare beauty and a true blessing, four weeks to Easter Sunday. (Week 18) The first flowers. And more. The plant looks very jaded,…
(Week 6) The mysterious miracle of growth and fruitfulness Another two weeks has passed. Now, there are these giant steps towards starting up the self-sustaining chlorophyll engine. This parable from today Missal, the Gospel of Mark 4:26-34 is so apt “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use…
(Week 4) Another two weeks has passed. The shoots are now proliferating in droves. Already, the first strand of a spider’s web has spun across the fledgling shoots, seemingly unaware of how short-lived the structures will be…… But Life does find a way. Elsewhere in the garden, a rare pink variant of the Peacock Flower…