Gardens Galore - Singapore Garden Festival 2010

For the third time, I brought my mother to the Singapore Garden Festival - the third time the festival has been held.  As always, we walked through the two huge halls of Suntec City until we were footsore, and till my camera battery was running low (such was the number of zoomed shots, macros etc which I had taken). 

Some SGF highlights:

The huge figure of "The Man Who Planted Trees", an allusion to the story by Jean Giono.  The figure greets visitors to the Festival, and I must say is truly imposing.  Except, that I regret not taking the effort to view it in the far more natural surroundings of the Botanical Gardens, where it was "grown", before being transferred to Suntec. 

This year, I somehow found that the gardens were a little less memorable than previous years.  Somehow, the underwater garden featured in SGF 2008 really took my fancy. This year, somehow the imaginative and creative element was somewhat lacking in the Fantasy Gardens.  Nonetheless, I rather liked the enclosed garden, "Hortus Inclusus", meant to represent a monastry garden, surrounded by pear trees trained in the form of a grill.  There's a technical name for this which of course I can't remember. 

Another favourite (from the landscape gardens) was probably the "Mystic Rainforest", which was really like a cube of rainforest transferred wholesale into the Suntec halls.  I liked the dense smell of moist earth, the dead leaves scattered on the ground, the snakes twined on the branches and the packaging around the cube.  Sorry, I'm not a fan of "Modern Kampong" which won Best in Show.

I always like the immense variety of beautiful, vibrant orchids displayed in the Orchid Festival, and this year was no exception.  Here, I fear, is where my camera is really strained to its maximum capacity.  The "Community in Bloom" is also very interesting - this year, it features some wall garden equipment or "Vegge Pipes" which enable one to grow plants vertically. 

What I found new and fascinating this year was the bonsai.  These perfect miniatures invite one to view these sturdy little trees from every angle.  This little example on the right won a prize (I can't remember what).  

As always, I am amazed at the immense crowds at the garden festival - the serious photographers, the camera phone crowd just snapping away for a photo to remember the event.  I always meet someone I know too.  It's  such a comfortable, neighbourhood type of event and it's no wonder people go year after year.

P.S.  Just re-read my review of the first SGF 2006, and am pleased to note that I had in this post noted the importance of being more inclusive, involving community gardeners.  Obviously, NParks has listened!

P.P.S.  My photo set on Flickr is here.

A Meeting of Cats

I attended the Cat Welfare Society "Mad Hatter Tea Party" event last Sunday. It was held at The Garden Slug, the comfy diner just down the road (which explains why we went).  I rather liked was meeting all the cats and hearing a little more about them during the Cheshire Cat competition. 

Let me introduce you to just a few:

 Toto, the big and beautiful cross between a Scottish Fold and a British Shorthair.  Weights almost 7 kg!!  His placid and easygoing temperament made him the favourite at the Cheshire Cat competition.  A creature of routine, he likes sitting by the door to wait for his humans to come back from work.

Juju's  owner informed us that this poor cat had two broken legs.  I forgot to ask how these were sustained.  But Juju's mobility is definitely affected as he stayed most of the time in the little baby chair.  But still, as you can see, a rather handsome cat!

Smokey turned up a little late for the competition but he  is after all a true Deuteronomy amongst cats.  He's 18 years' old, and was carried in by the son of his human (who must be a good 6 years at least younger than him).  Smokey was the only cat who was attired for the occasion, in a handsome Argentinian jersey (by contrast, his humans were in Brazilian strip - what does this mean)?  He's blind but can still find his way around the house.

I'll put up a few photos on flickr later on but in the meantime, photos from the event (by official photographer) can be seen on the CWS Facebook page.

P.S.  My photos here.