I finally got my pics of the National Botanical Garden, specifically the
Orchid Garden, uploaded to my webshots page. Only 6 years behind the
times! Some gorgeous flowers and I'm amazed that the photography turned
out this good. Why? Well, we had about 15 minutes off the tour bus to
make our way through the gardens. I knew there was an Orchid garden and
literally flew to the orchid garden and ran around taking pics of them
for my Aunt. I covered a good number of acres in that time! I remember
being puffed out and sweaty by the time I got back to the bus. Not that
it wasn't a normal state of things in the hot humid SE Asia!
http://community.webshots.com/album/548710215DxkFyb
Brenda
*********************************************
We may see on a spring day in one place more
beauty in a wood than in any garden.
~~William Robinson
*********************************************
Ha-ha. Well, it helps to be growing them in a place like SE Asia
(Singapore) where it IS hot and humid. Kind of hard to simulate the
conditions inside your house! The city of Singapore impressed me
because although it is wall to wall skyscrapers, there were a LOT of
green areas. Never really figured out how they did that, but they were
very successful at it.
Brenda
Margaret E.Millard wrote:
*********************************************
We may see on a spring day in one place more
beauty in a wood than in any garden.
~~William Robinson
*********************************************
Actually, that's one of the things that I mentioned to everyone when I
came back from that trip. We could learn a lot from Singapore. A lot
of skyscrapers, but the newer ones were quite nice looking. Older ones
were a bit scruffy and always seemed to have clothing hanging out to dry
from poles stuck out the windows. But the new skyscrapers all have
character (not just blank towers). Everywhere that a bit of green can
be nurtured, is green. All the overpasses are covered with
bougainvillea which hangs down from the overpass looking gorgeous. And
trees!!! I don't remember seeing so many trees in a city with so many
skyscrapers. It's not even so much that there are a lot of parks.
There are a few parks, but not a lot. It's just that literally
everywhere grass can grow, grass is planted.
They are trying to be ecologically responsible, but with their
population it is difficult. At the time, in order to purchase a car,
you had to buy a certificate of ownership. For an example, a Toyota car
would cost you $80,000 (Singaporean - at the time about 85cents Cdn to
the Singapore $ - i.e. $68,000 Cdn) for the certificate of ownership.
THEN you could go out and buy the car and a Toyota would run about
$140,000. Gas was $2 per gallon then (again, 6 years ago). Even though
the #1 industry was oil refineries. And all the roads had usage tolls.
Taxis had gizmos on their dash. When the driver would get in at the
beginning of the shift, he'd put in his credit card and as he passed
through various areas of the city, the credit card would be charged the
tolls. All done electronically, on the move. Not sure what the tolls
were worth, but at least some of the cost was passed on to the
passengers. And tolls would be higher during peak traffic hours.
Government controlled all the multiple family housing. And therefore,
it would also control the size of the appartments, which were decreasing
in size every year. A standard single family home that would cost about
$180,000 here would run you into the $5 million range there.
Singapore is famous for it's wonky laws (no peeing in elevators, no
selling of gum - contrary to popular belief, it is NOT illegal to chew
gum, but it is illegal to sell it and it is illegal to litter with it),
but you can't argue that they don't work. Enforcement is stringent.
Littering, for example will bring you a lengthy sentence of cleaning the
streets in an ugly coverall. The city is pristine and the city is one
of the safest in the world. Though living expenses are obviously very
dear (oddly, despite the road tolls, the 1/2 hour taxi ride cost us only
$12 - so maybe taking a taxi is cheaper), I found the prices in the
stores very comparable to home. Shoes I liked (alas, in nothing bigger
than pixie size) were $60. And dollar stores abound there too.
Restaurant food was pricey, but then you have to remember that nothing
is grown there, it's all imported, mostly from Malaysia. A rather plain
meal out (lasagna) cost us $40.
And even more so than in North America, everyone was attached to a cell
phone. We rarely saw anyone that wasn't actively using a cell
phone....but they weren't driving with them....probably another law!
Brenda
- who digressed from the greenery talk, but it brought back memories!
Margaret E.Millard wrote:
> Naybe we could learn from them.....do you suppose? Green spaces are so
> necessary
*********************************************
We may see on a spring day in one place more
beauty in a wood than in any garden.
~~William Robinson
*********************************************
nice photos, Brenda. I have one in bloom, a miltonopsis, and am hoping for
more...longing for something like you have taken pictures of but......
Marg in N.S. Zone 6b
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/mmillard/index.html
*********************************************
We may see on a spring day in one place more
beauty in a wood than in any garden.
~~William Robinson
*********************************************
Naybe we could learn from them.....do you suppose? Green spaces are so
necessary
Marg in N.S. Zone 6b
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/mmillard/index.html
*********************************************
We may see on a spring day in one place more
beauty in a wood than in any garden.
~~William Robinson
*********************************************
I think we are quite blind in the way we deal with development even here in
the country. Rurally I guess. If we could just learn what did and didn't
work here and use it to deal with homelessness etc,..I have been doing eggs
with a really neat young woman from Poland Originally, who spent a fair bit
of time in India and she is a planner. Beating her head on the walls of the
people who cannot imagine what she is trying to tell them. Maybe a pre
requisite to these courses or employment is to spend time in places that
have huge populations and high pollution rates!
When I first lived in Calgary, there was a move on to add more trees to the
downtown core and maintain those out in the older sections. The second time
I lived there the trees were toast or potted. Now potted is better than no I
suppose but.....
After Juan, power corp. here decided the trees had to go...well that met
with some howls of protest as if they had looked after pruning the way it
was thought they should, instead of going for massive profits, then there
would be less damage. Our closest town, has lost a lot of old beautiful elms
oaks and ashes. There are pictures of the kids planting then about the turn
of the last century, 1900 I mean. Now so many are gone and not being
replanted........it used to be a pretty town with lovely arches of green
branches over the streets which were welcome in the hot of summer(our
summers do get quite warm sometimes, and now just hot concrete pavement and
dust. I mentioned at the garden club maybe we should spearhead a movement to
plant more and got blank stares....
Marg in N.S. Zone 6b
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/mmillard/index.html
*********************************************
We may see on a spring day in one place more
beauty in a wood than in any garden.
~~William Robinson
*********************************************
