Punggol Park

We stopped over at Punggol Park for a very short while & didn't had much time to laza around.

As it was threatening to rain at any point in time, we had only managed to take snapshots of the inhabitants staying in a concrete pond found at Punggol Park.

There were arowana fishes, terrapins & orange-spotted oscar fishes found in the pond.

Isn't this terrapin adorable?

 

The old Serangoon Garden North Primary School

Hubby Dearest & his siblings were enrolled into Serangoon Garden North Primary School when they were still kids.

When he came across this building recently, which had been well-maintained & no longer served as the Serangoon Garden North Primary School, he felt a strong sense of nostalgia as he recalled how he & his classmates used to receive their education in these premises as naughty children full of pranks in their pockets & school bags.

The school used to be surrounded by trees that came in all forms & sizes ... but had made way for urbanisation.

As such, you could see from the photograph that the school has an open-concept, "airy" feel to it now.

Mynah - Pasir Ris

We were waiting for the public transport (bus) to arrive & chanced upon this chubby looking mynah whose busy picking up twigs to build up its nest.

"She" was probabbly so engrossed in scavenging for raw materials that it didn't realise that she's on candid camera ...

Isn't she cute looking?  hahahaha ...

River Vista @ Bendemeer (near Kallang)

Monitor Lizards

Hubby Dearest came across this giantic, ugly-looking monitor lizard scavenging alongside the drain during low tide.

I hate lizards & am frightened of them.  Reptiles - Urgh! 

This is a juvinile monitor lizard as it is smaller in size as compared to the rest who were also present but camera shy.

This is a larger version of a monitor lizard detected within the same vicinity.

River Bird

I had mistaken these birds for King Fisher much to the amusement of Hubby Dearest who grew up in the kampong.  He claimed that such birds are quite a common sight near rivers and some were seen at boat quay.

Ginger Plants

These ginger plants never fail to fascinate us with their attractive, yummy-looking red "corns" & their orange bud-like blooms which provide nectar to sunbirds.

We have them featured in our blogging entries "The story of my tree musketeers" between 2010 to 2011 and have taken many beautiful & interesting photographs of these plants & their friendly companions.

Once again, we are delighted to feature this particular breed of ginger plant here in our blog.  However, we no longer own any of such ginger plants.  These vast bed of beautiful ginger plants are probably owned by NEA.

They are definitely a popular choice for adding beauty to landscapes at home premises & public places, including the front porch of commercial buildings.  Definitely a very common sight here in Singapore.

Please enjoy the beauty of these ginger plants in these photographs.

I read somewhere that the ants are found on the Ginger plants as they are there to preserve the "seeds" so that the plants will thrive.  I see a whitish colored spider clinging onto one of the leaves (left hand side of the photograph).

Other Birds

These 2 birds are found to be bred at the premises of a remoted place near Kallang.

We're not sure what these birds are known as scietifically but they are definitely noisy chaps who called out non-stop at any slight movement within their visual field.

Another pretty breed of Ginger Plant

This particular breed of ginger lineage was seen at one of the community gardens in a HDB estate.

It is definitely a lovely addition to any home garden!

Community Cats (Pasir Ris)

We were strolling towards Sakya Tenpheling located at Pasir Ris Drive 4 when we came across these 2 community cats napping at the void deck of flats.

They are definitely at perfect ease in their home environment to be sleeping in such a fashion with their tummies exposed!

Aren't they adorable?

This ginger-coated cat ignored us as we went on meowing to get its attention.  It's busy sleeping & didn't want to be disturbed ...

This black tuxedo-ed cat simply turned around to stare at us sheepishly & turned back towards the wall to continue sleeping ...

Chickens & Roosters

We were surprised when we saw roosters & chickens roaming freely at Pasir Ris Park. Some had attempted to "fly" but it was more like a high jump.

Creatures from the swamp

 didn't mean the famous Swampthing shown on TV during childhood when I refer to creatures from the swamp. The creatures are the habitants found in the swampy region of the Pasir Ris Park.

The photograph below shows a mudskipper :

The rest of the 4 consecutive photographs features crabs, ranging from huge ones to smaller versions. They were taken with our digital camera's zoom-in function :

Ulam Raja / Pelampong (Scientific Name : Cosmos caudatus Kunth)

When we visited the Pasir Ris Park recently, we spotted another breed of cosmos flower growing amongst the Orange Cosmos.

This version of the Cosmos flower is in ombre pink (meaning that there's is a graduation of white to pink on its petals).


Not unlike its orange counterpart, the pink cosmos flower attracts both butterflies & bees as shown in the photograph below:


Based on National Park's Flora & Fuana Web, this breed of flower's scientific name is known as the Cosmos caudatus Kunth.

It is also commonly known as Ulam Raja or Pelampong and its leaves were known to be of medicinal value e.g. it is used to increase blood circulation in traditional medicine in the South East Asia.

Its leaves were also consumed as a vegetable in Malay cuisine.

Golden Trumpet Flowering Climber (Scientific Name : Allamanda cathartica)

This is a flower that is pretty commonly found in nurseries and even at some public places.

HIBISCUS (Different breeds)

Hibiscus flowers are a common sight found in the private gardens of homes & nurseries all year round.

I've tried my luck on Hibiscus but they were tough on me & would usually die off as they require alot of sunlight. The nurseries had also advised me that Hibiscus plants are prone to diseases and not advisable for homes that do not receive much sunlight.
(Rule of thumb: Flowering plants require adequate sunlight to survive & bloom)


The Hawaiian Salmon
As I couldn't find the breed of this Hibiscus flowering plant from the National Park's website, I've looked elsewhere & found that it's known as the Hawaiian Salmon.





The colour of such breeds of Hibiscus does look like the meat of cooked salmon. They are characterised by hanging multi-coloured flowers & are fast growing. According to sources, they are good for outdoors.

Hibiscus schizopetalus

To start with, we didn't know that this was also a breed of Hibiscus because the flowers looked nothing like the typical Hibiscus.



The Schizopetalus Hibiscus was said to be a weeping tree hibiscus. Its flowers are characterised by a parachute-like appearance and can be identified by the dangling stamen and lacy petals. It does look like a pretty, red chinese lantern, which explains why it is also commonly known as the Chinese Lantern / Japanese Lantern.

A less desirable nickname is the Skeleton Hibiscus.

Don't you think that these flowers look like pretty chinese lanterns with tassels & dangling from the branches?


When we first spotted the plant at Pasir Ris Park, it looked quite pathetic although there were plenty of freshly bloomed flowers. Its stature resembled nothing like what we have seen in the photograph attached below. The photograph's version of the Hibiscus looked really healthy with good growth of green leaves.



The version in Pasir Ris Park looked neglected & quite "bare", to the extent that there were only 3 to 4 stalks of leaves on the stem even though there were 5 hibiscus flowers growing from it.

The buds of these blooms resembled smooth-skinned peanuts as shown in the photograph below:


More photographs of the red lanterns


 

The Chinese lantern being flanked by another breed of Hibiscus:

Honolulu Creeper (Scientific Name : Antigonon leptopus)

I think most of us would find this creeper a very common sight especially decades ago when Singapore isn't as urbanised as these modern times.

I used to recall that many old houses in the past were surrounded by green or even rusty wire mesh-like fencing & they would be flanked by Honolulu Creepers or Blue-bell plants.

These Honolulu Creepers had a lengthy list of commonly-known-as names, such as the Chinese Love Vines, Chain of Love, Hearts on a Chain, Queen's Wreath. Which speaks alot on love & romance...



Since the Honolulu Creeper is so closely associated with love & romance, and has such a saturated tone of fuchsia pink, then it must be an auspicious flower to be grown in parks & perhaps, the Registry of Marriage could consider having such creepers planted within its vicinity too!

I've incidentally fished out its chinese name from National Park's website, which says: 珊瑚藤 or 朝日藤.

I love the saturated shades of pink! Don't they look yummy?