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!

Demise of my three "musketeers" ... *SOB*

Finally, the potted plants breathed their last breath and didn't manage to get revived even when I brought them down to the community garden.  ;(

These plants had brought us plenty of joy & happiness, helping us to get closer to mother nature in befriending yellow spotless ladybirds & olive-backed sunbirds.

Even towards their last remaining days, they had never failed to add beauty to our environment with their pretty blooms.  And for that, we're extremely grateful to their existence & their subsequent recilience against diseases.

As such, we would like to recite an eulogy in this blogging entry to commenmorate our precious plants who had died at our hands of excessive kindness (too much fertiliser) & we shall do so with deep regrets.

There is no night without a dawning

No winter without a spring

And beyond the dark horizon

Our hearts will once more sing...

For those who leave us for a while

Have only gone away

Out of a restless, care worn world

Into a brighter day

(No Night Without, by Helen Steiner Rice)



Adieu my darling plants, for I am sadly reminded by your presence through your "babies" who are found to be thriving so beautifully in the community garden. *SOB*

But perhaps, we felt a strong sense of consolation that you are survived by your young ones that are growing so vigorously & healthily at our neighbourhood's community garden!

A free flow of photographs of my Ginger plants

You'll have noticed by now that I haven't really mentioned anything about my evergreen money plant ... Perhaps it was repotted on a dampy sort of soil which has a very strong stench of urea, and it doesn't catch on much sunlight at its location, it wasn't growing vigorously... Since its progression was somewhat slow-going or passive, I had as a result, overlooked it...

By the time it was being brought down to the community garden, it was too late as it seems to have died even though the RC member (an elderly aunty with green fingers) repotted it & placed it at a supposedly ideal location.

We trim off a section of the "tendrils" where the baby leaves were growing out from & placed it in a bowl of water with oyster shells & those of the giant, deep-sea scallop which we brought home after a huge feast of seafood buffet at shangrila hotel.

Surprisingly, under my hubby's somewhat negligent style of care, the money plant is surviving even though we did notice that it seems to have inherited the jaundiced appearance of the parent plant!

The leaves that grew out didn't look dark greenish.  Instead, they had a yellowy tinge to their leaves as illustrated in the photographs below:

It doesn't look as yellowy in the photographs.  However, in reality, the leaves had a yellowy appearance.

Perhaps the cause for the jaundice appearance is a result of a lack of sunlight?

Here's a free flow of my ginger plants in bloom ...  It's a feast to one's eyes when we set our sight on them! :)

Oh dear, editing using the Aviary Tool is soooooooooo user unfriendly & slow-moving with unexpected alignment issues when editing that I had to forgo water-marking my photographs with copyright. :(





The story of My "tree" musketeers - Signs of ailing health

After pruning off stalks which had aged beyond their ability for further growth, we were pretty relieved that new shoots had made its way out of the surface of the soil.

However, we did notice that these new shoots aren't as healthy as before because one of them came up with holes "burnt" into the stem as shown in the photograph below.




The rest of the green shoots seemed to have a reasonably healthy appearance as shown in the photographs attached below:

The Yellow ladybird - A faithful friend of my ailing plants

This regular visitor who is a friendly companion to my "Ginger" plants was seen frequently by myself.


Isn't it cute?

Doesn't it remind us all of the Volkswagen beetle as shown here in the photograph below?


Disclaimer: I do not own the photograph featuring the Volkswagen yellow bettle as shown above. Kindly give full credits to the owners of this image. Thank you.


More photographs of my "Ginger" plants in a state of blooming :

The Olive-backed Sunbirds' feast

There was a great feast for those olive-backed sunbirds today.

A hole which is clearly seen on every flower is a clear indication that the sunbird/s had already extracted the nectar. I believe they did it by "drilling" (piercing) a hole into the bud with their long sharp, needle-like beak.


After a heavy downpour yesterday, we were surprised that the "Ginger" plants were blooming vigorously. And as usual, we didn't manage to take any snapshots of the birds becox they would fly off the minute they sense any movements near the plants.

Even though the photographs of our "ginger" plants were repetitive in style, we hope that viewers would enjoy them as much as we do.