This is a long-overdue second instalment of my trip to Japan some months back.
Continuing our Kyushu adventure from Fukuoka, my parents and I arrived by train to Kumamoto, a castle town with elements of old and new, as can be seen here.
We lived within walking distance of the castle, and I greatly enjoyed my visit there. I love its wide open spaces, and even though the city was just behind the trees it didn’t feel that way within the castle compounds. I was happy to be in nature, away from city buildings.
This morning, I made my way to the Singapore Botanic Gardens for brunch and saw this wonderful living wall across from its main entrance. I had to have a closer look.
It has a lot of vibrant colours and different textures, and spans at least 50m long. Whoever designed this green wall did a brilliant job. It also attracts bees and other insects. Here are some of the flowers I had photographed.
Here are some photos of me in my garden, in Singapore. These were taken last month by little red ants creative studiofor promotional use in a brochure by the National Environment Agency. I recently received them and feel pleased enough to show them off.
Not much of my plants can be seen, but the highlight would certainly the bantam chickens. They were rather afraid of the cameras but dropped almost all of their defences once they saw me holding half an ear of sweet corn.
Through these pictures, I also realise that I have a bit of a hostile gardening face. The photographer kept telling me to smile, and now I know why. I think I need a “Go away, I’m gardening” t-shirt to complete my wardrobe of gardening attire – pyjamas, really. My boyfriend calls me the pyjama gardener. I could even possibly make my own by up-cycling an old t-shirt, with some handy hints from Agatha.
In a couple of months, I hope I’ll have a lot more to show for in my city garden. At the moment I have some of the usual herbs, such as curry leaf, rosemary, mint, lemongrass and basil, and I am growing organic seedlings that include kale, mibuna, coriander, tomatoes, winged beans, okra, eggplant, and rosella. But for now, it’s time to play the waiting game.
