Walking on the Southern Ridges Part Two

Our second trip to the Southern Ridges trails brought us to Hort (short for horticulture) Park.  Along with a canopy walk, stunning views and jungle, this one offers manicured gardens of all varieties.  We met our Australian friends, Peter and Pam for a morning of walking and photographing.

I took some shots of the gardens:  a kitchen one with tomato pots, corn and green beans

but the fun ones were the Peranaken (term for people of Chinese origin who settled this area in the 1800s) one and the recycled car boot:

A view from the "ridge"

and of a pond that has hosts a lot of Monitor Lizards (we saw one but it was so camoflauged, the photo wouldn't come out)

I'm including a shot of a lizard from a different walk, in case you don't know what they look like... and this is a small one...

Everywhere we turned, we saw another beautiful bush or tree.  I don't know this one's name, but isn't it nice?

Lots of amazing types of Heliconia 

And of course, my favorites, Banana Trees ( the ones on the right are about 1/2 inch!)

We returned to the Garden Center where we had lunch at a Wine Bar (!)

This is the wall of the information center, an appropriate mosaic of trees, flowers and butterflies:

Apartment Living

Now that we are settled in our apartment, I thought I would share some of the daily views.

From the 19th floor, I see this out our living room window:

But Singapore is constantly growing and changing, so outside the bedroom windows we see a new skyscraper going up:

The above photo doesn't really show how close this is...the operator of the crane can look right into our bathroom window...

And looking down, this is what we see:

So to get away from all the hubbub, our apartment complex has the most beautiful garden conservatory where I went to read this afternoon.  It is an air conditioned greenhouse surrounded by waterfalls, koi ponds and benches for reflection.  Enjoy!

 Look carefully for the turtle:

I'm thinking of doing my mosaics at this spot on the mosaic floor:

And a special plant to give you a peaceful thought right now:

Last weekend we visited some new friends who chose the ultra-modern apartment by the bay.  Here is what the building looks like:

The clubhouse:

And the view:

The cruise ships go in and out every day and it is right across the water from the new Universal studios theme park.  Total resort living!