Singapore Botanic Gardens & Casa Verde

Hoping to beat the morning commuters, I got here by 8am. I could smell the gardens even as the subway escalator lifted me to ground level. At about ¼ the size of Central Park in NYC, 3 hours was a good amount of time to wander around these sprawling, well-kept gardens in the heart of Singapore.

All kinds of people were there jogging, reading, doing tai chi and yoga, playing with their kids and walking their dogs. One of the several fitness boot camps I walked past was in French. (“Un! Deux! Trois!”)

Nestled in the middle of the park is Casa Verde. Hopefully you can see part of the menu here if you’re curious. I wondered what the Mixed Fruits Platter was like and here it is! (Each of those fruit pieces needed 3-4 bites, so not as small as they may look here.) At one point, I was joined by this cutie. He sidled up to me, plopped his belly on the cool concrete and refused to budge.

There seemed to be quite a lot of construction going on. Hopefully it’s just my timing and not the norm.

What Thou Seekest Is A Shadow It could apply to so many things – primarily the shadow of the sundial – but this inscription in Sundial Garden immediately made me think of how “more money” is like a shadow; always inching onward like a moving target. So many people, including myself, just want “more” of it, but without any specific amount in mind. Pursuing “more money” can feel like a neurotic chase for its own sake. I know people who work long hours to make the money required to maintain all their expenses and spending habits. Then, as soon as they make more money, they up their spending. (Hedonic Treadmill.)

Botanic or botanical? “Botanic” still sounds wrong to me, but there’s no difference and both terms are correct (unlike classic/classical, historic/historical, politic/political, economic/economical.) Some trivia: there’s a New York Botanical Garden and a Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

So here they are, pics from the morning. I was happy to run into my French Bulldog buddies again. The owner told me they were both dog show champions! Go Frenchies!!