Lilypie Third Birthday tickers

Monday, August 22, 2005

Filtered light


New leaves
Originally uploaded by
Sunshine follows me.
Trees are good. They keep the air purified, dampen out the sounds of traffic, cast a cool shade. I think they even somehow filter the light to make it clearer, fresher.

There are trees everywhere in Singapore, which is an excellent piece of urban planning. Those trees probably why Singapore doesn't smell as sickly stale or look as dusty as London.

I took this photo of new maple leaves in the early spring at my old place. The trees there were slim saplings still, shivering in the cool spring breeze.

There's a staid oak tree standing in front of our new apartment, and that makes me glad. Trees are a sign of home.

I couldn't live in a place without my woody friends.

3 Comments:

Blogger wahj said...

ah, you've upon one of my pet topics! = )

I've always been so proud of Singapore's public greenery. It takes travelling to another country to realise how a few simple trees along the roads makes everything that much more bearable.

I remember talking to an Estonian lady once (or was she Latvian? Ex-Eastern bloc country, at any rate) on a bus going down the CTE, and she was staring at the trees, and telling me how even our highways looked like gardens to her.

It's good in more ways than the aesthetic: trees in an urban environment can help reduce the average temperature by as much as 3 degrees celsius, which is a difference that can be felt. The shade that roadside trees cover the road with reduces noon-time heat tremendously, since without it the black asphalt absorbs a lot of heat. And they help filter our air, attract/retain migratory birds etc ...

The shame is, I get the feeling that Nparks is no longer planting big shady trees (like the rain trees) and opting for palms instead - possibly because palms don't shed as much (lower cleanup bill) and don't block roads with fallen branches in the occasional storm. Not a good decision, I think, but ah well.

8:15 pm  
Blogger Luma Rosa said...

Trees are eternity! Kisses

3:45 am  
Blogger tscd said...

wahj: Yes, whenever I take round visitors to Singapore, they always say that Singapore is like a huge garden to them. And they are very amused by our colourful lego flats.

luma: Totally agree!

budak: I think the fanshaped palms look pretty but give me a lovely Flame of the Forest tree to stand under anytime!

6:29 pm  

Post a Comment

<< Home

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.