A tree that may in summer wear

My family and I have long held an obsession with plants.  When we were little, my father grew all kinds of strange, leafy greenery in pots all over our tiny flat, watering them as tenderly as if they were children.

So I'm always excited when the Singapore Garden Festival comes to town because I can spend a day walking among foreign gardens and see all kinds of cool flowers.  This year, I went with Margaret, Dhany, Rudi and Irene (who bought the whole marketplace, including a fuzzy and prettily scented pot of basil).

Mini skirt - Target Kids.  White top - H&M.  Clutch - Yakpak.

Shoes - URS.  Necklace - Made by my mother.  Mustard tights - Topshop.

I tried to go for a slightly gardeny sort of look.  This skirt is about five years old and never ceases to amuse me because it was actually from the children's section.  I think sometimes that children's clothes are more whimsical and prettier than those made for adults and being a tiny, short Asian, I can sometimes fit into things mean for Caucasian eleven-year-olds.

 
I particularly love the gentle blue wash and starry pattern on this.  Also, I really like dressing like a child.

My mother made this chain necklace by taking apart an old bracelet and stringing the little clover beads a intervals on a gold chain.  I like how it is both vintage and new at the same time and the way it is delicate, but interesting.

The cool thing about having a mother that makes jewellery is that I can customise it to be exactly what I want and it's unique.  (I thought I might give away some jewellery my mom made if I do conduct one of those, it'll be one of a kind!)

The garden festival itself was quite lovely - cool and leafy and lightly-scented from all the plants.

This amazing garden was almost entirely lush water plants in metal tubs which I just loved.  What a pretty and sustainable idea!

I don't know if you can tell, but there were actually rosy pears growing on these vines.  This is all most fascinating for Singapore-dwellers who get excited if they sight so much as a squirrel on a tree.

 Dhany modelled his green and gardeny shirt against a random rock wall.  It has stripes of seersucker in it!

One thing I love about the Garden Fest is that it invariably has the most expansive display of Orchids ever.  It was just amazing to see how many shapes, colours and designs these come in, and they are tough broads, too.

 
There's always pretty merchandise.

This year there was an amazing bonzai segment where people volunteered their thousand-year-old bonzais for exhibition (I'm completely exaggerating, I don't think any of these were near a thousand years old.  I mean Singapore is barely 50.  Calculate, people!) 

I don't know if you can tell, but the owner of the bottom one has cultivated it into the shape of the Chinese character "fu" for luck.  It is just RIDICULOUS, the amount of planning and foresight that one has to have for something like this!

Photos by Dhany and Moi

These photos are some of my favourites of the bunch.  Some of the bonzai owners planted tiiiiiny towns in the middle of the bonzais.  It just slayed me!  I would've put my hand in there to demonstrate some scale but I was worried I would accidentally knock something over or poke a plant to death and then a thousand-year (again, exaggeration) legacy would come crumbling to its knees. 

Seriously though, the little horse in the top picture is about 1cm long, and the teeny clothes on the clothes line in the second, are about the size of a pinhead.  Those little "bamboo trees" behind the hut?  Yeah, they look to me like dill or something similar.  I just loved how they turned small plants into towering trees with the little characters.

Finally, made hungry by all the plants and honey sticks and organic stuff, we all had dinner, with Dhany, Rudi, Irene's boyfriend Lincoln...

And Margie and Irene, of course.

Irene, your almost-pixie haircut is killing me.  I love it and if my hair would just stay straight, I would chop it off like that in an instant.  Unfortunately, I have to continue my life with a long, unruly mop, while Mel Pang startles me by tugging on it suddenly at work and announcing "well, at least it's soft!"

HAH!  HAH!  HAH!