Lunchtime perambulations
Needing to stretch my legs, I decided to visit the Botanic Gardens at lunch, reasoning that since it had only just stopped raining, the Gardens would be fairly deserted. Not quite - there were quite a few people braving the intermittent drizzle and (now that the sun had emerged) the muggy combination of noonday sun and post-rain high humidity.
There was at least one Japanese tour group, with a tour guide animatedly explaining something that required him to stick his umbrella between his legs in a gesture best left to the imagination. One wonders what the heck he was explaining, and what relation it had to the Botanic Gardens of all places.
There was a Buddhist monk (Tibetan Buddhist, judging by the maroon robes) walking past engaged in conversation with some people, the only snippets of which I overheard were "high monkeys" (from the non-monks) and "huh? huh?" from the monk. I wonder what they were discussing so intensely - perhaps "Darwinism vs Creationism, and Does Buddhism Get Involved in This Messy Debate"?
There were these ducks, who appeared to have come on shore to dry themselves after the rain. One would've thought a little rain would be ... well, like water off a duck's back, really, but still ...
There was a grasshopper, happily chewing his way through a heliconia leaf. There was the tree, still standing after all these years, with the obliging low branch that every child who's visited the Botanic Gardens has sat on at least once.
There were various sculptures in the midst of re-landscaping, such as this one of a girl on swing, temporarily trapped behind fencing:
and at least one that I'd not seen before, of a lady in a hammock (it's been a long time since I've been to the Gardens)
Not a bad way to spend lunch, especially since I wasn't quite hungry anyway.
There was at least one Japanese tour group, with a tour guide animatedly explaining something that required him to stick his umbrella between his legs in a gesture best left to the imagination. One wonders what the heck he was explaining, and what relation it had to the Botanic Gardens of all places.
There was a Buddhist monk (Tibetan Buddhist, judging by the maroon robes) walking past engaged in conversation with some people, the only snippets of which I overheard were "high monkeys" (from the non-monks) and "huh? huh?" from the monk. I wonder what they were discussing so intensely - perhaps "Darwinism vs Creationism, and Does Buddhism Get Involved in This Messy Debate"?
There were these ducks, who appeared to have come on shore to dry themselves after the rain. One would've thought a little rain would be ... well, like water off a duck's back, really, but still ...
There was a grasshopper, happily chewing his way through a heliconia leaf. There was the tree, still standing after all these years, with the obliging low branch that every child who's visited the Botanic Gardens has sat on at least once.
There were various sculptures in the midst of re-landscaping, such as this one of a girl on swing, temporarily trapped behind fencing:
and at least one that I'd not seen before, of a lady in a hammock (it's been a long time since I've been to the Gardens)
Not a bad way to spend lunch, especially since I wasn't quite hungry anyway.
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