While we were at the playground, this little creature (thanks to Amanda @ MooreBlogLife, I now know this is a Woodland Skipper) landed right in front of one of my nephews. My nephew started to huff and puff at it, like the big bad wolf in the three little pigs. No, it didn’t make any attempt to fly away at all. What a fearless creature, standing up to a creature so many times its size! I just had to take a shot of it with my Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot camera phone.

There are some limitations in using a camera phone to take photo. Go over to Amanda’s site to see her shot of the Woodland Skipper, her shot is so much clearer and you can see much more details of it. The power of a proper camera is truly amazing. My shot is nothing close to her photo.

Pretty soon all the other children gathered around it. I was kind of worry with the fate of the little creature. Fortunately, it knew just when to take flight.

There are times in life when we have to stand up fearlessly to challenges, like the little creature, and yet know when to ‘take flight.’ The challenge is knowing when to do which. Some of us are ever ready to give up when we hit walls and yet others just do not want to let go and move on. When we take time out to reflect in the quietness, our inner voice will reach out to us. We have to learn to listen and to trust that inner voice.

“It isn’t enough to talk about peace, one must believe it. And it isn’t enough to to believe in it, one must work for it.” - Eleanor Roosevelt

I was at Labrador Park, Singapore, a few weeks ago. It was like taking a walk in history. I took these shots with the Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot camera phone with sepia effect, to give it a little historical feel. The first shot was that of a machine gun post set up to protect 12-pounder guns on the hill right above it and the second shot was that of a gun.

Reading the title of this post, what came into your mind? I must be kidding? How can Human be beast? From Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, he theorized that humans were derived from apes. So that make us beast?

We have indeed come a long way. We have tried controlling our environment, which once (still is) fed and provided natural resources in abundance for us. We have created weapons capable of massive destruction. We have grown intellectually and yet emotionally ever ready to jump and to destroy each other at the slightest provocation.

Perhaps, all that wouldn’t justify us as beast? Recently, I picked up an interesting book ‘The World Without Us’ by Alan Weisman from the library. Alan questions: How would the world change if human beings vanished from the earth right now, for good? What would the planet be like in a day, a week, a month … a millennium?

In the book, it is mentioned that we genetically most resemble the chimpanzees. Dr. Michael Wilson who does field research at Gombe Stream, Tanzania, observed chimpanzees in wild tearing apart and devouring red colobus monkeys. They are superb hunter, about 80% of their attempts are successful kills. Comparing to lions, it is only about one out of 10 or 20.

Dr. Michael Wilson also observed something sad and kind of depressing. Chimpanzees were seen stealing into the territories of neighboring chimp groups, ambushed unwary lone males, and maul them to death.

In the book (observed by Dr. Michael Wilson), “… He watched chimps over months patiently pick off males of neighboring clans until the territory and the females are theirs. He also seen pitched chimpanzee combat, and blood battles within a group to determine who is the alpha male.” Do you see the resembles in human aggression and power struggles?

When I was reading that passage, I couldn’t help but felt deeply how human has acted in the same way. We may have evolved to become a superior primate but some of us may not have renounced ‘the beast’ within yet. Fortunately, I believe that majority of the people have not only evolved intellectually but also emotionally.

Last Sunday, I was at the Singapore Botanical Garden. As it was a Sunday, there were not only a lot of tourists, but there were also a lot of Singaporeans. Some were jogging, some were just taking walks and there were some who were having picnics with their families on the grass patches.

What were I doing at the Singapore Botanical Garden? I was intending to take some pictures of the place, with my Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot camera phone, to take part of a competition. However, the picture did not turn out all that well. Nevertheless, I still managed to get some pretty decent photos to share with you. I guess it was worth spending $55 to get the camera phone fixed.

There is a Symphony Stage in the Singapore Botanical Garden which sits in the middle of a pond. While I was taking photos of the Symphony Stage, I saw these white flowers growing out of the water at the side of the pond. And there were dragonflies and bees.

Finally found out the name of this with help from someone. This plant is called Sagittaria latifolia and is sometimes known as broadleaf arrowhead, duck potato, Indian potato, or wapato. This is usually found in shallow wetlands

From my previous experience trying to take photos of the Leopard Flower and the bees, I tried to move in slowly this, to steal some shots of the dragonflies and bees.

Apparently, they were much more ‘cooperative,’ comparing to the bees at the Singapore HortPark and I managed to take a few shots. Frankly speaking, I am quite impressed by the Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot camera phone although it has its limitations. Perhaps, I have yet to master the usage of it completely.

If you want to take a break from all the shoppings in Orchard Road, the Singapore Botanical Garden is definitely an ideal place for some family bonding activities in the heart of the city. The best thing is, there is no entrance charge; you can bring your whole family along.

This was taken with Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot Camera Phone in the Singapore HortPark, marked as Leopard Flower and origin from China. In Wikipedia, it was stated that it is used in Chinese villages for its medicinal values. The first thing I saw in the car park of HortPark was this beautiful flower. And there were bees busy pollinating the flower. I tried to take shots of the bees on the Leopard Flower but I was too slow.

According to Wikipedia, Belamcanda chinensis (Blackberry lily, Leopard flower, Leopard lily) is an ornamental plant in the Iridaceae family. In 2005, based on molecular DNA sequence evidence, Belamcanda chinensis, the sole species in the genus Belamcanda, was transferred to the genus Iris and renamed Iris domestica.

The plant grows 60-90 cm tall in full sun and is often found blanketing hill sides, the flowers can range form red to yellow to orange or mixed and bloom in summer to early autumn (fall).