The veins of life

One day I came across a roadside tree whose leaves caught my attention. It is shaped like a heart or perhaps, like an apple. What I find most striking and beautiful are the veins, so subtlely well defined. Nature is simply marvellous.

An excerpt from William Blake's poem - "Auguries of Innocence" :

To see a world in a grain of sand
And heaven in a wild flower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.

***************************************
What do you "see" in the veins of the leaves?

Li Zhong and the Earthquake

Here is my simple translated version of the story contained in the Chinese Text Book of Virtues, Book one, Chapter on Filial Piety. Please pardon my translation errors and let me know if you spot any errors.
During the Yuan Dynasty, there was a filial son by the name of Li Zhong who lived in the Jin Ning area. Li Zhong's father passed away when he was very young and he lived together with his mother. He was a very dutiful and filial son, taking good care of his mother. In the seventh year of 'Da De' at the month of August, a very big earthquake occurred. During the earthquake, a mountain moved and caused the collapse of many houses. The number of houses destroyed or buried numbered more than ten thousand and countless people died. Strangely, when the mountain moved to some distance near Li Zhong's house, it splitted into two and moved past the house, leaving the house intact. After moving a little distance away from Li Zhong's house, the splitted mountain merged again. In that region, only Li Zhong's house was not damaged by the earthquake.
Earthquake that resulted in the movement of mountain was a terrible calamity and the resulting affected area was huge. Only the house of one with utmost filial piety survived the quake with no damage. There are many other ancient stories of filial piety which showed filial sons and daughters surviving unharm from natural calamities and epidemic.
Original Chinese story available HERE 《德育课本》,初集卷一,《二十四孝》, 编号 : dykb1-01, story number 23).

Photos of the Southern Ridges

Dear all,

here are some photos of the Southern ridges :

http://picasaweb.google.com/bluesky003/Southridges20080519 (Henderson waves, Forest walk through the elevated walkways, Alexandra Arch)

http://picasaweb.google.com/bluesky003/Hortpark20080524 (Hortpark)

In Hortpark, there is this dancing plant which is located in the
Bougainvillea kingdom. Here are two videos showing the dancing plants in action :

http://www.crisp.nus.edu.sg/~albert/Hortpark20080524/plant1.html

http://www.crisp.nus.edu.sg/~albert/Hortpark20080524/plant2.html


If you want to find out more about this dancing plant including its purchase, check out the following sites :

http://www.banneechen.com.sg/catalog/product_info.php/products_id/979

http://www.banneechen.com.sg/catalog/index.php/cPath/3?osCsid=ff0892857419173d0bacc11ef2094068