stopping by the gardens on a sunny afternoon

When they announced that the Botanic Gardens had been gazetted as a UNESCO World Heritage Site some weeks ago, i was glad, but also a little skeptical. i mean, it's great that the place has been set apart and protected -- it means that we'll "forever" (to use LKY's word in the Proclamation of Singapore) have this lovely green space in the middle of the city, untouchable by the developers. It also means that we have one more reason to boast about being a green city -- a trump card to pull out whenever those pesky Nature Society people accuse us of cutting down more trees, damaging our green spaces, etc -- and that might mean that it will become easier to un-green other parts of the island, because we know that this bit is holding the green fort on behalf of the country as a whole.
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Perhaps that's just being too cynical. In any case, it's a lovely space. The woods are lovely, dark and deep -- cool, green, and shady, and a wonderful place to just go walking in when you need to think, or when you need a break from thinking. It's nice to just get away from the buildings buildings buildings everywhere, to see old trees with their branches reaching up or bending down so gracefully, to feel their bark rough beneath your hands. To see people jogging, walking their dogs, playing frisbee on wide open fields, picnicking, or just lying on a mat and not doing anything at all.
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