The Gardens in the Rain

While my adventures and experiences at the Botanic Gardens have been mostly dry, warm or breezy affairs, there have been days when my visits were coincident with rain, light drizzles or tropical thunderstorms. 

There was one instance during the pandemic when I was caught in a heavy shower while  walking in the vicinity of several buildings, some of which were undergoing renovation. A worker, observing me taking refuge uncomfortably in the shallow overhang of a the building facade where he was, kindly admitted me into its shelter.

Another time, the rain was pouring so heavily near the Nassim headquarters of the Gardens, to the extent that even the sheltered areas were partially flooded! That particular visit to the Gardens had begun promisingly enough. I had first walked the Evolution Garden path which told the story of Life on Earth, from the first living organisms that thrived in its primordial oceans, to the appearance of the first plants and animals on land. It was designed such that in walking the path, the visitor would in fact be walking through geological time, traversing PreCambrian, Cambrian and Mesozoic eras in mere hundreds of steps, with foliage on each side of the path reflecting the flora of the respective era.

Walking the less travelled route- detour from the main path to the Evolution Garden

Information placards like this were an educational delight when walking the path

Beautiful landscaping at the Gardens- a rocky stairway of ferns

Dinosaurs roamed amongst tree ferns such as these during the Mesozoic era

Palms and cycads

Back to the fossilised trees, where the Evolution Garden path begins

Having completed the path, I thought that I would hang out near the Nassim headquarters building, window shop at the Gardens souvenir shop for a while and use the toilet. I Chun had warned me of a rain forecast at 4 pm but at the time it was barely half past three.

I should have paid more attention to the ominous rumblings of thunder when I was doing the Evolution trail though. (Instead I was thinking how apt it was to have the growls of seismic or cosmic origin as the backdrop sounds of a young earth!) While I was at the HQ building, it started to drizzle. Still thinking that I had time to walk to the Botanic Gardens MRT before it rained heavily, I casually acted on that foolish decision. Five minutes later, a guy in blue shirt and jeans and wearing a cap was seen Hurtling himself through heavily pouring rain back to the shelter of the HQ building!

After an hour so, the rain had finally subsided to a point where I could briskly walk back to the Botanic Gardens MRT, with a cap on my head and bag slung over my back to keep it somewhat dry. Reflecting on this experience and the earlier stroll through the Evolution Garden, I could sum it all up to say that Life has been evolving according to Climate over millions of years. Man has just arrived in the past minute, if the Earth had existed for a day. Does he think he's in command of Nature, or should he accept that it is, in fact, the other way around?