until such time as i achieve ringing fame and the men from the monuments board come around to gazette my house (or the mobs show up with pitchforks, as the case may be) jalan naung estate’s sole registered claim to fame is a twenty-two metre high binjai tree (mangifera caesia), which is one of 214 trees “of special botanical, historical, or cultural significance” on the national heritage tree register. for the vast portion of its long and stoic life this tree simply stands there being ignored by residents, but once every four or five years a sight halts us all, that of every previously austere bough covered extravagantly in purple-white blossoms. this is one of those times. the st did a feature on singapore’s ‘sakura season’ recently: those of a flower-spotting inclination may well wish to come by with their oohs and aahs.
Best of the Transparent Hummingbird