Sunday 9 June 2013

Botanic Garden & Lessons Learnt (Never forget your SD card!!)

IMG_20130608_152021



Next on the to do list: visit the Botanic Gardens!
I'm sure this is on almost every Cambridge student's to do list, since it's free for students, why not? I've been to the Biodome in Canada, which is definitely impressive but I wasn't sure what to expect from Cambridge's biodome. I don't actually remember anyone talking about their visit to the botanic gardens... at most, it's always been 'I should go there'.
IMG_20130608_145856
The weather was getting quit chilly, so I was hoping to not stay too long (I seem to only tolerate a very small temperature range). I grabbed my dSLR, had a quick lunch at subway and had a pleasant walk. The entrance to the Botanics Garden isn't very exciting, in fact, we almost missed it from the angle we were coming in at. The outdoors part looks like a typical English garden/park, reminds me of Regents part, with different sections for different plants. I did wish we were having a picnic there and have time to lie down and look up to the sky.
IMG_20130608_145442IMG_20130608_151004
The best part in my opinion was the green house. It has a room for each climate: arid, tropical, mountain, ocean islands and more that I can't remember. The tropical/wet room actually got me excited for Malaysia. I'm definitely going to visit the rain-forests in Borneo and Peninsula (did you know Malaysia Peninsula has the oldest rainforest) and the tropical room was a reminder of how hot and humid it's going to be. It's so easy to get caught up reading activities you'd want to do, dream about the adventures, that you forget little details like the climate and... how unfit you are. Anyway, back to the greenhouse, looking at the huge water lilies, wet vines and colourful petals just makes me buzz with excitement for trekking.
IMG_20130608_151037
IMG_20130608_150328
The different textures, shapes and vibrancy just wanted to me to get my camera out! So I did, and started snapping straight away, but my camera kept making a weird noise. Turns out, I left my memory card at home, still plugged in my laptop from the time I was uploading the photos from Castle Mount. It's not the first time this has happened. I'm contemplating about buying a second SD card just in case something similar happens or my first one gets stolen. SD cards are not cheap but missing a once in a life shot suppresses that cost. Luckily for this time, James was happily snapping away before I found out I left my SD card. He's actually a better photographer than me and even though we was using his phone camera, he had a better understanding on focus, texture and angle. Plus he loves take panorama shots. I've included some of the photos he took throughout the day.

There's not too much to say about the Botanical gardens. Certainly something kids would enjoy playing around, especially if James had fun running to the top and yelling 'I'm king of the Jungle' in two/three different spots, us students would enjoy having a picnic in. I remember being surprised there was an 'Ocean Islands' room and that it actually referred to geological 'Ocean Islands'. I tried to explain the James what they were but he was too distracted by people having trouble coming into the room, hmph.
IMG_20130608_150049
Anyway, have fun looking at the photos and hopefully it makes you want to visit too.

No comments:

Post a Comment