Hong Kong Update Part 2

Continuing my exploration of the Zoological and Botanical gardens yesterday, it was great to see trees in flower.

Then I came across an intriguing sign… 

…and intriguing wheels. I admit to descending into a horse-rider position and giving it a go! Sort of grown up playground:-) 

Some greater tree cover in parts of the gardens. 

I got to the mammals part of the zoological part, and was OK with smaller monkeys and even the gibbons swinging around their cage. But I got quite upset at this orangutan in quite a small enclosure for a jungle-roaming creature - without defending and preserving their habitat, it makes no sense to have a programme to just breed imprisoned creatures. After communing with it for a while, I had no more stomach for looking at caged animals.

So instead, I looked at flowers …

I appreciated the fountain and its formal flower display in the sunshine.

As a sometimes contractor, I'm not sure if not feeding wild birds will stop me:-)!

Interesting flower. 

This one was called the Mickey Mouse flower - it is a bit cartoonish…

Monument at the entrance to the gardens. 

An interestingly decorated seat in the underpass beneath the entrance. 

Then I wandered down the hill to the Hong Kong park where I found this Braille coded handrail.

The park was a little quieter than the gardens, as traffic was mainly on just one side… 

More flowers - lots of these around. 

Then I walked up to the top of the park to the Institute for Visual Arts, which had an impressive exhibition of ceramic and drawing work by recent graduates. Liked this ceramic balloon 

This was floor to ceiling with brushes on red threads - very striking. 

An example of detailed work. 

I liked this mixed media piece as well. 

I saw this piece and thought of flamenco - it was only afterwards that I saw its title, The Spirit of Duende - the artist certainly captured it in ceramics.

Outside, a banyan tree - which I realised from the name tag is a variety of fig.

More greenery. 

The park had this massive structure, which is an aviary - very noisy with lots of birds of many types calling. 

Down by one of the entrances, I liked the detail of the bride's flowers on this schematic depiction. 

Nearly back at the MTR, I saw this sign which is a constant warning in Hong Kong - apart from Lamma island. 

Today we have been back at the college for our penultimate day of teaching. We finish tomorrow, and fly out on Thursday. I'll hand blogly duties back over to Su until I'm back in the UK...