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Lost in the beauty of peach blossoms

 

From far or near,
it looks like a beautiful dream.

With peach blossoms in foreground and Poplar trees afar, it is a scene which I thought only exists in Chinese poems, too pretty to be real. Standing in front of the large field of blossoming peach trees at Fei Cheng, Shandong, I think I could finally understand why Chinese poets were able to create such beautiful literary works.

 

The Chinese has a famous poem on an incidental journey made by a fisherman through a river, with peach blossoms flowering on both banks. At the end of the river and through a passage way, he found a peaceful village, much like an eutopia. He was warmly welcomed and stayed with them, leading a life too good to be true. It seems like human nature to be dissatisfied, even for the 'best', and after some time, the fisherman decided to leave the village to go back home, thinking that he could mark the route and come back in future. Of course, as the story goes, he couldn't find the place ever again.

Walking through the field of pretty blossoms, I wondered if I were the fisherman, will I leave a 'perfect' place to return home? My mind wondered as my feet wandered and when it is time to go back to my travel group, I realised that I was lost!

It 'snowed' last spring

Walking by the lake, under the willows
for a moment I thought it is snowing.

It was early spring and starting to turn warm. Gentle breeze caresses willows by the Da Ming Lake in Jinan, Shandong.

As I walked further down by the lake, I started to notice strange little white specks in the air. It looked almost as if it was snowing, a surreal sight in the midst of greeneries and warm sun.

These are actually the seeds of willows, that get carried away by wind every March or April. Though a lovely sight for the eyes, we had to try hard not to breath these in. I guess the park seemed to be rather quiet as locals are avoiding outdoors during this time of the year.



   

 

The Flower of Summer

In the sweltering summer heat,
I lingered by the lotus pond.

Lotus is one of my favourite subjects. It all started in an unlikely place, Bali, where the wide expanse of lotus blooming in the ponds simply fascinated me.

This is shot at Ubud and after many years, remains to be my best loved shot.

Back home and in between overseas trips, I went to different parts of Singapore in search of this flower. Other than its unique quality of growing out of the mud but remaining stainless, it best flowers during hot rainless days, when all other flowers have withered and leaves scorched by the unbearable heat. 

A lotus pond in Singapore, the hotter it gets, the more it blooms.

My hottest summer was a July in Taipei, probably the best time to shoot lotus. At the Taipei Botanical Garden, I found a huge pond filled with giant blooms.

@ Taipei Botanical Garden

Another of my favourite, also shot in Taipei.

Do you have a favourite flower?