lion in the sky

when you walk alone, like i do sometimes, your imagination starts to wonder and sometimes it plays tricks on you. today, i was walking along a track at the dairy farm nature park, when i thought i saw a dancing lion up in the trees.

if you are imaginative enough, you can see the lion with it mouth open, with something trailing from its mouth. it also has a bushy tail and it is balancing itself on two legs, just like the lion in the chinese lion dance.

this is not one of those manicured shrubs that is shaped by constant trimming. it takes shape naturally. so, man could have learnt from nature and then develop the art of topiary. but man need tools, like the hand shears and pruner, to shape the sculpture. nature does not even need wires to guide in forming the shape and also, there is no need for tieing.

topiary is the art of trimming and shaping hedges into an array of shapes and sizes in order to add an artistic touch to the garden.

how about this? does it not look like a butterfly? i came across this along the pang sua park connector, which will link zhenghua park to choa chu kang park. the connector is still under construction.

then, there was this nature sculpture at admiralty park. it looks like an elephant with a morning glory flower for an eye.

the most basic way to start with topiary is to fashion a rough wire frame in the desired shape. once this is done, secure it in place and begin to train the plant around the shape.