The Plant Story

Volunteered to guide in a Forest Therapy walk at the Singapore Botanic Gardens on our International Forest Therapy Day ytdy, to raise funds for Singapore Gardens Fund.

Funny how one of the guides and 2 of the people in my group are patrons of The Plant Story. Not just once but twice!! From Marina Bat East to Seletar 🙏🙏🙏

Forgot to take a group photo with you, Stella and ES as we had to adhere to our timeline 😬

Thanks for recognizing me 🫡

Cath 🧑🏻‍🌾

The tree grows, finding its place in the forest. Its leaves grow and shed with the seasons. Fires sweep through, disease came and left. It is scorched, scarred, it has lost quite a big chunk of its trunk, but miraculously survived. Why? How did this happen?

I’d imagine you’ll find this imagery familiar; that your life has moved through similar cycles of change and ‘destruction.’

If at times we feel stunted or we feel like giving up, it might be we have neglected our roots, that part of ourselves by which we draw sustenance from the land to feed our lifeforms; for it is from the land that our deepest lives are fed...
Nature is our best teacher to learn resilience. We can all learn from her. 💚

Cath
Nature-certified counsellor
About this tree: this is a tree by Kappa Bridge along Azusa River in Kamikochi, Japan. It was most probably diseased and stunted due to the wind and sun direction. Yet amazingly, it is still thriving in its new found glory, living a lasting impression for visitors to Kamikochi, including myself 🙏

这棵树长了，在森林里找到了自己的位置。它的叶子随季节而生长和脱落。大火席卷而来，疾病来来去去。它被烧焦了，伤痕累累，失去了很大一部分树干，但奇迹般地幸存了下来。为什么？这是怎么发生的？

我想你会发现这个意象很熟悉；你的生活经历了类似的变化和“毁灭”循环。

如果有时我们感到发育迟缓或想放弃，那可能是我们忽视了我们的根，也就是我们从土地上获取生计来养活我们生命体的那部分；因为我们最深处的生命是从土地上喂养的......
大自然是我们学习韧性的最佳老师。我们都可以向她学习。💚

Cath
自然认证心里质询师

关于这棵树：这是在日本上高地的阿祖萨河边，卡帕桥旁的一棵树。它的形成很可能是病菌感染，加上风向和光线所照成的。然而，它仍然在真么困难的环境中活着，给访客带来喜悦。

The Earth has music to you who love and celebrate in her. Seeds of blessings for Alexa who was told to be prepared a Physical 100 bridal shower for her this morning 😅

Wishing you eternal bliss as you enter this new chapter in your life, Alexa! The journey will be filled with challenges although what JOY to have your chosen life partner alongside you as you learn to help each other become a better version of yourself 💃🏻🕺🏻👯‍♂️

“Nature is a tool that teaches kids not just about the wider world, but themselves.” - Stephen Moss

Karen and the kids wrapped up the March holidays by exploring nature and learning how to propagate their own plants at The Plant Story.

Be surprised by how simple exploration in nature and little nudges to pique their curiosity bring the juniors so much joy.

Home is where the heart is ❤️
Over the CNY holidays, this family of four who reside in China and Malaysia respectively were gifted a workshop experience by their family member living in Singapore. Although they don’t get to see each other often, we were told this has been a memorable experience for them.

The Home Apothecary Workshop was facilitated in Chinese by request. And the award for the most attentive student goes to … Ah Ma from Taiping, Perak ☺️

It’s the season of gifting. We have been playing Santa on many’s behalf by sending our our highly customizable GiftPack to urbanites in need of nature fix 💚

Our GiftPack is valid for 3 months from the date of purchase. The recipient can choose from any of our workshops online and the workshop comes complete with our freshly baked cake and artisan tea served on our Shambala Treehaus too.

The GiftPack comes with a photo frame which they can bring along for a complimentary photo print out we will take for them and print out during their workshop.

You can opt for self collection or we can arrange for hand delivery at an additional $15 per delivery address.

You can choose to gift to 1 person or to a group for free up to 9 persons, our most popular choice is for 2 persons. Price starts from $210.

Message us or WhatsApp us at https://wa.me/6598638112 to order.

Have a blessed Christmas everyone ☺️

A beautiful afternoon well-spent with a lovely couple. Happy Birthday Michelle ☺️

We planted 3 stalks of Heliconia rostrata 3 years ago from cuttings. After many many long waits, the 3 of them have multiplied and finally started to blossom like crazy. However, as they live under the coconut trees with their other Heliconia relatives, many of them kept getting destroyed by the falling coconuts 🌴🥲 prematurely…

So this is a little attempt to salvage those with fractured stems and have fallen to the ground like a handicap 🥲
Hopefully they can continue to extend their hanging lobster claws in the vase… 🙏

Channeling Barbie ☺️
Lychee Martini Earl Grey Genoise

It’s not just another workshop. It’s holding space for 2 good friends to take a break from their unpunctuated lives to celebrate friendship and birthday 🥳 in nature 💚
In total privacy.
Uninterrupted.

Witnessing how Gabriel and Joyce created this lovely Rainforest Garden together shows what true partnership in marriage is like. Wishing Joyce a Happy advance Birthday and both of you a fulfilling marriage for many years to come ❤️

The resilience of nature is always so inspiring. Just when we think they are not gonna survive because the plant was so badly scorched due to the unbearable heat those weeks, new lives start to form from those severely damaged nodes 💚

Have you felt like giving up on some days? Take a walk into nature and observe how she overcomes adversity.

A beautiful sight with its gorgeous scent emitting in the garden despite the darkness surrounding it.

We are celebrating Mothers this Mother’s Day weekend with a special 2 session Healing Retreat X Home Apothecary Workshop on 13 and 14 May at 10am and 4:30pm. Limited to 10 persons per session. Book yours now at www.theplantstory.com/to-mom-with-love Link in bio too.

The olive-backed sunbirds are residents of our sunny island 🏝️ Singapore 🇸🇬
They are usually no bigger than 14cm in size although this little one here is about 9am. While they are small@in size compared to their avian friends, they are fully abled, nimble and beautiful.

Do you sometimes feel small and unworthy? Look to nature and you will see how everyone plays an important role in making this world beautiful and complete 💚

How’s everyone on a Labour Day eve? Remember to take time to slow down and regulate.
Labour Day will be a great day to give yourself a pat on your shoulder and say to yourself “Well done! I deserve a good break for working so hard!” 🌳

Journaling
https://www.theplantstory.com/journal/our-unmet-needs

Our Unmet Needs — The Plant Story In “How it began”, I introduced “unmet needs”. What are they exactly and why are we at their mercy to ace in our lives? Biologically, we started as a helpless fetus in our mother’s womb. We continue to be dependant on our mother for food source and comfort during gestation.

Hanami. In Japanese, “Hana” means “flower”. “mi” means “to see” or “to look”.
Did you know the tradition of Hanami originated from Chinese tradition of viewing of plum blossoms? Ume梅花
Emperor Saga held his first Sakura viewing party with food, music and poetry after being enchanted by a cherry tree in Jisu Shrine in Kyoto. Thereafter, hundreds and thousands of cherry trees were planted all over Japan and especially along the river bank. Word has it that planting cherry trees along the river bank was to prevent erosion of the land as people would come in thousands to enjoy Hanami, thereby compacting the soil. How clever!

I (Cath) used to live in Shanghai so I have my fair share of Hanami Chinese style.

I just returned from Japan and I managed to get a refresher course to differentiate between Sakura (Cherry), Peach and Plum blossoms. They flower around the same time with Plum leading the way, followed by Peach and lastly Cherry. While many are planted agriculturally for their fruits, a lot more are non-fruiting species that are planted only for Hanami purposes.

Plum petals are round, while Peach petals are pointed and Cherry petals are cleft. Somehow, in Japan only Cherry blossoms get media coverage of their blooming forecast across the country.

Regardless, I am always fascinated by how these non-fruiting species look dead 11 months of the year and only to have the world clamoring to view its beauty in that precious 1 month before the cycle repeats itself again 😇
I wonder if this phenomenon translate well in our human world…
🌸

A Different Kind of Bridal Shower and Stag Party
www.theplantstory.com/nature-journal/a-different-kind-of-brial-shower

Celebrating a belated birthday for Shu and an advance birthday for Dan in nature💚🌱🪴🎈🎁🎂🎊💚

A different take on our dessert - Vegan Panna cotta infused with tea leaves and spices topped up with a medley of seasonal fruits and special nuts. The first image features Matcha Verbana Panna-cotta with Pomegranate and Walnut from Morocco, the 2nd image features a lemongrass-cinnamon infused panna-cotta with desiccated coconut and mandarin oranges 🍊☺️

Happiness is seeing co-workers spending the year end together basking in nature 😇
Here’s to a spectacular 2023 everyone!

Fantastic 2 days of sharing by professionals to professionals helping to hold spaces for urbanites in this challenging landscape, post pandemic.

(Cath) In middle Atlas mountain in Morocco now and fascinating to pick up a fresh date from a date palm to eat. Super fresh and sweet ❤️ The last image shows my breakfast this morning with a Berber family where I stayed with and dates was served this way 🙏

Agnes initially couldn’t decide which workshop she should request for to celebrate her boyfriend, WH’s bday. After being guided through all our nature-based workshops, Agnes decided on Soul Good V***r Rub as they wanted something nifty to carry around with the ability to perk them up. It is interesting to see how their concoctions differ from each other. Both of them are super contented with their creations 😇
We joked that this is such a great birthday present as the recipient gets to create his own birthday present and the giver gets to make a present too! 😎 🎁
Happy Birthday WH 🎉

Looking forward to seeing each of these grow into lush edibles under the hands of our workshop participants 👩‍🌾🌱🌱🌱

Working on customised Home Apothecary Workshop that integrates the intelligence of our body’s autonomic nervous system and the power of nature.
This group of participants are highly mobile urbanites who are constantly straddling between crisis and challenges thrown at them.
The goal of our workshop is to get them to experience how they can regulate their bodily sensations in order to support health, growth and restoration ☺️