Happy Place, Happy Space
On our family blog, The Tan Times, are Halloween & All Saints Day ruminations for the month of October. Dad shared his memory of tomb-sweeping at Bukit Brown Cemetery, which exists today only in part, as many of the graves were exhumed to make way for a highway through the area.
Loving Husband and I have never been and decided to make a trip there to see for ourselves. There was a previous attempt last week but due to injury, we had to reschedule our adventure.



Lots of jungle around us: huge trees & shrubs which have grown mostly undisturbed; just another sultry morning in the rainforest.

We chose not to venture off the path into the jungle on account of my still recovering calf muscle and the numerous mosquito bites I’d collected. Still, an interesting expedition to a lost world for an hour or so.
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Reading your Joyful Posts brings me to my happy place. I hope having them in one place makes it easier for you to find when you need a bit of happy therapy, too.
If you would like to join in, ping back to this post and I will include you next week.
- Carol Ann Siciliano‘s Delights: relishes time with friends and glimpses into the past
- Debβs Worldβs A Yellow Swing & a Tree: looks forward to when grandchildren visit again
- Gary A Wilson‘s The Magnitude of Unseen Things: encounters a nervewrecking experience at work
- Jo at And Anyways‘ October Squares – Singapore Orchids: thrills with sights & memories of Singapore
- Laurie at Notes from the Hinterland‘s The Quiet Beauty of Viles Arboretum: brings us along on a serene & scenic walk
- Nancy Loderick’s Road tripping in Vermont- First Chester Visit: takes us on a tour of charming Chester
- Natalie at Little Pieces of Me‘s Grateful Fridays: treasures time with Tucker on the trail – hurray!
- Natalie the Explorerβs Recent Reads & Fall Colours: shares her reads & fall captures
- Reflections of an Untidy Mind‘s Numbers Down: celebrates health workers & Dr Coleman for their much-needed & hard work in Canberra
- Still Restless Jo‘s An Idyllic Day: shares a ramble through quiet Castro Marim with Daughter
- Tanooki Homemade Cafe‘s Baba Ganoush: celebrates International Chef Day with an adventure in the kitchen
- The Sandy Chronicles‘ Grey September: captures stunning grey landscapes
- Thistles and KiwisβThis Weekβs Small Pleasures: brings us a view of The Ducklings & good food
- Trent’s World‘s The Weekly Smile: enjoys unseasonably warm weather with a park clean-up & socialising
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This post is my contribution to
- Past Squares hosted by Becky at Life Of B
- Weekend Coffee Share hosted by Natalie the Explorer
- Walktober hosted by Robin at Breezes at Dawn
- Friendly Friday Challenge: Weather hosted this week by Sandy at The Sandy Chronicles
What an interesting post! And a lovely place. I hope your calf muscle is all healed and that there are fewer mosquitoes too!
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Glad to have you pop in, Dawn. Calf muscle is mostly good now, thank you so much for the well-wishes. Mosquitoes are still out & about, though not so badly in places I typically visit.
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Thank you so much for joining Walktober, Ju-Lyn. The cemetery looks like a beautiful place to explore.
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Appreciate so much your hosting us! Thank you for coming along on my walk!
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A tropical jungle for sure. I am glad you stuck to the path. Do you feel the humidity in these spots, Ju-Lyn or are you quite used to it now?
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I think the humidity is just so much everywhere; it would have been felt a great deal more if it had rained recently, but it was a fairly clear morning for us.
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Reblogged this on The Tan Times and commented:
Here are some thoughts & photographs from our visit to Bukit Brown Cemetery, in response to Dad’s post.
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All the green is so refreshing! Also, what happened to your calf? I hope you are better now.
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The healing & restorative greenery! something I know you both appreciate!
Tore my calf muscle and made it worse because I didn’t let it heal enough. Well on the way to recovery now!
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That is so cute you have a family blog! Our friend has a family vlog page on YouTube of all the things they do together. Also what a beautiful walk.
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We thought it would be a good way to keep in touch as we all (except for my parents and I, who are in Singapore) live so far apart. We’ve since expanded it to include extended family & friends who share creative endeavours as well as updates on goings-on.
Thank you for coming along for the walk, Julie! Always lovely to have you.
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Thank you for sharing your walk with us Ju-Lyn. Hope your calf and mosquito bites get better! This was a lovely place to visit.
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Lovely to have you visit, Dale! Thank you so much for your well-wishes!
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My pleasure. π
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Hi – oh man I can relate to the mosquito bites! This summer was a little more buggier than other years in our area / and glad cold weather is coming
– love the photos and how the blue in the outfits really shows the greens!
Cheers and hope your calf muscle heals soon
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Gosh, those mosquitoes! But worse are the sandflies – their itch persist for days and days and days … So the bugs depart with the cold weather? That would be a lovely break from them!
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Oh sorry you do not have cold weather to help get rid of some – because yes – here in Virginia the weather does get nice and cold to help – but we are still called the “spider state” and all year long have spiders around (but nothing like sand flies and sorry you have e those – blah!)
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How funny that Virginia is called the Spider state!
And again, I am reminded that with the changing of weather comes the change of scene and natureβs inhabitants!
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Glad to see you out and about, Ju-Lyn. Everything looks so green at the cemetery. Thank you for the mention and for your contribution to #Weekendcoffeeshare.
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Thanks for the encouragement Natalie! Appreciate your cheering me on!
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I have a special fondness for cemeteries. Your photos and narrative helped me feel I was there. I look forward to seeing more when you are back to full health!
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Thank you for cheering me on, Carol Ann!
And yes, I do love poking around cemeteries as well (save the bug bites) – so much fascinating stories.
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It looks ‘sultry’ indeed. I’ve never seen semi-circular walls in a cemetery before. Is there a particular story behind this ? Thanks for the double mention Ju-Lyn π
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Apprently these curved tomb walls are Teochew & Hokkien features.
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Interesting. I read an article about the tombs. Sounds like they house very important people. You have some auspicious relatives Ju-Lyn!
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Not at all, Sandy. There are important people graves and commoner (not my word) graves; I believe Great Granddad belonged to the latter.
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What an interesting place, Ju-Lyn. I love that second photo of your husband walking into the wall of green.
Thanks for the mention. I enjoyed the other posts as well.
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How nice that you got out for a bit! Looks like a lovely walk.
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We were glad to have made the trip – it was good fun!
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Looks so green (my fav color) and I love a good cemetery. Very Halloweeny. Does Singapore celebrate?
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I thought rather appropriate for Halloween too! and that maybe we should bring Younger Child here for a Halloween walk … but maybe a little too spooky and dangerous at night! and can you imagine the mosquitoes!
Singapore doesn’t celebrate Halloween much – just a few pockets of folks dress up on the day of. And Loving Husband dressed up today as did all the kids in school – so they had an early celebration then.
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Thanks so much for including me in your happy place. That looks like an awesome outing. Glad the calf muscle is recovering and I will try to come back and visit some of your shares. Our son is keeping us quite busy at the moment but when he’s gone it may be a welcome diversion. Have a great week!
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Hope you’ve enjoyed time with The Son. So lovely you’ve had time with both him & your daughter.
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what an incredible place to explore, and walking in your dad’s footsteps too. Such a lovely walk – do hope though you are on the mend
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Exploring this area did bring my dad’s memories come to life for me; thank you for coming along.
I am much better – hopefully just about done with the healing.
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I’ve joined you for this week/next week?
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Oh goodie! Thank you so much for joining in with your contribution to our smile/gratitude quota!
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Such an interesting place to visit. Thanks for the mention and all the other bloggers too!
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I am so glad to have you along for the walk!
And you are always welcome in this space!
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So many lovely posts you have included Ju-Lyn! Hope your calf muscle is feeling better now.
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I am so glad you enjoyed visiting the other bloggers – these are people I’ve visited through the week who have inspired a smile.
Thank you for thinking of my leg – pain-free and just about all better.
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What a lovely peaceful place to visit and explore. Have a lovely week.
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It was very quiet and no one about at all, save a couple near the main road in. Just us, the insects and wildlife hidden.
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That is a lovely dense forest. I looked up tomb-sweeping and that sounds very similar to what we call “decoration day” here. That cemetery looks like a really cool place to explore.
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Ooooh, I’ve never heard of Decoration Day before. I have never participated in grave-sweeping with ancestral rites, but we did use to visit Loving Husband’s mom’s grave once a year to clear the weeds and to say a prayer.
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On Decoration Day, most people will put flowers on their ancestors graves. We don’t clean the graves ourselves, but most donate money to the cemetery fund to pay someone to do it all year – mow, etc.
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