Plant a tree, save the earth

I'm very big on the environment thing. I think it comes from great empathy that leads me to constantly feel guilty, for everything. So, when I see pictures of destruction, fin-less sharks, seals drowning because of beer rings, read about how many trees we kill and how our coffee cups (or in my case, iced tea cups) and plastic bags contribute to the waste on earth, I feel that I need to do more.

So, I try. I boycott sharks' fin, much to the chagrin of the very Chinese family I married into. I boycott cod because it is over-fished. I try to bring my own bags to the supermarket and I try and switch off lights after myself. I also try to take the bus and leave the car at home in order to save fuel and not add to the noxious-ness of our air. But all this that I do is often met with bemused tolerance in my family. No one really cares. To them, the environment is something you read about in the paper and watch on Nat Geo. It is a cause that frustrates me because I can come home to the entire house shut up on a bright day with all the lights blazing. It frustrates me when wooden chopsticks and plastic spoons are accepted at take-out when we are buying it to eat at home where there are metal forks and spoons.

As a result, when I was told by my father-in-law that we were going to plant trees, albeit at someone else's bidding (they were at a non-sharkfin serving wedding where the bride and groom told them to plant trees rather than give them monetary gifts), I was much pleased. And I looked forward to it with much glee.

It was to be a family effort. We would plant 3 trees as we are now 3 families. It was a hot Sunday morning and the tree-planting took place in a very young park where the tree-lings offered no shade from the merciless sun. It was a no-brainer really, this tree-planting effort. We envisioned needing to get our hands dirty and labour on the soil. But actually all the labouring had been done for us by some very helpful Bangladeshi workers who had a little bit more skill than we had at wielding the spade and the hoe.

The twins had much fun as well but I suspect that had more to do with the fact that they were out in the open and we were in the vicinity of an MRT station which caused Evan to squeal at regular intervals, point, gesture, hop around and yell "train" as the trains pulled into the station and as the trains left the station, wave and say "bye-bye" in a sad falsetto voice.

















Walking along for an early morning adventure with 3 pre-schoolers in tow.

















The Tan cousins, with an excited Evan pointing out to his sister and uninterested cousin a passing train.


















Doing their part for the environment. Watering the Tan family tree-ling after Mommy and Papa did the backbreaking task of covering the tree-ling with soil and making sure the soil held up the still-limp tree stem (I'd like to call it a trunk but that implies sturdiness and strength which these flailing tree-lets lacked). Baby J thought it would also be helpful to give her Grandpa a hand at planting his tree.

















Of course, once that was all out of the way, it was just running around and generally having fun being tossed around and enjoying the expanse of the great outdoors.
























Not surprisingly, with all the sun and running around and being tossed around, the twins had a good nap afterwards. Of course, there were nightmares as well which I suspect had to do with being flung almost into orbit by Mommy.

Anyway, for more information about the tree-planting programme, one can easily contact NParks. The people who met us were very nice, knowledgeable and helpful and it felt good, however cushy this brand of environmentalism was, to plant some trees and to know that we were doing something good for the earth.


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