Strolling Sights: Chip Bee Gardens

So I've decided that besides Bus Ride Sights, I'm gonna do a Strolling Sights as well. :)

 

I'm looking forward to it.

 

Particularly since there are (rare) times when I've the camera with me and I've time to wander about, and it seems a pity to not snap off a few shots.

 

I was at Holland Village this day.

And after plonking up and down the shops and seeing what was new and what was not, I decided I'd take a gander over at Chip Bee Gardens which, to me, is one of those quiet, lovely, serene housing estates where large trees still stand by the road, shedding leaves and twigs and branches, where bushy-tailed squirrels scamper from one branch to another all times of the day and where you can hear birds singing in the mornings and evenings.

They've got a Heritage board there now, describing what this estate used to be and what it is now, and ah, no wonder, there's that vibe. Chip Bee Gardens used to have lots of trees and used to house military personnel from the British Armed Forces a long, long, long time ago.

 

where Mediterranean Sin is

 

the road behind

there WAS a very pretty sunlit shadow, but..

I didn't go right into the estate today. There was no time.

But from the looks of it, little has changed from the time I remember it. The houses are still as neat and structured as ever, their occupants house proud. The gardens are neat, some with chairs, others with trees and plants and flowers. Cars are still parked here and there outside the homes. The balconies range from the heavily decorated to the sparse, where there might be cloths and towels draped over one balcony, to another that is as empty and bare as it can be. And from time to time, there's always one house that stands empty waiting for new occupants, and these houses appear to be so totally filled with sunlight where you can literally look through the hall windows right through the whitewashed walls into the backyard and beyond.

I've got memories here.

First I had a schoolmate who used to stay here together with her fellow course mates and back then I often wondered how they made their way to school. Later, when it came to my turn where I oft had to pass through here on an errand basis, I found out. It was a ten, fifteen-minute walk from Holland Village through this estate to the housing blocks behind and this place was particularly beautiful during Christmas time where the families would set up Christmas trees in their living rooms and some would decorate their gardens with lots and lots of fairy lights, making Chip Bee Gardens pretty, festive and lively.

neat homes of the suburb