Showing posts with label flowers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flowers. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 17, 2024

January wanderings on ECR

 Jan 10th 2024



Indian Maritime University Recce visit - eBird Trip Report

50 species not counting the warblers and other scrub birds that we did not have time to focus upon.  So here's a rhyme to celebrate.

There was once a trio of MNSers

Nothing in common, but all birders

To IMU we drove

And found a treasure trove

A marsh full of Warblers and Plovers.


There were Egrets and Pelicans galore

Garganeys, Pintails, Ibis and more

so much joy and delight 

Spoonbills in flight

Oh wait!  Godwits in 100s, furthermore!


Then the dogs, who felt ignored

Into the marsh, they  crashed, quite bored

The Godwits flew off

And the Lapwings did scoff

“Did you do it”, they called, and soared.


And how can I forget those Grey Francolins, endearing

Across the road they went. to the edge of the clearing

I counted seven

Quite a procession

And all through our walk we heard them calling.


Openbills flew across along with Painted Stork

Drongo, Coucal, Treepies did disembark

A Roller flashed blue

And the Kingfisher flew

Oh that sweet call - a Jerdon’s Bush Lark!


Powder Puffs played host to many Purple Sunbirds aglow

A Solitary, stock-still Thickknee in the scrub below

We rounded the corner

And there found a charmer

An Oriole above, a flash of sunshiny yellow.


And then as a finale, on a faraway stone

A raptor for sure, that did our goodbyes postpone

A Falcon, a Peregrine

Its claws it did preen

Enjoying the sun and solitude, but no not alone.


We will be back at IMU, that is for sure

The AWC will be a joy and a sinecure

When we go birding

The uncertainty is rewarding

And the company brings laughter in good measure.


And here are the photos:

From Sunbird

From Ramesh

Bauhinia

Rosy Milkweed Vine




Thursday, September 7, 2023

Those painted grasshoppers are back

 Sept 6th and 7th


Poekilocerus pictus 

On Calotropis

Coloured and painted, you'd think it would cheer us

but beware, that toxicity cld afflict us

23, chewing Calotropis poisonous


So, we can squirt you, dont you mess with us

I know, I shall leave, I'm no ignoramus!




Thiruvanmyur 4th seaward road thickets - the milkweed are filled with painted grashopperss.



Monday, March 13, 2023

A spring morning in Delhi

 For amma.

Spring in Delhi is a wonderful time.  There was a nip in the air as I went for a morning walk in the Kailash colony area.  


The bottle brush was brilliant red, 

the boughs heavy with flowers.  My mother's garden has this tree as well.


But it was the Bombax - Silk cotton tree - that stole my heart and filled me with amazement and awe.  Nature's Ikebana, effortlessly balanced and poised.

The buttress roots, magnificent

the outstretched branches, graceful

the fallen flowers, poignant

and the blossoms on the tree, just spectacular.


The tree was abuzz with activity - crows, mynas, doves, parakeets, sunbirds, bulbuls, and many bees as well.

Memories of Assam mornings.  Memories of  laburnum yellows in summer.

Hollyocks - from my Delhi childhood


Petunia beds in profusion

Yellow Nasturtium from South America

And was that a Persian Lilac in bloom?



Collared doves going for a walk

A spread of daisies, past their prime, but still so pretty.

The native Curtain Creeper, which we had in our previous garden.

Work travel does bring pleasures and delights.







Friday, June 25, 2021

Looking down

 Fresh leaves, dried leaves, I do spy
light green, dark green, brown...
and even a Lemon Pansy butterfly. 

Green circles, pink stars
Brown sand and grey wall, and
Amaryllis lilies, from afar.

 

Through the window

A Common Tailorbird came visiting our little patch of green
More loud tweets to be heard than being seen
I watched without moving as it flitted and called
Now on the branch, now on the wall.


And then today this happy surprise
A single yellow spike
of mustard.
Overnight, did it rise?



 

Tuesday, May 25, 2021

Lockdown again

25th May 2021

While we humans struggle with the pandemic, life goes on.


The sapotas are getting ready, and I eye them everyday with delight.

Technically, this is the neighbour's tree, the boughs nicely overhanging on to our garden, inviting us to reach out and pluck a few fruits.  So whats's the ethics of this I wonder - may I pluck or not?  Can I covet these fruits?

And the jasmine blooms every day, and I never get bored of watching them.

Two blooms and a bud.  Gundu mallis.  And see the leaves all washed with the rain.

Under the Rangoon Creeper, an insect buzzed around, and then alighted on the mud, kicking furiously with its front legs, as it burrowed inwards.  

I had not seen one of these earlier.  Lovely green and black markings.  It buzzed as it moved around, and I marvelled as to how far the sand it kicked went.  

My naturalist friends identified it as a sand wasp species - Bembix - but I am as yet unable to figure out which one.  This one's colouring quite different from the other Bembix specimens I found online.

Thursday, April 15, 2021

Nature worship

Kopsia fruticosa

 The morning shower washed these blooms.  

I watched them with delight everytime I passed the window.  

In the afternoon, they were all gone.  in dismay, i looked around, on the ground, nowhere to be found.

Selvi had other ideas.  She had offered them in puja.  All of them.




Friday, November 20, 2020

Beach walks

 

Creamy mallows, and blushing Ipomoeas.  Blue skies and a bright sun.

The waters glimmer and shimmer.  I look hopefully.  No dolphins sighted.

But hello, what is this?  The waves washed over it and it moved tentatively.  that one claw looked a bit disjointed.  Actually it looked "dirty".  See the pink and the brown cover.  Yuvan wondered if it was a Decorator Crab. Eh?

And so I learnt about decorator crabs which cover themselves with all sorts of things as part of camouflage - from seaweed to coral bits, to even moss and sea anemones.  Who would have thought!  

I also got a response from Vardhan patankar, via Manish Chandi that this is a spider crab, genus Doclea.  "Quite common across the Indian coastline, he said.  Seen it on the Goa coasts.

Bivalves were all over the intertidal area - Siliqua radiata - all empty shells.

This tower snail (Turritella),  seemed to be alive and on the move - see the trail behind it.

This Plough Snail was alive too.  The snail foot was moving.  Such beautiful texture and delicate colouring of its shell.

Ipomoea pes-caprae - a beautiful sight in the mornings.  

A Chalky Percher rested on the sands.

I almost missed this ghost crab - it was a brave one - stared at me and didn't vanish down its hole.

Pretty dishes, facing the sun.

With their two lobed thick leaves

Can't seem to get enough of them.

More, next time.

Friday, October 30, 2020

Loving the rains - new leaves and flowers

 

Our Tulsi plants are happy and blooming - Ocimum tenuiflorum

Rains last night,
Purple bells in my garden this morning
What magic is this?

The rain is magical - it makes every plant kind of perk up like nothing else.  And that is true of all my ten and a half balcony pots.   No wonder that the monsoon makes the artist in us wax lyrical.  

To my delight, the rains have brought the flowers and fresh leaves as well to my tulsi pots.  For some reason, these tulsi flowers transport me to the Valley of Flowers, the valley floor filled with green and wild flowers.  The last few days, the weather has also been like that - ok I'm imagining yes (I hope Sriram doesn't read this) - cloudy, with a cool breeze, and rain.

The rains have also brought a mouse to the house.  It feasted on the plentiful supply of bananas and melon seeds that i had carelessly left on my kitchen counter, and has decided not to leave,  Last two nights it has neatly eaten the coconut in the mouse trap and gone. Tom and Jerry games await, with me being Tom I think.




Thursday, April 2, 2020

Lockdown diaries - A tree lifer

April 2nd 2020

Morning perambulations
Turn the corner
A sweet fragrance
Joy!

Shenbagham flower - Magnolia champaca - the heady and sweet floral fragrance that perfumers love - blooming here and now.
I thought of Janani and of Tanya and of our fragrance testing and the emotions of smell.  In Nature, the fragrance of the Sampige or shenbagam is rich and sweet and yes, joyous.  Something about natural fragrances, they are delicate yet strong, lingering yet effervescent..

It was my first time seeing a champaca tree in bloom!
Tagore's - The Champa Flower.  this one is for you SG and your Champa at home.

SUPPOSING I became a champa flower, just for fun, and grew on a branch high up that tree, and shook in the wind with laughter and danced upon the newly budded leaves, would you know me, mother? 
You would call, 'Baby, where are you?' and I should laugh to myself and keep quite quiet.
I should slyly open my petals and watch you at your work. 
When after your bath, with wet hair spread on your shoulders, you walked through the shadow of the champa tree to the little court where you say your prayers, you would notice the scent of the flower, but not know that it came from me. 
When after the midday meal you sat at the window reading Ramayana, and the tree's shadow fell over your hair and your lap, I should fling my wee little shadow on to the page of your book, just where you were reading. 
But would you guess that it was the tiny shadow of your little child?
When in the evening you went to the cowshed with the lighted lamp in your hand, I should suddenly drop on to the earth again and be your own baby once more, and beg you to tell me a story. 
'Where have you been, you naughty child? '
'I won't tell you, mother. ' That's what you and I would say then.

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Lockdown diaries - The constant gardener

29th March 2020

Meanwhile, there's a  diligent and gentle gardener at work on our balcony beauties, reds and pinks.

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis - chilli red

Adenium obesum - cheerful pinks  

A new baby pink on our balcony - Kopsia fruticosa.  This one's special - the first bloom after coming home from my mother's garden.

Amaryllis lilies also red

and the rose bush in the corner, still putting out flowers...
..... this was its bounty in February

Day 3 Andaman - The road to Rangat

 Feb 12th 2024 Continued from here. A strange day it was, with so many new experiences, some amazing, some frustrating, some bewildering and...