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?

 

Summer blooms

 

The Hosts lily blooms in the summer heat.  Two stalks, and maybe a third? 

Framed by lily leaves

Two beauties I captured, there are more.

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.

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.

Lockdown diaries - Home to see the 'baby', and a happy Mother's Day

The "mother" Kopsia in my mother's garden 

And I got home to finally see the "baby" in flower.

Strange, inexplicable joy and delight.

And the coppersmith barbets have returned in my absence, tonk-tonking on the neighbour's bare teak tree.  Ever since the Millingtonia fell, they have been absent.

And the koels are calling frantically.  All night long it feels like.

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

Hibiscus watching

The Hibiscus

On the balcony

Joyously responds to the July rains.