It was Spring just the other day, now it looks like Mumbai is leaping and catapulting into Summer. Or are we already there? It's hot enough for it anyway.In any case, I'm luxuriating in the look of crimson-studded Red Silk Cotton trees lining my road. Bare-branched, thorn-lined, yet so spectacular!
Birds love them! I caught this one with his head buried deep in a nectar-filled flower.I've read that these flowers are edible and are, indeed, favoured by tribals. I wonder whether I dare try one? hmmm....
( I must add ... these 2 photos are untouched by Photoshop or anything else, except for adding the watermark. So, yes, the sky is that blue and the flowers are that bright red!)
The teak trees are standing tall, freshly leaved (just love that fresh green!) and topped with huge crowns of flowers. Last year's seedpods seem to have escaped the attention of marrauding parrots so far but they have other things on their mind right now.
These parakeets love the vantage point of the still-bare gul-mohur tree... from here they plot and plan and conspire which cashew tree to conquer next.All of a sudden they whoosh! up into the hot air, a voluble green cloud of loud screeches and squawks. Settling down in a quarrelsome, gossipy bunch to some serious nut-crunching while the cashewnuts are still green.
Spring it is, coos the hidden Koel, sending out lonesome, plaintive kuoooos in search of his mate. His call sends the crows into frenzy, scrambling to find the intruder, this doppelganger in their midst. And hide he must, deep in the densest branches with only his ruby-red eyes to give him away.
Pinks and pastels find their place now.
Now is the time for every bloom, bug and praying mantis to think of changing colour.Before the temperature soars higher and sizzles everything into a shivering inferno of reds, oranges and everything tropical.
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Hello Sunita and Happy Spring to you! It has arrived: trees blooming, fragrance abounds and birds scurrying and feeding upon everything they can gather... exciting time of the year.
ReplyDeleteI think I expired out of sheer admiration and envy!
ReplyDeleteI love the post!
Such drama and color in your garden. I'm always intrigued by your different trees and blooms. The shapes are familiar but so different. Thanks for sharing your corner of the world.
ReplyDeleteGreat news, Di! I can just imagine the buzz. Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Anandi. Don't worry, in about a couple of weeks when the sun is beating mercilessly down on us, I'll be looking longingly at your snow-draped photos.
Stephanie, that's exactly how I feel too when I visit the blogs from other lands, especially the colder ones. A touch of familiarity in every photo.
Oh I love the last picture, mind you they all are dazzling. Here too spring does not wait its turn it races into summer much to quickly for my liking. What am I talking about, it is autumn
ReplyDeleteglorious autumn gently walking into winter. The beautiful flowering teak trees caught my eye in Cairns. I enjoy the gossipy bunch of green parakeets they are so lively and cheeky. Great uplifting post.Sunita, have a nice week. T.
Spring is always the busiest time of the year when all living beings seem to come to live and get busy. Love the Gulmohar!
ReplyDeleteIt is so exuberant, Sunita, the colors of flowers and birds and insects so vivid in your land. Holi seems like the most wonderful of festivals, it is good to know that one's station in life has no bearing on the participation in the celebration. Does growing orchids outdoors make them seem more common, less delicate, than for those of us who must grow them indoors? You seem to treasure them as must as we do, so the answer must be no to that rhetorical question. I love your enthusiasm for the birds and their antics in the trees. I can imagine the loud calls of them all. Thanks for transporting me. :-)
ReplyDeleteFrances
Lovely post.. awesome pics! Thanks for sharing Sunita!!
ReplyDeleteOh, lucky you, Trudi! Here the sun is dancing the 'tandav' (dance of destruction) on us :P Enjoy your gentle autumn and cool winter . sigh!
ReplyDeleteHi Chandramouli! Yes, there's so much happening right now, isn't there? Busy, busy, busy!
Frances, I wish you could come down to India some year on Holi day. I think you would enjoy it :D
ReplyDeleteMy dendrobium orchids seem to enjoy being treated rough and neglected. When I pamper them, they die on me. But maybe the fact that I have about 1000 of them and the fact that I can get more, does help colour things a bit. I'm not so casual about my other orchids though, because I dont really know where I can get more if they die on me. But treasure? Oh yes, I treasure everything beautiful!
You're welcome, Priya. I'm glad you enjoyed them.
Red Cotton Silk flowers are in full bloom here in Delhi too :)
ReplyDeleteLove the parakeet picture!! It is disappointing that the moment the winters ended, summer began! Spring was barely here for days :(
IHM, I thought Delhi had a longer Spring season before diving into Summer. How sad!
ReplyDeleteOh those parakeets are just too entertaining! I couldn't care less if they ate all the cashewnuts on my trees just so long as I can watch their antics :D
I am always amazed by the blooms on the trees which come before the leaves. Birds, flowers - everything is so colorful and vibrant in your part of the world!
ReplyDeleteWe are still a long way from summer but we have just entered Spring here in New Brunswick Canada. Looking forward to summer though.
ReplyDeleteThis year we have had some really nice weather for March but it could turn around and snow again any time.
Yesterday while I was on my daily walk it changed from rain to snow, but didn't last long.
I am eager to start my home gardening again. We plan to grow a lot more than we did last year with our first backyard garden.
A beautiful sight indeed! I had a ball photographing these trees on my way to a nature reserve. from a distance don't the corky coral blooms look similar too?!
ReplyDeleteGreat shots of the parakeets and the teak blossoms too.
What a colorful garden you have, Sunita. For me the word Bombay rings into mind these tall buildings and crowded streets. Good to know that there are beautiful oases there
ReplyDeleteVery beautifully captured. Red Silk Cotton tree is a beautiful sight specially in india and pakistan. In lahore, these are the top bloomers along with bauhinias right now. and they come in many shades of pink and red. I am truly inspired the way you captured these birds.
ReplyDeleteEverything is so gorgeous, Sunita! Hot weather sounds wonderful right now! It's been nice here...up to the 70's a few times, but for the past 4 days has stayed in the 50's. So much better than having snow, though;-) Your photos show just how beautiful it is where you live. It looks like paradise.
ReplyDeleteTatyana! Its so good to see you here again :)
ReplyDeleteI know exactly what you mean by the blooms which come before the leaves . Its almost as if they dont want anything to steal the limelight even the tiniest little bit, isn't it?
James, have you planned a lot of vegetables for your backyard garden? I really cant picture snow anywhere right now, I'm afraid. Here it's so hot that my husband who had left to go meet someone, turned right back and came home because it was too hot outside!
Thanks, Kanak :)
ReplyDeleteHave you posted those photos on your blog? I must go check. Hang on ... oh yes! that really is an eyeful! Doesn't it make you happy to see a tree in full bloom like that?
Thank you, Bindu! Mumbai is the most surprising place. Think of anything which shouldn't be logically possible and you'll find it here :D
ReplyDeleteM.K., that must be such a spectacular sight! And about the bird photos, have you posted any yet? Birds and b'flies are as much a part of the garden as blooms, I think.
Jan, I'm craving a bit of cool weather right now. Apart from the plants blooming their heads off, I cant see anything good about this miserably hot time (except maybe that its cooler than what's waiting for us in the coming 2 months!)
Sunita,
ReplyDeleteI love your last photo in this post. Beautiful colors!
And yes, summer is coming, and it means I will start getting very busy again with my bonsai trees and other plants :)
Already there! Yes that is the feeling the weather is giving here too. It doesn't feel like spring at all.
ReplyDeleteBasant Panchami was so cold that the implication of basant in the name sounded funny, and suddenly the weather changed from very cold to very hot. Where is the intervening spring? But thankfully the flowers bloomed the way they should in spring.
Your photographs have captured the unusually hotter spring very well.
Hi Sunita,
ReplyDeleteLovely blooms and colours. Asian Koel is in song here too. Over here we believe that it heralds the Sinhalese Buddhist and Tamil Hindu New Year in April (13/14).