Tagged, Caught and Wrangled

Okay, its happened. The moment I feared has jumped down my throat .... coming up against something that I havent a clue how to handle and having to admit it to all of Cyberland.
I've been tagged by Kate at http://themanicgardener.com/ and I realise that:

a) I have to find out what "tagged" means. I've only heard the term on Discovery channel on all those wildlife shows where the over-enthu guys go around shooting a bucket-load of sedatives into a lion or rhino or something equally dangerous, and then proceed to give them a ear-ring or necklace stuffed with something that'll keep tracking them through bush and high mountain.
Okay, if its a necklace, please make it silver. Hmmm, even antique gold will do.

b) If I have to link to 6 other people I'm in deep trouble ! I dont know 6 people who also blog, so well that they'll take kindly to being tagged in turn.
So Kate, I'll have to bend a rule here... it'll have to be less than 6, I'm afraid.

c) What on earth would I reveal about myself? I'm one of the most boring people I know.

d) There are rules! Okay, maybe thats not so bad... I just have to follow them. Not something I'm wonderful at, but still, here goes...

First step : Link to the person who tagged you. Hmmm, that was Kate at The Manic Gardener and I think I've already done that in the first paragraph.
Second : Post the rules on the blog. Pay attention here... these are the rules.
Third : Write six random things about yourself. Here goes:
1) I'm a voracious reader. I go through a book every other day and it could be anything from children's books to historicals to romances to biographies to the literature on the back of detergent packets. If I see printed matter, I just have to put everything else aside till I read it. No wonder my housework takes ages to complete!
Oh, and I also zig-zag between a couple of books at a time, reading a bit of one book now and part of the other, later in the day.

2) I collect recipes. There's something about all those plain, ordinary words and ingredients, melding and merging to make awesome, sensory magic that is, well, pure magic.
I dont enjoy cooking though. Not the ordinary everyday variety cooking. Now if its something fancy, yes. But morning breakfast, afternoon lunch, evening tea, night dinner, and then repeat the next day, and the next.... NO! Too boring. Plus its too hot to stay in the kitchen. And a whole gaggle of wise men (and women) have said "if you cant stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen"! I'm trying, I'm trying.

3) I've always had long hair. Except for one time when I cut it short and hated it. The longest was hip-length. Now its just above my waist.
I was born with curly hair, it grew out to become wavy, and now I've straightened it because I like straight hair.

4) My verandah is my most lived-in 'room' in my house. I love sitting there at all times of the day, especially when it is raining.

5) If someone advises me a bit too much, I go out of the way to make sure I don't follow that advice. I just dig my heels in and dont budge. Yeah, that could also go under the heading "foolishly stubborn".

6) I speak 2 languages fluently (English and Malayalam), 1 language well-enough to be understood but not grammar-perfect (Hindi), understand another 2 languages but am a bit rusty with them (French and Tamil), and struggle with 1 more language but need a lot of help with it (Marathi).

Okay, thats all I'm revealing. On to the next set of rules:
Fourth : Tag six people at the end of your post. I'm tagging
Barbee' at Barbee's Blog http://barbeeslog.blogspot.com/,
Trudi at Yesterday Today and Tomorrow In My Garden http://titania-yesterdaytodayandtomorrow.blogspot.com/
Kanak at Terra Farmer http://terrafarmer.blogspot.com/
The Intercontinental Gardener http://intercontinentalgardener.blogspot.com/
Come on, Kate. Four out of six isnt so bad. To make up for the shortfall, I'll make another two revelations instead.

1)I'm mad about crafting. Embroidery, cross-stitch, gourd crafts, nature crafts, soap making... I do them all and love learning new crafts all the time.

2)I find it difficult to throw things away. Things like rocks with interesting shapes or shells with lovely colours, interesting seed-pods, beautiful poems .... everything is stored away in my home.

Fifth : Let each person know that they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Sixth : Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

There! Thats it. Kate, I hope you know what you've let Cyberland in for.

Maidenhair, there, and everywhere

I had almost forgotten about the ferns! One of the most beautiful plants to make an appearance in my rain-happy garden, these maidenhair ferns are native and need no prompting to show up.

Within a few days, the whole garden seems to become a sprouting ground for these delicate beauties, waving their lacy fronds from every stone and mud wall. They do grow on the ground too, but interestingly, they seem to prefer vertical planes like walls and the sides of pots.

What starts off like this, very soon burgeons into this

If I could attribute human intelligence to them, I could swear they chose these vantage points to show off the graceful arch of their black-ribbed stems. Somehow, it just doesnt look half so dramatic when they grow on level ground.

Very often, the place where these ferns grow is blanketed with new growths of moss and lichens. Which makes it look like these maidens have sunk their feet in very luxuriously thick, green carpets.
But, I guess, the millipedes seem to like them too.

Now, if I were that lady, I'd be shrieking!

See what the rain brought up !

The monsoons have settled in now and the land is in a mellow, fertile state . Wild flowers and seasonal plants are popping up all over the place. Lying dormant most of the year seems to agree with them if their bright colours are anything to go by.

Almost overnight, my garden*(please see my note below) is filled with Curcumas (Gingers.... though some people like to call them Ornamental Turmeric) .



I dont know how these Curcumas got there because I didnt plant them and neither did anyone else that I know of. In this picture, they're growing near some wild, native Ixoras under a sprawling Cashew tree .

Another rainy season plant I love is this little one with white flowers. I have no idea what it is called. If anyone knows, please let me know? It springs up all over the place.... between rocks, on paths, just about everywhere.




This is a close-up of this flower which we have very whimsically named 'Peace Bells'. Well, until we know the official name, thats as good a name as any.


* It was too much of a job trying to keep my two gardens separate in this blog, so I decided I would just go ahead and talk about both. Both are urban gardens, its just that one of them, being in an apartment, is more urban than the other (if that makes sense to you) . I had tried to only talk about my apartment garden, but then, why should I deprive myself of half the fun, right?

Monsoon sky

Rumbling and thundering, the monsoons sweep into India.

Blanketing village field and city towers in a magic cloak of promise.

Bright afternoons transform into darkest night.

Cool breezes rush in to caress the fevered earth.


The first drops fall... burst ... and release the musty, sweet smell of damp earth on the heated air.


And all around is a frenzied celebration of prayers answered and hope rekindled .....

Of promises kept by the monsoon sky.

Monsoon gardening

So its raining and you don't need to water the plants anymore. Does this sound like everything you prayed for during the hot, muggy summer days?

Ever heard of too much of a good thing?

Here, it rained and stormed for days before letting up a bit now. All my plants are slowly holding up their broken and damaged stems and leaves for sympathy.

My asparagus fern which I was meticulously training over the window grill, has only got a lot of broken stems to show for all my trouble. I think it got thrown around too much in the strong gusty winds. I had to trim them off but already new spears are poking up to start afresh.

Luckily, I had already moved my dwarf convolvulus out of danger before it started storming. It was too young and had not got a firm grip on the window grill yet. The storm would have torn it to pieces. I had wanted to use it like a screen for privacy by letting it climb all over the grill. And the beautiful blue flowers would've been the bonus. Now I think I'll wait a bit before moving the pot back into its place.

The salt spray being flung up because of the strong winds, is playing havoc on everything. The ironwork is rusting, my computer has developped hiccups and is freezing, and my poor plants cant believe what's happening to them.

Here's Old Man Iron-Eater Sea. Dont be fooled by that calm exterior; the spray from those waves rise 3 storeys high after hitting the retaining wall.

Monsoon in Mumbai

The monsoon has finally whipped into Mumbai !

Rain, glorious rain is lashing the city, washing off the filth from the streets and dust from the leaves.

The fiery gul mohur petals are flying on the breeze and carpeting the streets.

Trees have got their hair washed squeaky-clean and are seducing the wind in a tempestuous salsa. Outside my window, the coconut trees are tossing their mane like a mad woman, as the wild wind tries to rip them out by the root !

All around me is the roar of the sea champing to gatecrash the party.

And I, I sit cocooned in my little home enjoying the catharsis of the refreshing monsoon after a hot, sticky, energy-sapping summer.

Waiting, for its sowing time. Time for new beginnings when the earth waits for an excuse to sprout new life in ploughed fields and discarded junk alike.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow, I will sow me some vegetables. Bottle gourds, okra, rambling beans, and more. Then I'll coax some flowers from dahlias and cosmos and zinnias, I'm sure.

But for now, I'll lean back in my comfortable chair and watch the dance of the monsoons in Mumbai.

Red-Hot Indian Summer!

Indian summer ...



red-hot, eye-popping colours ....




tree-loads of blooms to carpet the dawn ....


lazy days on the verandah, hunting for a breeze ....
a cool, cool breeze to sneak into your hair... drift across your face... tickle your neck ... and curl your toes in the sheer bliss of it ....

(photos : hibiscus, kanthari chili, gul mohur, golden laburnum )