Our love for Bougainvillea

When we initially started our garden, we had planted lot of Bougainvilleas, bringing in whatever colors available in the local nursery. We were not sure of their survival as they had tough competition from others like hibiscus, rose, few creepers.
But wow, all of them got to see the light of the day and they have indeed colored my garden! They like to peep out of the compound. See for your self..

I am loving it!

I found this succulent couple of weeks ago discarded outside the garden in our layout. I didn't know what it was, but simply loved it's color and shape. Later I googled and closest matching image was that of 'Palm Beach bells'.
It has grown a bit and I am assuming that it is liking me and my house.



A closer look...

Book Review: To the Elephant Graveyard

This is an amazing and unusual book that I read last year and thought I will write the review.
It is a real life story of a hunt for an elephant named 'Phandika' who is referred to as 'the rogue', in the North East frontier of India. The author(Tarquin Hall) along with the hunter Mr. Choudhary and his team hunts for this elephant who has so far killed 30+ people. The hunter himself loves elephants and has grown up among them. There seem to be moving story behind this rogue who is deliberately killing people, choosing his victims smartly. At one point of time the hunter is about to capture the rogue and decides to give rogue a chance and mend his way.
The author gives the first hand account of incidents that happens while hunting. He also portraits about the relationship between the mahouts and their elephants, how modernization has lead to shrinking of forests and suffering of elephants.
This book is like a page turning detective story, keep you engrossed till the end.

Lantanas

Lantanas, I feel they are beauties on their own.Not only they have a sweet aroma, their ripe berries taste good too. I picked up few from neighboring empty sites, where they have grown like weeds and yellow ones from a park nearby( I guess they are hybrid ones). A bouquet for my breakfast table is ready.

Madhubani Fish

My love with Madhubani continues..
Here is a fish painted in Madhubani style. I have re-used an old calender base.

Organize!

Trays are good way to keep things together and organized. Here are two pics from my home. Just don't conclude that I am very tidy and neat person. After a week you would find everything out of tray lying around, thanks to my family. Later they go back again in them.

Table Mats from Jute Strings

We had lot of jute strings which were initially bought for gardening reasons lying in the store room for a long time. These strings are usually of a meter length and cost you a rupee available in few kirana stores.
We had few old jamana's plastic mats which got sticky when anything directly from the stove was placed on them, so I had to throw them.
Coming to the post, I made three table mats from the the Jute strings that I had. This idea is not new and very simple. Just took one afternoon for making these.
Firstly make a plait of the strings.
Smooth-en the plait by cutting off small jute threads in the edges.
Stitch these plait with a matching thread.
To give a a better look, I used blanket stitch at the borders.

Sipping on Ragi malt

Well a month has already passed in 2012, and it's bit late to mention about one of my resolution for this year. I have decided to give up my cup of tea for the evening and switch to Ragi malt instead. So this way I would consume half spoon of sugar instead of 1 spoon and in addition have the healthy benefits of Ragi. It tastes nothing like the heavenly tea but I am slowly developing the taste for it. Actually I had got it for my younger son for emergency, but I am finishing it up now. It is available in MK Ahmed Supermarket. I hope I continue this habit...