Unknown tree..

This unknown tree is yielding lot of inedible fruits similar to olives.. They keep falling on us while we are playing in the park. It's a pretty sight where you can see bunch of fruits and less leaves..
The park cleaner has a tough time everyday cleaning the fallen fruits..

Anybody knows the name of the tree?

 

 

Linking this to Our World Tuesday

Small joys..

 

Recently we got Diwali Greetings from Urban Ladder in the form of small money plant in an orange planter.  This plant was actually from another online garden shop My Sunny Balcony. When I observed the inside of the planter, I found that money plant was planted inside a coconut shell and then put into the orange planter. Cute isn't it?

 

This set me off to plant few small plants in my unused large coffee mugs.  I had bought these mugs as souvenirs from our travels and definitely will not sip any coffee from them. Instead of simply showing off, now they are there in many nooks and corners with plants.

 

 

 

 

Dry the used coconut shell. After couple of days of drying,  the eyes of the shell would come off. Put the potting mixture and plant any of tiny indoor plant of your choice.

 

Flowers of Sim's Park, Coonoor, Tamilnadu, India..

We had been to Ooty, Coonoor in the first week of November. Ooty as expected has changed so much since last time I visited as a kid. All I remembered was munching carrots, fragrance of eucalyptus trees, unbearable cold and rolling on the lawns of Botanical gardens.

During our stay we visited Sim's Park in Coonoor. Could not resist sharing few pics of blooming beauties. While admiring them all I could wish was bringing and growing them here in Bangalore. I did bring lot of seeds and about 12 saplings each costing 10 bucks.. I have to wait and see whether they like Bangalore or not.

This is picture heavy post, hope you enjoy it. All clicks by my husband...

 

 

 

Happy weekend with flowers..

 

Few unusual flowers put into vase, uruli whatever available.. Most of them are put on display on Friday morning while  waiting eagerly for the weekend break..

 

 

This yellow flowers has grown like a weed everywhere in the vacant sites and they make a delightful sight inside home.

 

 The butterfly pea flowers abundantly grown,  they are so frequent in my home..



Diwali Kandeel

With Deepavali fever still on, all the Indian home décor websites are brimming with Diwali celebration pictures and ideas, I am sharing with you something I did for Deepavali. 
It's a must in our home to hang the Akasha Deepa or Goodu Deepa(Kannada) or Kandeel on the first day of Deepavali. Its generally lighted from dusk to dawn and believed that whosoever have died in the family visit us during this time, it's a good gesture to invite them to bless us.

In old times lanterns were done at home with color papers, home made glue, bamboo etc,, these days you get them easily in the market.
Preparing Kandeel at home was always on my mind and Priti from Kwikdeko has shared about doing Kandeel with handmade paper. The process details are given out well and as she says it requires a lots of patience..

It didn't turn out as Priti's but never the still our Diwali Kandeel was ready and hung.

Could not do the same designs  but what I did was that  folded the paper and cut designs using the scissors. For the plain side, the Warli figures were drawn..
I made a mistake of sticking a bamboo blind along the length instead of the said cardboard piece. Hence all the four pieces turned out to be stiff, the end result was slightly out of shape...

 

Pride of India

Queen Crape Myrtle(Pride of India) during  summer

 

 

The tree after the blooming season,  produces these seeds.

It looks like bunch of dates..

 

Linking this to Our World Tuesday

Hibiscus.. A Few of them

 I have been missing in action for a long time. With kids gone back to school, I am back to being myself. The house is so peaceful for a while.

I always wished to have many varieties of Hibiscus in my garden. With a small garden it's bit difficult to have different kinds, colors of Hibiscus but it's not impossible. Most of these are propagated from the stem cutting and couple of them bought from the plant nursery.

 

Painted terracotta bell

Last week we had a wonderful time where kids and husband have a long weekend on account of Ganesh Chaturthi. I was worry less in terms of kids studies. All we did was to celebrate the festival, crafting, watching movie in a tent style, coloring etc. I had after a long time splendid 'me' time.
I got to finish painting the terracotta bell that I had got few days ago from the road side vendor. Often while browsing through the shopping websites, I am so tempted to buy those beautiful terracotta items. They are so inspiring. Doing it yourself is fun, easy, light on pockets.

It took more than four days for two coats of acrylic paint to dry. While painting, the upper circles were disturbing, so tied them with the soft cloth. I painted the circles last, hanging them with a support.

My intention was to spruce up my garden with this bell, for time being I have kept it in a corner of my home. I am so glad that I utilized this time efficiently...

Easy plants to grow - 1

Malabar Spinach

Malabar Spinach also known as the Indian Spinach(Basale Soppu in Kannada) is a vine which is super easy to grow in a container as well on the ground. Malabar Spinach is a vine which needs a support to grow on. If you have a large garden you can leave them to spread on the ground.

 

Although it's a type of spinach, I have observed it doesn't taste much like spinach. They have very fleshy, thick leaves that are juicy and crisp. While cooking, it becomes slimy. My people are interested in eating it's tender shoots along with the leaves. Like typical leaf vegetables, Malabar spinach is high in vitamin A, vitamin C, iron, and calcium.

It will thrive in moist, fertile and well drained soils. I have observed that generally they don't require much fertilizer but produce large leaves when well fertilized organically. They tend to develop tough leaves if weather is too dry or not well watered. Their growth is ideal in an area with a warm, rainy climate.

 

Propagation:

They can be propagated either by planting a mature cut shoot or by seed. Easy propagation is by planting the seeds which is vey dark purple in color. If the stems are too tough to eat , simply put them back into the soil for re-rooting.

 

Malabar spinach have grown all over my garden through seed propagation, I have just left them as it is with some support. It's a non fussy plant, I never seem to get tired of eating them.

 

 

  

 

 

Ripened  berries and un ripened berries which would produce new plant.

 My younger son uses them to paint his body with dark purple color for fun.

Handmade cushion cover

Last week was my younger son's b'day. We wanted to have a small get together with few neighbors and their kids, a very low one. Apart from the store bought chips and cake I wanted to have something homemade on the menu. I have tried Gulab Jamun recipe from this lovely Veg recipes of India. Most of the time it turns out well if not perfect. Well this time, my fears came out true and the Gulab Jamuns did not turn out as they should have. 

Frustrated, I wanted do something to uplift my mood. We had few curtain linens at home lying wasted. The extra cover to the odd sized cushion was long pending. I cut them according to the cushion size, stitched them  by hand and later embroidered at the edges, all in couple of hours. It definitely bought peace to my mind and also made my younger son happy for getting new cushion cover  -:)

Season of mangoes

Hi Guys, how have you been?
I am busy enjoying the remains of summer season, eating mangoes, Rasayana , milkshakes..

I had been vacationing in my native, the longest time so far. There are two mango trees in my parents home planted when I was in high school. From past 8 years it has been yielding sweet mangoes. Whenever I am at my parents home during mango season, my father gives me in charge of these mangoes. In the past month of May , all I am doing is plucking them, ripening them, eating them.

I take a large tarpaulin sheet, call my neighbors and kids to hold all the four corners.  Then take a long bamboo sick with a hook in the end, with this pluck all the mangoes possible with care. Most of the time I have to stop after plucking 20-30 because the tree is full of red ants(locally called 'Chauli'). They would drop along with the mangoes on us. Mangoes dropped into the tarpaulin would be wiped then put into basket containing straws. Then this basket is placed in a less ventilated room.
Unfortunately few of the ripe mangoes are infested with worms(I am unable to understand why, people say 'buri nazar' has fallen for the mango trees :-)). After a week or so I check whether there are any ripe mangoes, check for the worms, otherwise cut them for relishing or distribute among relatives, neighbors.

Here in at home in B'lore we have 4 year old tree grown to 6 Feet tall. This year it has given us around 15 mangoes. Don't know the variety but looks like Neelam. Doesn't taste very sweet probably because the tree isn't grown well still.

My library...

It's my home's birthday again although this post is bit late. My Internet connection went kaput for few days thanks to my three month old kitten. My kitten while playing pulled the dongle cord which we usually keep in top for better signal receiving.
I am sharing with you a corner in my house that is very dear to me, a corner where I meet new people, fellow blogger, friends. It also holds books that I have treasured. It's the library and the computer table unit.

We have a huge window which is in sync with the bay window downstairs. We are planning to put bamboo blinds and this plan is still a plan so far...

Felt butterflies...

Working with Felt is a wonderful thing. I remember some 5 years back when I asked for Felt fabric in the usual book cum stationary  shops all I would get was a blank look. I had found them finally selling at a high price in the new Itsy Bitsy craft shop in Jayanagar, Bangalore(now no longer exists there). I hadn't done anything with them except making few flowers, book marks. I thought they were too precious -:)

Nowadays we get felt in all craft stores. There are many things you can do with felt mostly small stuffed miniatures, toys, ornaments etc.,.

Cutting felt to the exact shape is a tough job for beginners like me.

I took two equal felt  pieces and used a cut paper butterfly as a model. But yet I was unsuccessful in cutting the exact shape.

One good thing is that I cut both the pieces together at a time. Even if there was any mistake in the shape it didn't matter much. They would be sewn together.

I have sewn both the pieces together by blanket stitch.

Detailed butterfly

Do not put the stitches overlapping, it doesn't look good. The first butterfly I did, the stitches were too close and they looked messed up. Anyway I decided to retain them. Looking from far no one can make out the messed up butterfly.

Do not put stitches too close together

We get colored wooden beads in the craft shop. You can get the plain ones and colored them with matching acrylic colors.