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.