Of leisure and 'loisir'.......

Sometimes we are visited by some memories. They just spring up from nowhere. This morning while I was checking out the drafts of certain posts for the blog, this particular one attracted my attention. I had started composing this a while ago but had left it unfinished for some reason. Now, on going through it, I could experience a sense of calm. I wanted to retrieve it and finish it :-)..... some days act strange! With our festival just round the corner, the sky wears a brilliant blue! The crisp morning air heralds the advent of autumn and thus the visit of the eternal Mother along with her family:-).....It is indeed a happy time; there is that air of frenzy in my hometown that I miss here but wait there! Isn't happiness a state of the mind? So what's stopping me to be happy? Let me start with this happy post. Old it is but it makes me happy when I read it :-D......

A leisurely hello to everyone out there! How has life been treating you? Mine has been good so far:-D.... The weekend has been a relaxed one after a long time and I give the credit to the rainy days! The heavy rains throughout the Saturday noon and post noon created that wonderful feeling of leisure, of doing nothing,  of a sluggish day. Well, such feelings of nothingness can be so welcome in our pre planned,  must-do weekends. And I simply soaked in these moments of unplanned lazy afternoons and evenings. For once I did not have to run errands, visit the green grocer and the departmental stores; for once I did not have to take stock of what is there and not there in the fridge and run to fill it up for the new week ahead. I liked this feeling of not caring an iota for what would happen the days to come. It gave me the much needed peace.

I love this pretty combination!

Nature's bounties!

That's the brilliant sky!

Of tranquility and peace.......

"Wherever you go, go with all your heart."

Confucius

"Certainly travel is more than the seeing of sights;"

Mary Ritter Beard

And I could not have agreed more to these sayings. During each of our travels, I have accumulated memories of places, people and things; memories that keep coming back again and again and leaves beautiful sensations in my mind. We keep planning our short trips with passion, eagerness and a lot of love. This time was no exception.

Our short and sweet trip to the Nilgiris was something I had been looking forward to after a whirlwind six weeks of engaging and hectic class schedules. In between those, we selected a few places around Bangalore. After a flurry of emails and telephone calls, we managed to zero in on this utterly gorgeous place near Ooty. And then came the waiting time. The interest kept building up in all those days of waiting for the D Day! The travel time as estimated went for a toss as we were not aware of the road widening that was happening on the Mysore Ooty highway. It took  us more time than we had thought of. It was quite a hinderance to the otherwise smooth drive. But the fact of taking in the crisp mountain air very soon kept us going. We both have a love for mountains and forests, some strange inexplicable emotion connected to these. We drove through the forests of Bandipur and then Mudumalai. The road took us through the sound of the crickets and chirping of birds,through herd of deer and troop of monkeys. The occasional rains have been washing the leaves clean making them glisten in their coats of green. It was a beautiful sight. We have driven on this road many times before and each time has been enjoyable. On reaching Masinagudi, we decided to save time and take the shorter route to Ooty. This route has its own charm:-). It has 36 hairpin bends, a little tricky to negotiate but absolutely gorgeous view. So off we started our climb uphill passing by thick forests, deep gorges, pretty flowers dotting the mountains and several breathtaking view points! The wild mountains this time had a lot of colours on them; the reddish and greenish leaves looked like autumn leaves. All along my heart sang a happy song and my eyes danced to the play of clouds against the blue mountains. Tiny hamlets dotted the mountain trail. Colourful homes of the mountain people looked like a pretty postcard. I have always felt that we live in a beautiful country! The sentiments and emotions surge whenever we travel. There is so much variety. Incredible India, indeed! 

Ooty town, of course, does not inspire or attract us! We find it extremely commercial and over the years it has become crowded. But the serenity of the mountains can be experienced the moment we leave the town behind us. By now, we could feel the crisp cool mountain breeze! The ferns springing up from the mountain side, the wisps of smoke from the pretty houses along the mountains,curling up into the sky, the pristine lakes dotting the landscape; what an absolutely charming picture this made! These were not mere sights to us; they made us philosophical and wonder at the marvels of nature............

The Destiny itself was a stunning place! Adorned with rolling green meadows, farmland, dainty cottages and a placid lake! Does it conjure up a delightful picture?  :-D..... It was no less than a real picture, one from the pages of those glossies.... One from those travel magazines.....so gorgeously beautiful it was! I am certainly falling short of words to describe the place! One needs to be there to experience the beauty! The view from our room was too, too pretty for words! Something like my painting while I was in primary school! A lake in between the mountains, the trees so green, the tiny colourful flowers dotting the green grass, the birds flying all across the skies, the smoke curling up from the chimneys of the hillside hamlets; well, well....I am running out of words now! Our Moby Dick was a beautiful one, too! All I did there was read, take long walks, pamper myself in the in house spa and watch the lake and the rain:-)... C'est la vie......:-) what more did I need! I forgot to count calories as I gorged on those delicious dishes, the homemade chocolates and what not! 

Overall, it was a beautiful holiday. It left me craving for more :-)... Greedy me! So now it is time to start planning for the next one; one more of those beauties up in line.

The mountain side was dotted with tiny pretty flowers; nameless to me but what a pretty picture they made with their simple unassuming beauty! And those ferns were so very pretty!

And here is another peek at them! I had to stop on our way down to click a picture of them :-)

The view from our deck was mesmerizing!

Another one while it rained in the evening! The beds of cabbages soaked in as much as they could, glistening and shining!

A favourite of mine :-)... What isn't there here! The blue and the white and the green and the purple.....

Those rainy evenings............

Our room, Moby Dick :-)

Another view...loved the warm colours and the earthy tones.......

Half open, half closed but the most perfect view........

The tripod stood there, all of those days......probably enjoyed all those pretty captures!

I simply loved this view! Never for a moment got bored of seeing it!

Destination chai point! On our way back from The Destiny, we stopped at a shack for some hot chai and along with it got to see the most amazing view!

Couldn't have enough of what we saw!

How about some chai here? We stopped over to enjoy some lemon tea here!

Coffee with French and some awesome view !

:-D

The postcard :-)

This field doubled up as a stadium and the horse riding pad!

Hello everyone!

Hello everyone! How have you all been? It's been quite some time that I have been away from my little space. I have been so preoccupied with a host of things; meaningful, meaningless, of all sorts. I wanted to post a few lovely things I came across, of my travel to a bio-diverse jungle, of my first experiences of being a bird-watcher and of sharing some non-descript things that I find pleasure in. And yes, there was something I wanted to do since a long, long time! I wanted to identify the flowering trees of Bangalore :-)... and here I am now, armed with a book gifted by a gentleman we met during our recent trip to the BRT Tiger Reserve. I am thrilled to bits with my new found knowledge of trees! I plan to share some pretty pictures of beautiful Bangalore,here. The city seems to be clad beautifully in chiffon-like pink Tabebuias, the huge Rain trees spreading their arms wide in all directions with their pretty pink and white bristled flowers, the golden showers, all making a pretty picture of the city.

On the home front, nothing much could be done all these days. Each place seems to be crying for attention! I need to spend some quality time here and set things in order. Sharing a few clicks of the vignettes on the coffee table to perk up the mood, a few succulents adding a touch of greenery indoors and some colours pepping up the living area and a few from our travels to the jungles. Planning much more in the coming days. So see you soon with something pretty :-)..... 

home bound 

We love the peace within our home.

Spotlight on  here!

The tree of life :-)

My latest possession!

As I fondly remember our trip............

beauties of nature...........

The painter's strokes on nature's canvas!

in the wild..............

Nature at its best!

Sweet nothings

Hello everyone? How's the week treating you? It's mid-week already. Days seem to be whizzing past. Every morning I wake up with the resolution to complete at least a few from my to-do list of chores. I have a long, long list of pending work that need immediate attention but alas! I keep postponing them time and again! My break would soon get over and I would again be back to square one, waiting for the next break to come; promising myself and of course the men at home that I shall complete every single pending task then! At this point of time I am remembering my mother's saying; 'never keep any work pending! Do them immediately. All that you don't like must be done promptly! Tomorrow's work should be done today.' Well, mother practised it, tried teaching her children,too. But this one ( read Madame Choudhury here) didn't learn it at all! So she keeps on piling up work, and all kinds of it, urgent, not so urgent,important, all kinds!

But then, what do I do or not do for that matter,that keeps me so engrossed? I will strongly protest if anyone at home calls me lazy! Well, I am most certainly not lazy!! A bit of a fussy person, though, someone who suffers from OCD according to the men at home. So they are quite used to seeing the lady ruffling up the cushions, even if they are arranged neatly; straightening up the painting on the wall or trying to wipe away some unseen dust ( as they say, but to me, there is some dust settling down always! ). The balcony garden is another obsession. I know, I lament and I complain that I do not have the luxury of a proper garden. But whatever I have, I try to use up the space to its optimum and I tell you, this is no mean job! 

So, then, going back to the title of this post, 'Sweet nothings',is all about my days now, days as I spend them doing things that interest me. To the men at home, these are all meaningless work, if I may call them work, that need not be done at all! At least a few of them are certainly most meaningless to them! But some 'nothings' can be really sweet :-).... 

Every now and then I have been rushing to the balcony to check on my Plumeria! She was quite ill the last few months when she lost all her leaves. She needed a lot of sun and a change of place to bring her back to health. And here you can see her! She is still without leaves but I can see her with all those buds!! Doesn't she look pretty? Wait, till you see her in all her prettiness in a few days :-).....

Baking happens to be another 'like' of mine! And with some time to myself, I have been trying out all kinds of goodies. I love that smile on my people's face, specially the younger one! And of course, that absolutely divine aroma of freshly baked brownies and muffins that fill up the home! Trying to organize all kinds of things in the most practical way at home is a real challenge to the all-time hoarder! Hence, the need to accommodate them is no easy task. All these do take up time, right? :-D..

And I managed to make a quick trip to the Chitrakala Parishad. The Sampoorn Santhe was pretty good. I grabbed a few things,too, mainly plants and a few gifts for friends :-)...retail therapy has its own charm,isn't it? These flea markets are full of handmade artifacts and I always have a soft corner for such things. A visit to The Chalk Boutique,too, was long overdue! Such prettiness you get to see there! It's like leaving me inside the robbers' cave like Ali Baba! And I don't know what to pick up and what to leave behind!

My 'sweet nothings' give me immense happiness; those small things in life that make one so full of contentment. Yes, the more important chores are left incomplete at times for these bits of happiness only to be picked up later and completed with renewed vigour. My 'sweet nothings' are like those cubes of sugar to be had in times of tiredness and then they give you the energy to run around! Do you, too, experience these sugar pangs of sweet nothings? I would love to hear from you:-).....

My Champa or Plumeria preparing herself for a flower shower very soon!

Obsessive Cupcake Disorder

A lot can happen over a cup of chai!

My 'book-worm' side table !

And a bit of 'blog-time',too!

 We have some new visitors :-) ....All huddled together while I try to make space for them!

brownie time!

trying to be a bit organized!

The Chalk Boutique

Some more from The Chalk Boutique

before and after

In harmony.....

'Take life with a pinch of salt....a slice of lemon and a shot of tequila', so says the good living guide! And I am in total agreement with this fun phrase! A plaque with these words dangles from a hook in the corner of the dining area. Each time my eyes set on this, I cannot help reflecting how true these words are. After completing 21 years of togetherness,life has taught us many a lesson. It feels glorious to be together in the journey of life. My partner cum co-passenger has been good to me. He has made several adjustments to make me sit comfortably! And I presume that, I, too, have! A milestone achieved and hopefully by the divine grace, many more to come, all I would wish for is a safe journey, being with each other all along this beautiful course. Let us keep growing together, ageing together and experiencing the emotions of life together. Be it 'together' always :-)......as being together is a means of being happy in my case.

This was a post meant to be posted on my blog on the 27th of February but for some reason I did not do so. Maybe because I wanted to cling on to that special date even after it had passed and keep the spirit of our anniversary alive and running even after the 'D' date! Maybe because I wanted to experience how it felt after that day was over and made place for the next day. And I must say that it feels good to relive that special day even after it had actually gone by. So here comes this very short post, rather a reflection of the self, two days after. Counting my blessings these days, I have been trying to lap up every little happiness that I can find around me. Happiness is certainly infectious! A happy me makes for a happy home and hence happiness all around. 

Folks, I would love to hear about your happiness quotient, your reflections on happiness and what makes for a happy surrounding. So, do share your thoughts with me here. Leaving you to mull over this and make yourself as happy, satisfied and contented you can.

Flowers on the special day is a must and I gifted myself some of my favourite ones!

And chai, too, a special Darjeeling variety for the special day!

Well, for this very pretty 'you and me', I need to thank The Chalk Boutique! They let me click this one :-)...after all, 'you and me' are the the two special characters :-)

And here it is! The punch line of life!

Love is all around......

'Wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving.' -Khalil Gibran

Well, let me start by wishing each one of you a very happy Valentine's Day! I have been witnessing the frenzy around me :-)..... Youngsters, arm in arm, lost in deep conversation over plates of cakes, more precisely, red velvet cakes, filled up the cafeterias.Last evening I visited a cafe and this was what I saw there.... People walked in and picked up their orders and most of those were heart shaped cakes! These heart shaped cakes have now become a symbol of love :-).... The florists,too, had the same stories. The prices of flowers have touched the skies! Bouquets, cakes,cards.....needless to say, gifts,too....these seem to form the very essence of the day.... I call it the day of love and friendship... I have a totally different take,of course, about the day. To me, each and every day is Valentine's Day.... How can we exist without love and friendship and all of those beautiful virtues? And I do not need a day to celebrate this so-important virtue :-).... At the same time, I do like to see the frenzy around me :-)....there is so much activity around me! And I love the positive feel! 

While I treated myself to a cup of tea and some sandwiches at the café, took in the aromas of the freshly baked cakes,the trays arrived in batches and were placed on the counter only to be packed up neatly into the boxes and ready to be delivered. I watched the 'totally-in-love' couples deep in lovey-dovey conversation :-), I felt good. I say, let there be love every day, in every moment, let us not fall out of love, let us show our love to the larger mankind in our small ways. Love is a beautiful word and I hope that we never ever forget it. My day has started on a happy note; gifts from a special friend has made it extra special...sharing some photographs from my home.

I would love to hear from you, your responses and thoughts on this forever important love. Do share with me here your takes on love. Have a wonderful love-filled day!

I bought myself a gift......

something after my heart.........

the colours in my life..........

another love of my life.......

Gifts from family and friends give such a beautiful feeling! This one, is from a very special friend, whom I still haven't met.

Yet another one from her :-D.......

and it is spring time........ :-)

flowers and cakes and some prettiness.....perfect for a 'love-ly' setting!

and some gorgeousness to love......

green gifts from friends :-)

LOVE is everywhere!

Hearts all over!