Vanilla Pods

It is a good sight to see the vanilla pods hanging in the garden where fifty percent of the flowers were successfully pollinated. Now we wait for them to dry so that we can use them to extract the vanilla.

Here is another picture, clicked more than a month ago where you can see the flowers blooming, ready to be pollinated. The dry flowers still clinging on, shows that they have been successfully pollinated.

The bottle you see is from nuttie artzz. It looks better at night when the lights come up inside the bottle.  This season the yield of drumstick was pretty good. One of the regular visitors is the purple sunbird who goes in for the nectar from the Moringa (drumstick) flower.

The Ashy Prinia prefers to hang around or maybe even hang on the Moringa. No threat to my Moringas as the bird weighs only about 7 to 10 gms.  (Google facts)

Instead of throwing away the Mosami (sweet lime) seeds, I tried germinating them.  Most of the seeds sprouted which I planted in this pot.

As they grew I saw some designer leaves and found out who was responsible for it.

Clicking flowers against the sunlight makes the picture pop up.

I think the sunflowers also wait for the sun to rise.

As I was clicking the Begonia, this bee wanted to make a guest appearance.

The tomatoes came at the right time considering the upward trend of the price.

Nothing like some homegrown spices. Uprooted this lot from the 1ft x 2ft rectangular pot and got 1.4 kg turmeric. Now to dry and grind them for some organic turmeric powder.

The bulbs (roots) are saved for replanting in the next season.

The chiilies are just growing and hope to get a good yield after repotting.

The brinjals (aubergine) that came up this time is of a different variety.

Birds in Chandigarh

It is so nice to see new leaves sprouting up at a place where a tree is cut. A sign to say that life goes on 

It is also nice to see birds doing the balancing act to get to the flowers. Here is an Oriental Reed Warbler among the sarson field (mustard field) 

Had been to Chandigarh last week and clicked some of the birds over there. 

Have heard the tuk tuk sound for so many decades but was never able to pin point the actual source. It was only last week I saw the Coppersmith Barbet in action, and I was like “OK so this is the guy who was eluding me all these years” 

I captured him in action by zooming more than 100 meters and hence the sound is very faint  (in the video) Even though they don’t have long beaks like the woodpecker, their nest is made by carving out a hole in the tree trunk. 

The Oriental White Eye was hopping around pretty fast and it was a challenge to keep her in the frame. 

The Indian Grey Hornbill was sitting on top of a Pipal tree swaying in the breeze.

 I have observed (even in Pune) that these hornbills move around in threes 

Almost all the birds were up but this parrot was still sleeping 

These two looked like a pair but the one in the foreground was ignoring the other one with the expression “Is that guy still behind me?” 

The Mynas were having a good time sharing their food with the squirrels. 

I even noticed a single legged Myna hopping around 

The Ashy Prinia was sort of lurking in the mustard field. 

The jungle Babbler is quick with his beak, looking for something tasty between the dry leaves. 

The Guldenstadt’s Redstart had a bobbing motion while sitting at a place  

The spotted Dove was casual in its movements 

I took a long shot at the Steppe Eagle who was majestically sitting on top of a tree.

"Is he gone ?"

I had spotted a Greater Yellownape Woodpecker too, but by the time I fetched my camera, he had disappeared. 

All the pictures/videos were captured with a hand held camera.