Life around the paddy field

I observed that the birds around the paddy fields have their own set routine of feeding and perching.  Maybe that is why this heron decided "come rain, come sunshine, I will not budge from my perching point"

One of the birds had its nest on this Ithi tree (Ficus Microcarpa) and I found the roots of this tree almost covered the tree trunk.

Was staying near a paddy field for a week where the greenery and the natural sound in that area was very soothing.

I was trying to capture the spider web and a bird made a guest appearance.
The place where we stayed was Vempilly Ayurveda Medical Hospital.

The overall impression I got was that the staff (at all levels) were passionate about their work and there was a personal touch to everything that they did. Also noticed that most of them multitasked, like the guy who did the daily massage for me, also doubled up to deliver the morning 6 am kattan kapi. (coffee without milk)
They grow most of the vegetables in the premises, so when it reaches your table, you can be sure that it is organic.

The food is vegetarian but there is variety in what you eat.

The sowing and reaping of the two acre paddy field is mechanised and very cost effective according to Dr Mathews.

Milk production is also in house and they have a dedicated guy, Mr Murukan from Tenkasi, who looks after the stable.

I could not capture the other treatment in action but in this video you can see the herbal medicine being applied on a person who had plantar fasciitis.

I liked this simple idea of using incense to keep away insects and leave a wonderful aroma.

After a long time I saw a "touch me not" in action.

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.