Cycling and nature

A smooth and picturesque path is a welcome sight and all the more so if you are on a bicycle.

If you pedal at a leisurely pace you get to see different activities like children participating in games

While passing a tennis court, I saw these balls strewn on the court and thought the second picture would be a good one as an advertisement shot for the ball manufacturer. (I did not put it there)

The changing colours of the trees is another sight especially if you are around at the right time of the spring season.

After crossing this narrow bridge I noticed many red winged black bird in the bulrushes.

If you are lucky (and have some patience) you can capture them having a quick bath in a rivulet, as can be seen in the video.

Saw this Grackle on a tree. The common Grackle has a iridescent appearance on their head, especially males. They spread their fantail when making their bird call.

While observing the aves on the tree top, don't miss to appreciate the yellow carpet along the sidewalk.

Obeying the traffic rules applies to cyclists too.

One last shot of nature...... the green against the blue sky

Recorded my 11 km ride on Strava. To my surprise I found that Strava works even without a net connection. Great.

Small islands on Andaman

One of the places to visit in the Andamans is the Munda Pahar. The beach is shallow and good for kids to play. They have earmarked some safe zone where you can venture out into the water. 

I liked the way they have carved out the fallen trees into some lovely sit-outs. 

We did some horsing around clicking some pictures. Setting the camera on timer and rushing back to hold the pose in 10 seconds is really a challenge. 

Earlier we had been to the Red Skin Island (from Wandoor Jetty) Before landing on the island they give you a teaser of watching the coral and the sea bed from a glass bottom boat. Photographing the coral through the glass bottom is a difficult task. 

This is a good place for guys who love and study corals. I saw some guys snorkeling in the area. 

It seems the Red Skin and Jolly Buoy are opened alternately for six months. This is to preserve the ecological balance. The ride to all these islands by the ferry always gives you some good view of the tiny islands that Andaman is made of.  

There is a light house which adds to the old world charm. 

It is said that this lighthouse can be seen on the Indian 20 rupee note.

It kept alternating between clear weather and rain, hence the angry clouds.

One of the items that I have ticked off from my bucket list is scuba diving.

North Bay Island is a good place for scuba diving, something that I thought I will never be able to do. 

They give you training for about 15 minutes and assess your confidence level. If you are convinced that you can do it, they take you further out into the sea where you can dive to about 40 feet. 

It is a wonderful world down there and one should not miss a chance to see it. Here is a video on it.

A few things to note about scuba diving, it is not necessary for you to know swimming to dive. The lead weight belt that you wear takes you down and the buoyancy compensator takes you up by releasing a knob.

On the whole, a wonderful experience.    

The Big Basin

Some pictures from the Archives – The Redwood forest in California that we visited last year.

The Big Basin has different trails and you can select the trail you want depending upon the time you have at your disposal.

The trees are real tall and the size of the trees can be judged by these pictures when compared with people in front of the tree (or rather inside the tree)

I like the confident stance of this little guy:

Surprisingly for a tree of this height the roots are only 6 to 10 feet deep, but they grow laterally holding on to the roots of the adjacent trees.  

There are some endangered species of birds here. One of the sea birds, the Marbled Murrelet, nests in the canopy of the old growth of Redwood trees.

picture source 

These birds lay only one egg in a year. Unfortunately the Steller Jay bird is a threat to these eggs as they chase away the Marbled Murrelet and eat up the egg. This is a huge loss to the species. One of the reasons why the Steller Jay bird visits this place is the easy availability of food left by visitors. This is well explained in this video

To protect these birds, visitors are strictly warned not to litter nor leave any crumbs of food after eating.

Once you climb up a little you get to see a magnificent view of the hills and how these trees cover the place.  

Noticed many professional photographers with their complete kit making the best of it.   

There are two trees that are named as the Mother of the Forest and the Father of the Forest. The sizes of these trees are given here:  

Some more pictures can be seen in this 3 min  video:

The arteries of Life.

Last time when I had been to my home town, as I was approaching my ancestral house, I looked up to see if the mango tree was still there and found this wonderful sight. The leaves shimmering in the afternoon light. Later while looking at the photograph I was wondering if my grandfather too looked at the same tree early in the morning while dipping his hand in the uri. (an uri is a pot that is hung in the courtyard which contains coarse coal particles. This was used for brushing the teeth - before people could afford toothpaste)

Rarely do we stop and gaze at the trees. There is a lot of history written there. Its the mute spectator to all that's happened under its shade.
Recently while passing through one of the roads in Pune, I had to stop at a signal. A sideways glance showed this huge Canopy covering a huge space. Welcome shade for many. (the title of this post was derived from this picture)


Imagine if your city is covered by trees like these it could reduce the threat of global warming. (will it? I am no authority on that)
Luckily for Pune city, we still have many of them (and hope it remains that way)
The best is the road connecting the Kirkee War cemetery and the Holkar bridge. The trees on either side are huge and it is just wonderful to drive down. I clicked this on a rainy day.

Another place is the entrance road to the Agriculture college in Pune.
Very few know that this was used as a War Hospital from 1916 to 1919



On my way back from an overnight picnic near the Khadakwasla Dam I saw this lone Banyan tree, with its prop roots almost kissing the water. It made a perfect frame.
Incidentally this picture is used in the Wikipedia with proper credit.



Other one on the way up to the Singahad fort. With greenery like this around, I though its better to be at the foothills than climb the fort.



Then there are these trees with roots and roots hanging (you can hardly see the tree) These are the ones lining the race course road. Must have witnessed a lot of betting I suppose.



With the onset of spring in Pune, one can see some trees beautifully decorated with golden coloured flowers. This tree (Tabebuia Aurea) is a native of Argentina and Brazil in South America and it was brought to Bangalore, Calcutta and Pune. To know more about this tree, click on the picture below.



Rubber trees are seen mostly in the south and the procedure of extracting rubber is lengthy but its good to know.(click on picture)



A trip to the Vineyard is a must for those who visit Nasik which is about 190 kms from Pune. You get to learn a lot about Grapes and wine and Table Grapes. We had a good time there, apart from tashting a lot of...... hic, a lot of . . . . . . .hic, you know those colourful things in the colourful wine glass......hic.


OK coming back to Pune, nothing like having a view of a tree from the kitchen window.


(one of the reasons why we did not put up a frilly curtain there) but there is an added bonus when you have a good view of an eagle's nest from the kitchen window.
But more on that later in my next post (hope the eggs will hatch by then)