New clothes
I remember a time when new clothes were bought three times a year: in the summer holidays, for Deepavali and on birthdays. Readymade was unheard of then. My mother used […]
Category Archives: Trees
All the perfumes of Arabia
I have spent the last few days brewing a terrific stink! Usually Anilodharani is the sweetest smelling place. We have champaka, roses, jasmine – wild and domestic, angelonia, tithonia, water […]
The sweetest chikoos
If you’re lucky enough to have a chikoo/sapota tree in your garden, the witching hour is at hand! I see chikoos in the market almost all the year round, and […]
Discouraged by pigs, encouraged by tubers
Yesterday was a pig day at the farm. The wild pigs got into the fenced groundnut field — the precious no-till experiment — and had themselves a feast. Meanwhile, the […]
A cure for dog dandruff
If your dog badly needs this, run out right now and locate a palash tree! The flowering season is almost over for this year, and the flowers are ready to […]
Two additions to our family and menu
We finally managed to grow some cauliflowers! They are tiny, but good looking. And after many attempts and many doomed seeds and cuttings, we now have four fine agathi trees […]
Some moment when the moon was blood
Red moon rising… And here is the year’s first palash, a splash of orange in the dry February landscape. The leaves of this tree, stitched together, make lovely, biodegradable disposable […]
It’s raining mangoes!
The mangoes are still growing, they’re not yet ready to pick. These are windfalls. Most of our 22 mango trees are supposed to be Banganapalli, but we suspect they have […]
Hoffable herralumps
I don’t have the heart to blame an animal for anything it does. So, elephants, you are not only forgiven, but sympathised with. Drought, fires, loss of habitat – what […]
A flowery walk
Some time back our friend Gopakumar, who is full of wild lore, told us about the Jalari tree (shorea roxburghii), which flowers in our local forest around Shiva Ratri. I […]
The Long View 