Double coloured bougainvilleas

Found this to be an unusual colour for a bougainvillea
Making summers bearable with their beauty

Kerala Day 4 - Munnar Post Office

The best thing about Munnar town apart from the spice and tea shops was this beautiful post office. Its board was garlanded by these vibrant bougainvilleas, and there was no way I was leaving the place without capturing its beauty.

This was our last day in Munnar and I went around the town for some last minute purchases in the Kannan Devan outlet - the High Range brand Strawberry Preserve is to die for.

An unusual vase

In the lake in the middle of Vengalarao Park

Basant rani

Tabebuia rosea in full bloom on the sidewalks of Bangalore
Highlight of my visit this time
Saw these trees almost everywhere
Also called the Pink trumpet tree
Same featured in another post - Flower Shower

Flower shower

A most amazing sight lay in wait for us at the park this evening...gentle breeze bringing down showers of these light pink flowers that nearly covered the grass all over...as usual I had my toddler in my arms, so couldn't take a picture of the flower showers, but managed this shot as a remembrance of the pleasant evening we had. Another pic of the fallen flowers on the walk-way - any idea what tree this could be? Is this by any chance the Tabebuia impetiginosa?
Updated on 16/03/10
Enlightened from my visit to Bangalore, this tree is Tabebuia rosea / basant rani / pink trumpet tree

Lotus Pond

This pond in a cement tank of  a local temple made a pretty sight - I remembered such lotuses that I saw a few years ago in KL's Orchid Park - would have loved a close-up, but this is all I could capture on my zoom.

Happy...

 ...that I'm catching up with my aunt and uncle today over simple food and elaborate conversations. The latter more with my aunt :)

Loved these candy coloured lantanas that grow wild in my compound, put a couple of stalks in a jam jar to cheer up the table (thanks for the name A - it just slipped off my mind)

Flower seller ...

...inside the temple we visited today

Valentine leftovers

Roses rescued from the valentine bouquet

Bougainvillea

I never fail to notice this building on one of the roads near my place where lovely white bougainvillea force their branches out from the apertures of a building.
This time I managed to keep the camera ready when we were passing by this road, this pic is taken from the car - so people don't suspect me zooming into random houses ;)
The overhead wires are spoiling the photo for me - but it was impossible to capture the former without the latter.
I also love the pots on the sill of the balcony with the blue roof and the overall red tiled roof.

Valentine day breakfast

There's nothing much actually - some Andhra style thattai and coffee (the coffee is not even filter coffee ) shows how I was just lazing all morning, perfect way to start a special day right?

Hope you spent a lovely day with your loved one/s.

Mahashivaratri & the Saras Exhibition

 

Though we did a couple of other fun things yesterday like visiting a regional products exhibition and eating super-oily take-away food - this seemed to be my favourite picture of the day - the red Geraniums contrasting the beautiful black of the Nataraja.

My favourite stall from the Saras exhibition was one called the Guntur-Coop run by the rural women in Guntur where they prepare Andhra style pickles, snacks and other food products in a very hygienic way and packaged beautifully too. Take a look at their pickles below - the Gongura is for S, while the other two are my favourites.

 

They are doing some great work and I really wanted to showcase their quality products here, hence the second photo of the day :) Will amend their address and details shortly. If you are visiting Guntur, their food products are surely worth picking up!

My shopping bag from the exhibition had stuff from different corners of India and this is what I love about such exhibitions-

Kerala

Plantain chips fried in coconut oil

Jackfruit chips

Mace

Gujarat

Clay tava

Clay pot with lid

Guntur

Three pickles

One bag of Chekkalu

Anantapur

Bedside lamp with hand-painted lampshade

Madhya Pradesh

Lemon drops

Dried mango chooran

Imli chooran

Assam

Handwoven woolen jacket for Atri

Horticulture Exhibition 2010

This exhibition supposed to be the largest in India is on from 26 Jan to 30 Jan on Necklace road - a wide ranging specimen of plants, trees, seeds and agro products. I managed to go there yesterday morning with Atri in tow, used his stroller to dump all the goodies I bought from there and it was great that they had helping hands with large bamboo baskets to carry all the pots one buys, for a small fee.

My shopping bag / basket in the end had -

• Bulbs of Dahlias and Liliums
• Four types of succulents
• Marjoram
• Geranium plant
• Aloe Vera plant
• Manure
• Pots and saucers
• Brochures
• Soya pasta
• Soya noodles
• Udad dal
• Tur dal
• Udad dal vadis
• Button mushrooms 1/2 kg
• Organic dried oyster mushrooms

I was looking for more herbal plants like lemongrass, thyme etc. which I did not find. We got to see some fine specimens of cabbage, cauliflower and varieties of squash like pattypan, which I'm seeing in India for the first time.
More about this exhibition here.