My calming little balcony

The weather is slowly starting to get colder and I am realizing that it will start getting tougher to tend to my plants or to sit in the balcony. The plants also won't thrive as much. I am only hoping that all of the plants survive the winter. Summer is a good time for the plants in my balcony. Since we don't get direct sunlight I have to only get plants that grow in shaded areas. Over a period of time I have learn't my lessons and I only pick up plants like the ferns so they can live with less light. I capture the pictures every now and then and that just makes me feel good.

This is a quiet retreat for me when I am sad or happy. It does cheer me up when I see green around me. Every morning after I wake up I usually go to the balcony for fresh air and just to see what is blooming. Squirrels and humming birds are regular visitors and we stay indoor behind the glass doors and watch them. Too bad I don't have any pictures. Next time I plan to keep my camera handy so I can get a picture of the humming bird.

Crafts with the daughter

A while ago while browsing the www ( which I do like a crazy woman who feels like the 24hrs are not enough in a day ) I came across this DIY project and I thought to myself that this is an easy one which I can do with my daughter.So off I went into my balcony with a pair of scissors and chopped off some fern leaves. We put them inside my old Tornado training manual ( finally good use of them me thinks :) and placed some heavy duty Java books on top and left it that way for a couple weeks.

I usually purchase stuff on sale even if I don't need them, and one of those purchases were some cheap frames from IKEA. Shreya and me got down to choosing the background paper but she seemed to like white the best for the dried leaves. Though fist I thought of persuading her to change her mind I decided to go with her gut and I think it turned out nicely. She helped me glue the leaves and frame the whole thing. She also suggested on how to hang it and now these two frames sit in the alleyway right when you enter the house. Though the lighting here is not the best I still love it whenever I look at it. This was a quick and fun way of spending time together. Though the original work I saw looks way more sophisticated, what we made has a special place in my heart.

 

 

 

???

Does it really matter what I want ?

Shouldn't it matter what I want ?

Who should we live for ? for ourselves or for the family ?

What should my goal in life be ?

What if I want something completely different than what is expected of me ?

Styles of the hairy kind

Isn't playing with hair a fancy of all little girls ? Shreya loves to play with mine, though my patience runs out very soon with all the tugging and pulling that we end up in fights. But there have been times where everything ended well and I had different hair styles, thanks to my daughter. Mostly when we are watching TV after dinner and Shreya has run out of ideas of playing by herself she will eye my hair. If I am in a better mood I will let her touch my ever falling hair. I am sharing here some of those styles captured by none other than the stylist herself.

Camping

Friends were going camping during the labour day weekend and invited us. I never say no when it is being one with the nature. Though work was hectic, I decided to go for it. We were four families altogether and two of the families left on Friday evening itself. Most of my team mates were working over the long weekend but I decided to skip work since all of us were not needed. I figured I was done impressing the bosses :) and now I needed to enjoy my time. Friday evening I shopped for the stuff I had agreed to bring and packed the car with lots of comforters, tent and some clothes, ready to drive on Saturday. On Saturday morning, I woke up early, took shower since I knew for the next two days there would be no shower, woke Shreya up and started driving. This campsite (Granite Flat ) that we were camping at only had toilets but no showers. A friend joined us for the ride with her daughter so it was fun for both me and Shreya. We were all chatting away. We even lost our way because we were focused on chatting, but after a detour we were back on track and after four hours of driving we reached our destination. Our home for the two nights was setup.

The evening started getting colder and we started a bonfire. Cooked some pav bhaji and roasted marshmallows and corn...yummm After dinner it was just so fun sitting around and playing antakshari singing aloud all those old hindi songs.

The campsite was right next to the Truckee river. But since it is September the river was very mellow and the water pretty cold. But we used the river total desi style, we brushed out teeth and washed our faces in the morning, washed the dishes and even clothes on some occasions, waded and played in it and polluted the water as much as we could.

The nights were pretty freezing cold and sleeping was a little tough but no complains. We drove to Lake Tahoe ( Meeks Bay ) on Sunday afternoon so the kids could swim in the lake. The water was cold but the kids braved it and had a gala time.

Got home Monday evening all tired and dirty but being out makes me happy happy, well worth the effort.