Today's Flowers- Wild Orchid and Frangipani

To view more flowers blooming all over the world, click here.

Weekend Reflections

This is a scene from Hong Kong, where I had gone last year, during this time.
My thanks to James for hosting Weekend Reflections.

Floral Friday

The Crown of Thorns  euphorbia comes in many colours., which bloom in springtime. The yellow  one is blooming for the first time in my garden.

 This is a wild Cymbidium orchid, which I had brought from a Forest Guest House in the Western Ghats. The flowers are white with purple stripes, with a center funnel of yellow. They bloom in long strings.

The Guava tree is reluctantly putting out flowers. It seems to be conserving its energy in the drought.

You can see some lovely flowers in Nick's blog  here.

Our World- the Pollinators

 Honeybees and beehives are becoming rare all over the world. Recently I saw this enormous beehive on the top of a tall building near my home. When I went to click it, I saw the remains of an earlier beehive at the same place. Greedy hands had robbed the earlier one, but the bees , which are creatures of habit, returned to the same spot again.

You can see a lone bee returning to the hive in this photo.

Bees not only provide us with honey and beeswax, but they are our invaluable friends. They pollinate our food crops. The alarming situation now is that the number of various types of  honeybees is dwindling. This may be due to parasites which attack the bees, or habitat destruction , or just unthinking greed of humans.
You can see other aspects of Our World at http://ourworldtuesdaymeme.blogspot.com

Pride of India

The Pride of India tree Lagerstroemia speciosa which is also called the Giant Crepe Myrtle ,is in full bloom now. There are three main colours- pink, violet and white. The flowers attract bees and bumble bees in droves. The fruit of the tree , which is woody, and in the shape of a flower, is also attractive, and is used for flower decorations.

The tree itself has great medicinal value. It is used for hypertension, urinary dysfunction among other uses.

This is my contribution to Today's Flowers, where you can see flowers from all over the world.

Weekend Reflections-Shrinking Waterbodies

I hope the shrinking lakes will regain their size in the Monsoon season. We are facing a severe drought in this part of the world.

You can see loads of interesting photos at Weekend Reflections, thanks to James.

A Visitor from Australia

The Blue banded bee is said to be a native of Australia. I see them quite often among my flowers. They start work very early in the morning and continue till sunset. You can see one near the amaryllis in the photo above.
The bee gathers pollen , which is full of nutrients.
Then it enters another amaryllis flower and pollinates it.

Whether it is a native of Australia or India, I am happy to see the industrious Blue banded bee in my garden.

This is my contribution to Nick's Floral Friday.

Our World - Egrets in Salt Water

I did not know that egrets loved salt water till I saw them in the salt pans in the outskirts of Mumbai last month. The men had already gathered a huge heap of salt from the pans. The birds must have been having a gala time feasting on the crabs brought in by the tide!

This is my contribution to OurWorld Tuesday, and World Bird Wednesday.

Today's Flowers

The pink flowers of Justicia carnea have a curious shape. They prefer the shade of the mango tree.
The orange Crossandra flowers are blooming in the sun. They are a favourite with the village women, who wear strings of them in their hair.
The sky blue Plumbago flowers look so cool in the heat. They don't mind the sun.
This visitor is looking for some sustenance in the jasmine bush.

You can see what is blooming all over the world at Today's Flowers.

Flowers for Friday

The Lobster claw heliconia are resplendant with their bright floral bracts, in spite of the water crunch.
Another plant which is flowering profusely in my garden is the white Musseanda.

Please click on Nixblog to see more flower displays.

Purple Moorhen

The Purple Moorhen Porphyno porphyno viridis is a bird which is found near swamps.
This bird has an attractive dark blue colour, which stands out amidst the other white water birds.
It is as big as a hen, and struts about its territory like one.

You can see loads of fabulous pictures of birds from different parts of the world at World Bird Wednesday.

Recycling

Mani, the teenager above, is one of the persons who help the earth. He takes away our old newspapers and magazines to be recycled. He pays for them by weight. I got seventy rupees for last month's newspapers, which I used to buy a bird bath.!
This woman takes away used plastic bottles and cans to be recycled. Used plastic does not fetch as big a price as old newspapers.

These are the persons who work to keep the city clean and the planet healthy.

This is my contribution to Our World Tuesday.

Today's Flowers- Flowers for a Blazing Summer

Lantanas flower happily even when the mercury reaches 35C. They don't seem to mind the sun, and will make do with a little water.
Ixoras too don't get bothered by the heat. They prefer dappled shade.
Jasmine flowers perfume my garden in the night. They actually prefer to be in full sun!
The different varieties of Amaryllis are happily blooming in all the gardens now. Soon their flowering season will be over, and they get ready to flower again in autumn.

You can see loads of flowers at Today's Flowers.

Friday's Flowers

In soite of the heat and the water shortage, I was delighted to find plenty of flowers blooming in my garden. The orange Barbados Lily is blooming in all sorts of nooks and corners.
The petria vine has just started putting out its beautiful flowers. I hope it will flower profusely as usual.
The Amaryllis is called the Easter Lily here, an apt name.

You can see loads of beautiful flowers which are blooming all over the world here.

World Bird- the Kite

The pair of kites have built a nest on top of a silver oak tree in my school, and the female is brooding in the nest. The male kite flies out and came back every ten minutes, with a tasty snack like rats or an occasional snake to feed his mate.
After some time, it became too hot for the small creatures to run around in the sun, and the kite took longer and longer to find food.
The missus became tired of waiting, and decided to take a nap.
There she is, taking a mid-morning snooze.

To see great images of birds from all over the world, click here.

Our World- Salt Pans of Mumbai

Mumbai was a fishing and salt making village when it was gifted in dowry to the Portuguese princess who married a British king 300 years ago. The original natives of Mubai still fish and make salt on the outskirts of the great city. Sea water is collects in these pans and gets dried by the sun, leaving the salt behind. Many aquatic birds hunt in these pans for the salty morsels. If you click on the picture above, you can see the birds clearly.
The salt makers follow their ancient tradition to make these geometrical patterns.

You can see plenty of interesting images of our world here.

Today's Flowers

Many lovely flowers are blooming in my garden now in spite of the drought conditions. The huge white Easter lily is one such faithful.
The Franjipani seems to love this weather. The blooms are perfuming my garden in the night.
The Cardwell lily has very pretty leaves too.
This Amaryllis has bloomed for the first time in 5 years! It probably likes less water.

I am now seriously thinking of reducing the water guzzlers like the heliconia and gingers, and put in some drought resistant plants, as the water shortage seems to be permanent. I would like any suggestion from you.

You can view lots of lovely flowers at Today's Flowers.