Let The Party Begin! (Wordless Wednesdays)
Feast
Picture Prompt Written for the #November 15to50 challenge
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| This image from Shailaja’s blog: http://shailajav.wordpress.com/ |
Feast
The blessed rains ended a cruel summer of
heat and hunger.
heat and hunger.
Flowers bloomed. Bees buzzed.
His starvation had ended.
It was time to feast.
Word count: 24
Linking this to the Fiction Challenge ‘From 15 to 50′
Glorious Sunrise (Wordless Wednesdays)
Sunday Shopping
Many people in this city have a tradition of visiting vegetable markets like the Mandai to purchase vegetables for the entire week. I am not sure how or why this practise has arisen but there is no comfort like having a fridge full of veggies. An almost mandatory accompaniment to the veggie purchases is Patties or Misal. Patties can be from Santosh Bakery or Hindustan Bakery (almost iconic outlets) and the Misal can be from Bedekar or Shri Krishna Misal. Click here for an e-food walk of the city and then get yourself out to actually taste those goodies!!
But I digress. This post is not about ready made food rather about the veggies and to be specific, vegetable markets. Over a period of time, places other than the Mandai too have become popular vegetable shopping sites probably because of distance and parking constraints. Several vendors (not sure if they are farmers of just middle men) set up shops on the street sides near the DRDO circle in Pashan and on Karve Road. The produce here is fresh, fairly cheap and all seasonal (and some unseasonal) stuff is available. There are also the established Mandai in Aundh and the iconic Shivaji Market in Camp.
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| Dehydrated Sweet Potatos, Lady’s Finger, Gawar (Cluster beans) |
A new entrant is a farmer’s market near Gandhi Bhavan at Kothrud. Compared to the other venues mentioned above, there were fewer vendors but some of the vegetables seemed cheaper. I use the word ‘seemed’ because I cannot compare same-day prices across the city. My comparison is based on my last purchase! This place looked like a ‘haat’ with lots of interesting stuff. Besides vegetables and fruits there were dals, biscuits, papads, kurdai, pickles, dried vegetables, Bhel, ready-mix for fruit shakes, and a stall selling Pohe and Dhirda for the hungry birds. Here are some images from our visit. Its a good effort and is especially beneficial for those residing near Gandhi Bhavan.
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| Fresh pineapple. He readily cuts it up for you |
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| This weighing scale had nothing to weigh |
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| For the hungry birds |
Happy Sunday Shopping!
Lungs of the city (Wordless Wednesdays)
Roots
The camera has become our constant companion both at home and outside. So whether one is cooking, eating, reading, travelling its easy to capture images to recall and relive memories later. My usual subjects arefriends and family (not surprising), myself (a new addition due to my new toy with a front facing camera!), trees, architecture and so on.
Yet I find that tree roots too have emerged as attention grabbers. Roots are what anchor a tree to the ground, collect water and other nutrients from the soil, at times are modified to breathe/give support as well. I would like to share some of these amazing roots with you.
Enjoy…
These are simply stunning. Tree roots at Angkor Wat. Do they support these ancient structures or do they damage the structure? To me it looks like the former!
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| Photo Credit: Col (Dr) Ram Athavale, Retd |
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| Photo Credit: Col (Dr) Ram Athavale, Retd |
Here is yet another example of roots offering some support… in the form of a bridge! This bridge has been created by living roots of the Ficus tree. Such bridges are seen in North East India. This photo has been sourced from Getty Images
Artist Steve Robin has envisaged and created the following bronze sculpture using inspiration of the roots of the large sycamore tree in the St Paul’s Chapel in New York that was damaged due to debris from the 9/11 World Trade Tower collapse. Read more about it here.
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| ‘Trinity Root’ Patinated Bronze by Steve Tobin. Seen at St Paul’s Chapel, New York |
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| Stunning roots of a huge Cupressus macrocarpa. Seen in San Francisco |
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| Roots of this Ficus at Pondicherry have spread out to form columns. This tree is at Auroville, India. Photo Credit: @puneribaker |
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Rootage of a 200 year old Silk Cotton Tree seen at the Lal Bagh, Bangalore
Photo Credit: @puneribaker
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The vertical Cypress
knees or Pneumatophores of the Taxodium distichum (Bald cypress) jut upwards from the soil. Some theories state they help the tree get oxygen but some trees have thrived even after the cypress knees were removed. Other theories propose that they play the role of supporting the tree.
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| Cypress knees or Pneumatophores of the Taxodium distichum (Bald cypress). This image from South Carolina, USA |
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| Thin delicate aerial roots of the Ficus microcarpa, help distinguish it from other Ficus brethren whose aerial roots may be thicker and coarser. This tree is in Pune, India |
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| This is mostly of learning value to me as I was under the wrong impression that only Ficus species produced aerial roots. This tree is the Metrosideros excelsa (New Zealand Christmas Tree) which belongs to the Myrtaceae family. This tree is from the San Fransisco Botanical Garden |
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| Nebari of my Kamini bonsai! |
If you have enjoyed this, you are sure to like my post about amazing barks …
Take care!
Red and Green (Wordless Wednesdays)
Narcissus (Wordless Wednesdays)
Flowers and Leaves (Wordless Wednesdays)
Wild Guava (Wordless Wednesdays)
