Glowing in the morning light...

The stillness of the early morning enables me to take in and enjoy many things which pass me by during the bustle of the day. Morning is the best of all times in my garden.  The sun is not yet hot. The night dew lingers and the golden sunlight makes my plants glow, making them take on a magical quality. Birds chirp melodiously and the bees are already at work. And then, there are the ethereal scents, which seem even more generous with their offerings than they are in the evening.
My little green patch is turned into a magical wonder-world. And I come out of that enchanting experience, refreshed, renewed and rejuvenated.

Here's presenting a few glimpses of that enchantment...

Living lines, happiness and a little harvest of peas...

The song of the curved line is called happiness. And these happy lines take on a life of their own...

And my happiness lies in the crazily snaking line of my green journey and how it flows smoothly and then staggers at times. How it dips deep in despair and sometimes rises high in glory... But through all of this, the graceful line of my green journey does not break. It goes on and on and on...

Presenting this morning's pe(a)rky little harvest of five young pea pods and pretty white coriander flowers. I am excited to have finally harvested more than one pea pod at a time ! Have been trying and trying and trying to grow peas. It's been a patient and slow process, but there sure is some progress. I am going to be at it, however long it takes, till I eventually get a decent enough harvest... Well, that's what gardening is all about, right ?

My peas are growing in 8"/6" plastic pots. I have about two plants in each pot. Out of a total of 20 plants that had begun growing, only about six have survived a bandicoot attack when they were young seedlings. The potting mix is my usual 1:1 proportion of soil and compost, with a handful of neem cake powder to arrest fungal attacks. They  are in a place that gets full sunlight for about two-three hours in the morning and indirect sunlight for the rest of the time. They have grown quite well in pots of this size. But I am sure they would grow better in larger pots and in season. In a short wile I am going to sow more peas and hope they will do better in the winter.

Today's harvest is set against a book of beautiful sketches by my poster Design Teacher (And the HOD for Applied art) during Art School, (at Davangere) the late Shankar Patil. The sketches are living breathing lines that tell brilliant stories. He was a maverick to the core and showed me how I could stretch my imagination and attempt stuff that I'd never imagined I could do. And he did this by inspiring them me with his example... With him, I relearned to be myself and not rein my creative instincts, to express myself the way I feel at the moment...

The first Bitter gourd and contentment

 “Be content with what you have;
rejoice in the way things are.
When you realize there is nothing lacking,
the whole world belongs to you.”
Lao Tzu

But then, I am not satisfied easily... I am not content with just what I have. I have to indulge in some dramebaazi... I have to go one step further, use whatever skills I have and present that little in the best possible way. It's only when I have done that, do I heave a sigh of relief and settle down with contentment. For, that is my way of paying tribute to my little green patch and the wonderful produce (however small) it gifts me...  

This morning's pretty little harvest of- My first bitter gourd, some chillies and some bush beans... Along with my early morning's pre-breakfast snack of fresh vegetables, green herb tea and an old old, bound set of Amar Chitra Katha. Could I ask for a more beautiful start to the day ? 

Kotambri sketched !

 Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
Howard Thurman

And it was a marvellous experience to pull out my sketch pad and pen after long and sketch my delicate and charming Kotambri. I was a bit down yesterday and by evening I was pretty frustrated. Something urged me to step out into my patch and capture my coriander. And instead of grabbing my camera, I took my sketch pad, pencil and pen. The quick sketch did wonders, and I was back on my feet. I was alive...

Oregano flakes in the making...

"One of the most delightful things a garden is the anticipation it provides..."

So happy to have waited in anticipation for about a month and a half and being able to harvest my oregano this morning. I am even more happy to be making my own Oregano flakes and using them with pride in my cooking...
I trim my oregano plant regularly. Almost once in two months. I dry the stems in the shade and crush the leaves and stems too. A little more crushing required for the stems though. I store the flakes in a small glass bottle. The first few times, when I used to harvest just a few sprigs, I got about one table spoon (One table spoon may sound silly, but I'm sure many of you would identify with my excitement over even such small quantities...!) and slowly the quantity increased as my plants grew.

Folks, I brought home my oregano from a local nursery as two tiny seedlings nestled it in a small take-away container two and a half years back. After about a fortnight, I transplanted my oregano, which were now growing big for the take-away, in a portion of an old discarded PVC pipe and an 8" plastic pot... I did it with great trepidation, as I didn't want to lose them... Herb seedlings are very hard to come by in Dharwad. Only one local nursery grows them/gets them from B'looru, and that too very few, as there aren't many takers...

But to my good fortune, my oregano seemed to like their new abode and began to sprout new shoots all over even before I could complete my short motivating speech...! The potting mix for my oregano is just the same as it is for all my greens. An equal mixture of soil and compost with a little neem cake powder added to arrest fungal attacks. After that, I have been adding a bit of compost every once in six months. I water them judiciously without letting the containers ever get water logged, or even completely dried out for long. I trim them regularly to collect leaves, for drying and for using fresh. And all the times they sprin g back with the same enthusiasm. Very soon, both my oregano plants were excitedly spilling all over the place, and I was happily grinning from ear to ear. My oregano, despite growing in semi shade have not disappointed me over the years. But unfortunately, my lovely oregano growing in the PVC pipe fell victim to a monkey attack, while still in the old balcony patch. I do miss it, but my other oregano in the pot has been quite a brilliant substitute and served me well. Since we shifted to the new place, this is the third time I have trimmed it. And as every gardener wishes to, I too am waiting eagerly to add more oregano plants to my patch.

Well folks, the aroma of my freshly crushed oregano flakes is simply unbeatable ! I haven't smelled such a lovely aroma in any store bought one... The beautiful aroma lingers for long on my hands and I very proudly go about getting all and sundry to smell my hands...