garden bliss

Since we moved to our new place, we were living somewhere between total bliss and constant battle to get organized. It is definitely a challenge to keep up with the demands of huge house and garden but it is so worth it! The house is still “under construction”, we are continuously playing with furnishing and decorating all the rooms, but the garden is, finally, up and running. Anant, handy as he is, put up a lovely swing on one of the trees, we got some garden furniture and beach beds, and made the space “relax – ready”. It turned out to be perfect for all sorts of garden dos – from bbq to high tea, not to mention taking the Cat for his daily walks.

Other than that, it’s quite fun to discover all the plants and creatures around the house. It’s like our private version of Secret Garden. There are coconut palms and banana trees. We even had few monkeys, having their own garden party, while waiting for the fruits to ripen. Another thing I’ve learned is that bananas here grow to about the size of my forefinger. That’s the funny thing about fruits and veggies here- they make you feel like Alice in Wonderland after the “eat me” cookie. Lemons are the size and shape of limes while cucumbers can grow to the size of an arm, so, I guess, it’s only natural for bananas to be tiny.

In the front garden, there is chikoo tree, with the family of giant fruit-bats, and jack-fruit tree. Now, jack-fruits are very new to me. They are huge, kind of misshapen and spiky – like big, mossy stones. I have yet to try one – supposedly they are totally delicious but rather smelly. Then there are tiny humming birds, several health plants which I can’t tell apart and lemon grass, which we planted ourselves. We even had a ghost making mysterious noises every night, but it turned out to be a merry family of chipmunks nesting between ceiling and the roof.  

We still need to make watering the grass a part of our daily routine. I just hope we manage before it’s too late …