Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Landscape (Part 2)

 

Looking outside today..I haven’t seen a Fall Landscape as colorful as this year’s in all these years that I’ve been in the northeast. The leaves are still intact on the trees and colors so bright and I hadn’t realized that we are surrounded by Ash Trees all around.

 

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I had always thought that we had a lot of Maples around us..But the Maple trees, whose colors are bright too, are not as many as the Ash and haven’t been able to match up to it this year.

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The sweet gum is another beautiful tree with star shaped leaves and it never fails any year in providing the best of fall colors. Nothing compares the reds and purples  that show on this tree. It still falls way behind in its colors compared to the Ash this year.DSC_0961 (2)

The Willow looks so green and lushDSC_0612

And the Sycamore, which usually are not known for their fall color so bright and neon green.

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Fall is the time for Mums, and Pumpkins apart from the colors from the trees around.

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The cosmos during this time get so active and blooms a lot. Flowers so fresh.DSC_0238

The rose in my yard shares this feeling with their cosmos friends.DSC_0996 (2)

It is the time for the birds to migrate to warmer places. For them to move south.DSC_0517

So, its a common site to find huge groups of them on roof topsDSC_0545

and Trees.DSC_0570

And the pond near my home becomes a home to the migrating geeseDSC_0204

As I drove my kids to their activity today, we were awe struck as we came to an open field area and the whole sky from one end of the horizon to the other was studded with birds, all flying in one direction (obviously, south).  It was an amazing site.  I couldn’t close my mouth.  It took me a few seconds to park the vehicle to the side of the road.  Luckily, I had my camera with me..took another few seconds to get it out and when it was time to click..what happens?! It doesn’t work. By the time I could fix that.. the sky had cleared!! It was just a couple of minutes to get the camera working, and the sky was clear.  It felt like a mass exodus.

Its been more than a decade we’ve been living here and I hadn’t seen something like this before, I even have my camera with me..but some things are just not meant to be photographed I guess.. As I continued to drive, we came across another site shown below. Rows of birds waiting on the others to join them. Just seemed like such an active evening.

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Being born and brought up in a tropical country the sun, the heat, the sweat, seems welcome than the cold or snow.  Even with all this wonders of fall that we are surrounded with,  I cringe at the thought that winter is at the door step.

I do love the snow. We’ve spent quite a few days outside in the snow last year when it  snowed us in.

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We had created our snow man that year. It was a lot of fun. DSC_0427

We’ve had the opportunity to experience skiing or go tubing on a snow slopes. In fact, I’ve had the fortune of having skiing enthusiastic colleagues in the past, thanks to whom I was able develop my skiing skills on the slopes around here. By the end of that winter, I was able to ski on the intermediate slopes.

But, after a few days of all this fun…the cold does get on to me and I start to crave for the warm weather to set in.  This thing about the day getting so short as the end of fall comes, is so depressing! To see the sun set by 4.30 or 5pm in Nov is so dampening.  Thanks to the festival season and the decorative lights outside, it does  help in lightening the atmosphere a little bit. So, to beat this lack of sunlight and warmth, we try to gather people around more often to bask in the warmth of their company.

Most of my fall time is spent in preparing my yard for spring, planting bulbs. To emphasize my madness,  I had managed to plant hundreds of daffodils and muscari bulbs, even with my belly hanging out like a big big pumpkin, when I was pregnant with Richa. (Considering that Richa was born, 9 and a half pounds, that was a pretty big belly.).  I had planted rows of Muscari and Thalia ( A variety of the Narcissi), to replicate the look of the “River” at Keukenhof. I had succeeded a little bit at that, but the deer had a feast with all the tulips I had planted that year. Then, the next year, I got a little smart and I planted daffodils and the little tulips that I planted, I surrounded it with these cool bulbs, “The Fritillaries” . They did leave the tulips alone. I’ve yet to see who is going to outsmart whom this winter and the next spring. Will it be the year of the deer on the Palle yard or the year of Palle reclaiming their yard from the deer.

Being tropical at heart, I find a lot of affinity for the tropical plants too. So, I had started to collect some tropical plants a few years ago. Hibiscus, Jasmine’s (climbing and non), pseudo jasmines like “queen of the night” and some more and they have only increased with the years. All these have to come inside with  the weather. I even, try to save the gerbera’s and bring them inside so, I can have the same plant the next year.  This requires us to give up our living area generously..This year too, I had added a couple of different jasmine varieties so, the number of pots coming inside are going to go up. Now, I fear what Pavan would say…Maybe he’s going to ask me to make a choice between the plants or us at home

How will I be able to make that choice? That’s going to be so difficult.  Or maybe he’s going to tell me…

“Decide, if you are going to stay here or your plants”

Either way, I am planning on convincing him to keep me and my plants in my house. I will have to start repotting these tropical plants from the bigger containers to the smaller ones so, they can come in. So, next week I will be getting to that task and the task of putting some more bulbs into the ground.

Wishing myself and to all of you who are in the same shoes as me, …

Happy Digging !!!

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