Let's Grow!

When reaching for the usual ingredients while cooking one day,  I found my garlic cloves were sending out shoots and not just one or two of them, entire pods! I don't know what it is about this batch of garlic but they really want to grow! Their urge to take root so strongly expressed, I kept aside one or two cloves to be potted.

Now I must mention that in the past I have attempted to grow garlic. We have two balcony spaces which house the potted plants where they get ample light and air.  On my previous attempt, the plant showed promise but soon wilted and then I didn't try again until I found these super fast growing ones!

Is it the moisture-laden weather that is causing them to grow ? or do they simply have more life-force-energy in them? ;) Don't know  the answer to that but I planted one clove in the spare planter that I had and I even gave some to a friend living in the building who grows plants and vegetables in her balconies.

Inspired by my own act of sharing, I'm now all the more enthused to go visit my neighbourhood nursery and get planters and soil to sow more garlic cloves.

I have watched quite a few tutorials on YouTube as to how to grow these herbs, and apparently you need to give the garlic enough depth and a couple of inches of space between the cloves for the garlic to grow. One youtuber did say that if you do closely space them, the only difference would be that they will be smaller in size, which was alright by her.

Let's see, I'm enjoying the sight of the young garlic shoots echoing the freshness and newness that monsoon brings. We face the south-west end of Borivali National Park and the hills are so lush and green with such a good rainfall this year, nearly everyday we are treated to the beautiful sights of misty clouds passing over the hills.

It has been perhaps over three years since I last posted on this blog. During this time I became a mother and life took a pleasant and completely new turn. I'm now back to drawing and painting and writing on my blog as well. My daughter Mila Norzom is now 3 and half years old and is quite the curious preschooler. But more on that later.

I will love to share how the garlic plants develop in future posts.

Happy Autumn Equinox!  Praying that we all find our peace here on this earth.

Love + light.

Plants on my mind

Lately I've been giving the flat a make-over or clean-over of sorts, just been feeling the need for freshness, to simply let go of stale energy and make room for the new and unexpected :-) I've been feeling the same way about our balcony-garden. It's not really a garden but that is how I like to think of it :-) We've got potted plants,  forming sort of a window-frame to the view outside.

I had been thinking of adding some new plants to the balcony, maybe some flowering plants, perhaps..I must admit to a curious habbit here, whenever I'm walking about, I will always look at people's flats and windows to see what kind of plants they've kept and how well maintained they are. A well-maintained  window-scape always impresses and inspires me.

A few weeks ago, I happened to be in bandra, lunching with some old friends whom I hadn't met in the longest time, and on my way to the restaurant I'd spied a nursery right at the curb of Pali market. So after lunch I requested my friend who would be giving me a ride home to come with me while I looked around in the nursery hoping to take some new green friends home. I took two plants that day, the succulent in the picture above and another flowering plant (whose names I don't know yet but only how to care for them).

The net in the picture is to keep the pigeons away, ever since we've gotten these stretched across the balcony, the balcony has been much easier to maintain and they offer protection to the plants  from the pigeons incessant habbit of picking at their stems and leaves.

Now that we've long since taken care of  the mess the pigeons were creating, (they are so peaceful otherwise) I love the way the space is slowly gaining character, each plant and knick-knack finding its place.

love + light always :-)

Monsoon reflections

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About a year ago I had bought this plant and the pleasant thing about it is that it starts to flower in the monsoon. Almost a week ago I spotted a clump of buds, with the flowers curled inside waiting to enter into the world. I knew it then, we were closer to the rains, and rain it did yesterday to the sound of children laughing and playing outside.

The beginning of monsoon also marks the beginning of new cycle for me, finally I have completed the first year of my Post Graduation Course in Buddhist Studies and to avoid sounding immodest I will simply say that I did pretty well. For me the real satisfaction lies in knowing that I did my best and I now look forward to working on my thesis for the coming year. 

In the meanwhile I've also been doing a lot of inner-work, reading, contemplating, its amazing how I'm intuitively lead to a site or a video on youtube or a book which had knowledge  that I was now ready to receive. For instance I only recently watched the film on Louise Hay's book, 'You can Heal your Life' although I'd first read the book in 2007. (Btw, I love to gift this book to friends and family and I always have a copy on my shelf ). 

I'm enjoying this journey challenges notwithstanding, I always ask myself , 'what was the lesson for me here?' The choice always lies with us, we can allow ourselves to become bitter or we can become better and for that we must all do our homework in this school of life :-))

I wish everyone a wonderful monsoon, may we be blessed by rainbows and may our lakes fill to the brim. May we feel renewed.

love + light + gratitude

Urban serenity

Hello! :-) Today I would like to share a few pictures of our resident Buddha, he is just over an inch in height. Sometime back I had placed him at the root of a potted ficus, in a symbolic gesture to invite Buddha delight and protection into our home. The little house I bought from 'Mitti', a store selling ceramic products at Versova road. Recently, my sis-in-law brought to my notice how it seems as if the Buddha is meditating outside his hut, I never thought of it that way, how lovely!

hope you enjoy this tiny landscape......peace and serenity to everyone!

may all beings be happy! :-)

love + light!

A jewel in this ocean of samsara

After having watered my plants I was busy getting on with my day, when while walking across the room, I saw the run-of water caught like a jewel in the leaf. This sudden gift of beauty reminded me of a conversation I had yesterday with a friend who is in the midst of intiating a public arts project ( my best wishes with her). We were discussing about the city, it's extremes, the contrasts, how we all battle with it on a daily basis. I spoke of Thich Nhat Hanh's gatha (verse), "In the garbage I see a rose, in the rose I see garbage...", meaning when you take out the trash you do it with the understanding that a rose can/will come out from it and when you see a rose you know that it too will wilt and turn to garbage.....I was hinting at seeing the contrasts around us, as being impermanent....changing, beauty turning to ugliness, that which is repulsive to beauty...but on reflection while I was alone I realized all this also questions the very meaning of what we consider as beautiful.

It will be interesting for me to see how I view this in future, my own relationship with the city is always changing, I try not to react, but it is there, all the chinks in the system....I try to be the change rather than expecting the city to change around me. I try.

All I know is a seeking mind can find beauty even in the mundane and be uplifted till the next mundane joy comes along.

Love & light!

Landscaping my balcony

I don't know if I have a green thumb, as they say but I love having plants around me. Blessed is a home that is full of vibrant plants. My yoga teacher's balcony is so organic, it is like a miniature jungle, and I was not surprised when a pair of purple-rumped sunbirds made a hanging nest among her creepers. Each class we could see and hear the chirpy little ones until one day the egg hatched and the baby flew away. Such positive energy!

May more and more people in cities fill out their windows, balconies, terraces and building compounds with helpful plants and trees!

wooden bird chime


ficus in a ceramic pot

happy little corner with pudina/mint in a polka-dot ceramic pot, money-plant which I intend to grow like a screen, small jade with a little Buddha scuplture which is not visible here and a hanging plant with three diffrently coloured flowering plants. It will be fun to see them grow :)

Love & light!