Flatlay (my first) – Green with envy

As the weekend approaches, I tend to take things easy. In terms of my blog I feel Tuesdays are for introspection and Thursdays for fun, frolic, fashion! I’ll see how long this feeling lasts! Hmph!

About flatlay – I have seen some bloggers doing this and just LOVED it! I so want to do OOTDs but don’t have the guts yet. Flatlay is the next best thing! You can show off your clothes + accessories without the tension behind that perfect OOTD….here’s my mini flatlay attempt!

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Top from Rockmans / Earrings & Bangle from Lovisa

*lame joke alert*

Are you green with envy?

LOL

A tour of MIL’s garden – Part 3 – Winter blooms

In my childhood, I remember having a small paarijatha (coral jasmine) tree just outside the window. It was a revered one, where the flowers were plucked and offered to God. We weren’t allowed to touch it with dirty hands, throw stuff at its base. It was all very pious. The flower has a sweet fragrance that I can still smell sometimes, when caught up in memories. It was small and dainty – 4-5 white petals and with a coral/orange stem. It was the most beautiful flower I knew after sampige (magnolia champaca).

After we moved into an apartment, flowers were purchased from the local markets on some occasions and I forgot what greenery in the house looks like? Yeah, we had relatives who had big trees, plenty of plants but it wasn’t something that I gave much thought to. I remember having to cut down giant trees to make the house bigger to accommodat the growing number of people. I remember watching our neighbours cut down big and shady trees that have been around for 30-40 years and never blinked.

When I moved to my husband’s home, the first thing my MIL showed me was probably the garden. I was so amazed. In fact, gardens are such an important part of the houses here. Practically everyone had huge, I mean HUGE gardens and they were all so proud of them. They had vegetables (chillies and brinjals anyone??) figs, apples, lemons, mandarins and oranges apart from beautiful and varied flowers. I was surprised. Oh! Not to forget, some of them had strawberries! I never knew you could grow strawberries at home. I only know of buying them at a premium from high end grocers in Bangalore.

I can go on and on about these surprises but then enough nostalgia huh?

Remember my previous post on my MIL’s garden? Her winter garden is coming to life and its so amazing to see. From where I have positioned my laptop, I can see a big tree with pink flowers, they are beautiful. Parrots…yes, THE parrots visit them everyday and its one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. The last 5-6 weeks, I have tried so hard to capture them on camera. But the moment I open the door, they fly high up into the tree that my man-made pair of lens are insufficient to capture nature’s beauty.

My hubby and I have planned a visit to the botanical garden this Sunday and that should give us more beautiful shots. Well…fingers crossed!

Beauty among the greens

Beauty among the greens

Roses are never far away

Roses are never far away

That shade of pink is gorgeous!

That shade of pink is gorgeous!

Who knew cacti can be this beautiful?

Who knew cacti can be this beautiful?

Pink n purple - my fav combo!

Pink n purple – my fav combo!

Apples!  Okay, I cheated. That one's from my SIL's garden but home-grown apples...yumm yummm!

Apples!
Okay, I cheated. That one’s from my SIL’s garden but home-grown apples…yumm yummm!

See Part 1 and Part 2 

A tour of my MIL’s garden – Part 1

Welcome!

Right in front of the house, these add beauty like no other

Right in front of the house, these add beauty like no other

These birds visited the apple tree this year too!

These birds visited the apple tree this year too!

Yellow roses :)

Yellow roses 🙂

Inverted flowers, never seen these before

Inverted flowers, never seen these before

Beauty!

Beauty!

Beauties

Beauties

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Grapes galore

Figs :)

Figs 🙂

Jasmines

Jasmines

To be continued….