INDIA Part 1

Well here we are, back from India with a head full of stunning images and crafty ideas. My first Indian blog entry will be mainly about plants and animals.

We travelled through cities....(Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Jodphur and Udaipur) 

across open countryside and the Aravali Hills.

It was wonderful to see the people working their land by hand almost everywhere. The fields were small and manageable. There was plenty of sugarcane being harvested and we saw hand-drawn carts with a juice extractor worked by hand. This produced a sugar drink being sold on the streets.

The animals seemed to be well looked after, even the stray dogs and the loose cows. We were told that it was everyone`s responsibility to look after them. I must say it was strange to see cows tethered to the rails on a roundabout or watch cows stroll across the road with everyone making way for them.

 Even the Black-faced monkeys were fed with roasted chick peas from vendors at the temple entrances.

There is a charity for cows.....all the strays are fed and looked after.

We stopped to feed some on the way.

Here is a VERY simple scarecrow made from a curved stick draped with a cloth. It bears a remarkable likeness to a lady in a white sari.

Most water is drawn with electricity but we did come across this waterwheel in the Aravali Hills, being used to irrigate fields.

 At the Taj Mahal we did see quite a few interesting birds.

A beautiful owl surprisingly out in the daytime.

 An egret in the flowerbeds.

A hoopoe on the lawns.

And kingfishers by the entrance.

There were dazzling dahlias in the beds by the entrance so lovely to see in February.

In the grounds of the hotels we saw topiary elephants, well-manicured lawns and edges, beds full of annuals such as cosmos, calendula, verbena and osteospurnum.....such a treat.

Here is a great idea to keep sprawling annuals in place. You could even use coloured string.

I love this idea and may follow it up later in the season.

 

How beautifully simple is this idea.....rose petals and fragipani flowers picked from 

the gardens and fresh each morning.

We visited a farm in one of the Bishnoi villages in Rajastan.

Here is the farmer whose main worry is that his son is not interested in farming and wants a different kind of life.  The son had a brand-new motorbike and looked quite smart with his modern clothes and 

slicked-back hair.

 

This is the farmer`s daughter with his first grandchild, just 3 months old.

Their tiny garden in the compound. I`m not sure what is being grown.

 

Couldn`t resist taking this photo. Not sure I would feel too happy about climbing this ladder....seen outside the Bangla Sahib Sikh temple in Delhi.....trusting in God no doubt.