Turned 32

My dear ones arranged for a mid-night birthday cake and I had no idea they planned to surprise me, but I found it when my parents delayed to go to sleep even the time crossed 11 pm. My cousins residing in next street came with the cake minutes before to 12 and it was a small celebration of cutting cake by just six of us. It was a little moment of happiness to be share and I’m glad for them to turning it into special. Following is a collage on the moment :

Quick bath by babblers

The Yellow Billed Babbles visiting the birdbath has become regular, though I don’t check them out daily, I’m sure they are there almost every day and if not for bathing, at least to take few sips and forage on the gain we left on the compound wall. I hang a birdfeeder outside my home but these birds (and any other birds) ever took seeds or grains from it, perhaps the height or getting balance through the feeder keeps them away but babbles being mostly forage on the grounds with short flights expecting them to pick from feeder is not possible.

A bang usually marks the arrival of the babblers and the noise increases when they are near the birdbath. Yesterday a couple of monkeys came drinking water from the birdbath, scattered the grains all over after filling their mouths, the babblers were on the ground again to pick grains. The grains were kept on a plastic bowl and they didn’t touched it last few days, but now going on ground to pick from muddy.

Usually I take photos, but this time I also tried a short video on the birds with quick dips. Follows the video:

Linking this post with SATURDAY CRITTERS

Delete a Photo

One of the difficult things for me was to delete a photo. Taking photos isn’t pretty easy for me but the passion keeps me engaged and clicking while traveling in car is really difficult though I try my best taking clear photos, many go out of focus or shaken when in move. I know this is a normal thing to happen with normal people, but what matter was deleting those taken with great effort. I used to take many photos during my travel and back at home I had to filter/delete many photos that weren’t good to maintain space in laptop.

During the travel we capture many interesting places, moments and sight, but not everything comes under well focused and deleting it for some interruption is really difficult.  By this way I hold lot of photos and some were quite blur that no one could identify except myself who experienced the shoot and the picture continue to be a reminder of the moment or significant of the place or subject. We take random shots on things to be deleted, later keeping the good ones but the thing was coming to the term of deleting we continue to like the image for some reason.

Few such photos are here where I have no mind to delete. First one was cropped from a picture and i was impressed by the scene but it was gloomy and bit more grainy, so I applied oil paint. Second was doped in same, where the focus went wrong, instead on capturing the pretty colourful temple I only got blur as the focus went on steering. Not to forget it was drizzling outside. 

I ever over edit my photos or want to showcase what is not there and I believe editing of any photo works only if there’s something in the picture. I’m using Photoshop from very long time and my editing of photos always remain mild with brightness contrast, exposure, sharpening and reduce noise but these help hand only to a level. I just want to show how it really looked rather adding extra effects. Now I started to experiment with photos that went wrong and its really interesting to play with various filters which I don’t use mostly. 

A brief on my vacation

I’m back from the vacation two days before and it was indeed a wonderful trip/time except for couple of my cousins and aunt/uncle who couldn’t make up to the vacation. We spent 8 nights at my uncle’s woodhouse/cottage in the Kodai hills or half-kodai, what Thandikudi is called and it is one of the longest vacations I had in my life apart staying at our close relative’s house during school days. Unlike last year we planned this trip earlier due to one of my cousin’s college reopening but at last they postponed the opening, so we went along our family 3 days before my uncle/aunt (who owns the cottages) arrives.

A new woodhouse being build up by the uncle at the Serene Woods

As usual this time too (staying from my uncle’s woodhouse/cottages, the Serene Woods) I got to explore and experience some new place and routes to keep it interesting. By this travel I have covered all motor accessible roads to Kodaikanal, though it was a link road for about 35-40km, I felt  awesome taking  this road that take me through some pristine falls sight and  environment that many unaware about. I’m someone always look forward for something new and different even if the destinations were same to make my travel interesting. I explored couple of mountain villages taking a road less travelled, with scenic mountains and fascinating houses to view.

Winding though woods and forest

During my stay I visited the Berijam Lake, in the wildest part of Kodaikanal, after a gap of 8 years. I have been to the placid lake area couple of time in the past and I truly love the enriched natural environment of flora and fauna. We went through really a tough experience obtaining permission to visit the lake as it was in a protected area, though there wasn’t trouble in getting permission but we were a bit careless to become exhausted. Other day I was on my favourite road (Dindigul to Kumily) to visit a scenic village on the foot hills of Bodi aka Bodinayakanur and it was a popular shooting spot where the Tamil movies Kumki and Myna has been shot.

One of the scenic roads i traveled

I always prefer for a relaxed travel and plan according to it because I couldn’t over strain myself and I can’t check various places at a time. Thanks my uncle for building a woodhouse/cottage on the lap of mountains bestows me with abundance chances of exploring various places around the Kodaikanal, Dindigul and Theni regions. The woodhouse and cottages named as Serene Woods, is a fabulous place to stay and relax and enjoy nature at bay. Amid the woods I truly enjoyed having breakfast listening to the sound of birds unlike watching TV at home. It was blissful spending time with cousins at my favourite environment of woods and visiting places around. 

More on the vacation and travel later… 

Jacaranda at full bloom in Nilgiris

During my travel to Nilgiris, popularly known as Ooty, in April we were treated by the blue flowing trees at many places which was like giving an addition coat of blue to the Blue Mountains. The tree is widespread across the mountains, but we saw them in large numbers around the Coonoor and Wellington Cantonment.

Jacaranda tree bloomed at Wellington Cantonment

Jacaranda tree or Blue Jacaranda is an ornamental tree grows up to 18 meters and is popular for its clusters of fragrant purple trumpet shaped blossom that blooms from March to May. The blue jacaranda has been planted in almost every part of the world where there is no risk of frost; its bark is thin and grey-brown in color, twigs are slender and slightly zigzag in light reddish brown color.

This one was shot at Kundha on way to Manjoor town

The flowers are up to 5 cm long and are grouped in 30 cm panicles, appear in spring and early summer and last for up to two months. Each flower blooms with a five-lobed blue to purple-blue corolla and few species have white flowers. The fruit is an oblong to oval flattened capsule containing numerous slender seeds.

A   collage on Jacaranda around Coonoor and Wellington

There’s a city in South Africa called Pretoria and is popularly known as The Jacaranda City due to the enormous number of jacaranda trees planted as street trees and in flowering time the city appears blue/purple in color when seen from the nearby hills because of all the Jacaranda trees. 

Ps. Off  to mountains for a week... will post and check blogs once back from vacation.

Linking this post for Floral  Friday Foto