Joys of gardening

Summer is here finally! I long for the sunny days all though chilly, windy winters. This time is definitely fun, all the more so because I have a backyard now in our new house where I can connect to the earth, doing work planting, nurturing plants, watching them grow-this is the stuff I love to do. I can just sit and savor with my eyes the blooms around me. I can say nature is therapeautic.

I have sowed some seeds for vegetables, hoping I can grow them organically. There are some bright pink roses erupting with all their color in our backyard. The purple colored osteospermums in the front yard have already did their turn this season in flowering; it took me a while to notice them, as they were already planted when we moved into the house and I was then too busy to notice the beauty! I have planted some pink Mexican primroses, which I had borrowed from someone; they have already died but are supposed to revive aplenty from the ground.

I have just begun, and I am so looking forward to a full summer of garden love:)

Decodaquote

I am addicted to solving the daily newspaper puzzles. The decodaquote is my favorite. In this puzzle you have to solve a jumble of letters to reveal words that make the quote. Some quotes are really great. I remember a few of these notable ones:

I saw an angel in the marble and carved until I set him free. Michelangelo

Some people have money and some people are rich. Coco Chanel

Vegetarian is an old Indian word for a lousy hunter!

No politician in India has the courage to say that cows can be eaten. Indira Gandhi

A thousand splendid suns

A thousand splendid suns is the second novel by Khaled Hosseni who has earlier written the Kite Runner (I liked the movie better than the novel). It is the story of how ordinary lives have been torn apart by the turbulent state of affairs in Afghanistan and this novel tells us that it is the woman who ultimately suffers the most. A mother losing her children to war, a single woman left all alone to fend off for herself, atrocities on women in pro male society, illetracy among women. But then this is the same woman who carries on living with a hope in her heart that she clings on to and weathers through her difficulties. It is the simple things in life that brings her cheer like the birth of a child or like the longing for a child.

Its a great book that I could not put down. It is a heartbreaking story mostly but carries a lot of hope. So much hope and faith in God that the family who suffered so much and left the country, came back to Afghanistan when the Taliban were ousted. I have to mention that the descriptions of the cooking of the kebabs , shorwa and tandoori roti made my mouth water all the time as I read along! That writers have an eye for details and describe so attentively the mundane things is very endearing.

To bee or not to bee

"The power of mind is to perceive differences and the power of heart is to perceive similarities."

The above line is from the book- To bee or not to bee, an inspirational book by John Penberthy that I read today. It is a small book with lots of drawings and quick to read in just under an hour. It tells the story of a young bee whose mind is full of questions and is looking for answer to the biggest mystery of life-the why of it all and why he has to "bee". It is this quest that takes him to a journey towards understanding of life as it is. Things may not seem perfect as they are but as the quote from the book says- perfection is a state of mind and not a state of affairs. The book tells beautifully how to look at life from a spiritual perspective and how everything is connected by a Universal Force. A beautiful read to refresh your moods!