New idea for a stone bird bath

When I visited my elderly friend Sadanand's garden he showed me a beautiful rectangular stone bird bath.  There was even a Robin taking a dip at that time.   Instantly I dreamed of one in my garden since there were many granite stones lying around.  Soon, I inquired a stone smith for this project and was very disappointed when he quoted an exorbitant price for the job.  For a while I had dropped the idea.

Mrs. Yadugiri, an amazing old lady, a wonderful neighbour for more than five decades had to move out of town some years ago.  She had a green thumb and an avid gardener in her small yard.

Mrs. Y in 2007, when we visited her.  She left all of us in 2009.  

Before Yadugiri and her family left Mysore, she had given me a stone mortar which she used to grind material to prepare her 'traditional medicines'.  I kept this in the garden as a 'bird bath' and much to my joy, it found quick acceptance. 

A couple of Spotted Doves seemed to enjoy that.  This is a scene from my old garden.

A Magpie Robin was routinely taking a dip in it.

The stone trough brought from our old home had been planted with water lilies, another inspirational idea from the websites under 'water gardens'.  Koels, Mynahs, Doves and Pigeons had chosen this for their water requirement.  A male Koel is looking around if the ground was clear before bending to take its sip.

One fine day a brilliant idea struck on the lines of Sadanand's bird bath.  I thought why all the trouble of scooping out stone?  Why not build a little cement wall around to hold water on the stone?  Now I set about searching for a stone that was not suitable for anything else. An odd shaped triangular slab was chosen and almost immediately sat on the job that evening.

Set to cure.

Got it painted.

Our locality fortunately has some greenery and hence many birds thrive.  As my 'yarden' also has some greenery, they stop by.  The birds somehow find their water sources and they soon found one here. I had placed the bird bath strategically close to my room window so that I could observe from a close range. The birds are extremely sensitive.  They protect themselves by flying away at the slightest hint of danger.  So when I had to photograph, I had to open the mesh window, but had to be very careful not to make even any slight movement or sound.  I had to be absolutely still if I had to capture a picture from about 7-8 feet.

Some pictures:

The Great Tit is wondering about the low level of water!  I had failed to fill it to the brim.

The Female Sunbird is a rare dipper. Only once I saw it dipping in water, at least when I was around.

I had observed that the Robin and Bulbul liked a little more water even when it was brim-full. 

So I raised the brim as you can see here.  Red whiskered Bulbul enjoying.

This is a male Koel, sipping some water.

Crow pheasant, Robin, Koel and Bulbul in the above collage of pictures.

My idea of making such a bird bath was working fine. It is such a joy to see the birds, visit, look around if they are secure, feel and play in water, perch on something near it and dry their wings before flying off.  Some varieties drink but do not dip. Some only dip but do not drink.  Anyhow, it is a great boon to them esp. on warm days.  We will be doing our little bit if we provide some water source for these beautiful creatures that are so important to our ecology. 

In my next post, you will see my dream coming to fruition - the rectangular stone bird bath.

My flopped bird bath

My workplace is a heritage palace building.  There are pillared courtyards in it.  All the three courtyards have a fountain cum birdbath in the centre. One of them was right in front of my workplace door.  I have always admired this beautiful setting and dreamt of having at least a bird bath after the gardening bug had bit me.

This beautiful vintage fountain [Made in Glasgow] is not used regularly for reasons of water conservation.  Entry to birds to the courtyards were blocked with mesh since many decades because of their disturbance in various ways.

When internet first arrived, I had seen pictures of bird baths on Dave's Garden and also on a site called 'Better Homes and Gardens' .  Many gardeners across the world had installed bird baths in their gardens.  I too wanted to have one.  There were many impressive DIY [do it yourself] projects that were simple and beautiful in the latter site.  I did make one myself from one such DIY project, from junked items.

See this rare picture I had captured.  Rare because I think this must be the only time when a bird, a Robin here had got on it!  I was so happy to capture an image as I was out in the garden with my new camera at that time!  Can you read the disappointment writ large in the Robin's posture and expression?

This project turned out to be an utter flop and that Robin confirmed it!  I came to know later that the birds do not get attracted to glitter but prefer the rustic and natural settings.  The steel plate I had used was very shallow too!  All I did was clean and replace new water often, thus exposing the shiny plate!  This worthless exercise went on for sometime and then I put it away, disgusted.

I looked for fresh ideas while I just watched the birds chirp around happily in the yard.  But I was determined to provide water for the birds' welfare.

My Gardening Story - 3

What has photography got to do with gardening?  Find out!

My passion in Photography, among my other hobbies, was to take shape.  When I saw pictures shared by others on Dave's Garden I was tempted to take my pictures with my film camera, but uploading was a cumbersome process for me [at workplace].  Generous help came from my colleague's husband, Mr.Thomas.  He was aware of my love for plants.  When I told him about DG, he offered to lend his Sony Mavica digital camera for a day or two whenever I required to take images.  I was on Cloud 9.  It was one of the earliest models that recorded images on a 1.44MB floppy disk. Some flower images I captured with it in that early stage when there was plenty of variety in my garden drew some audience!  I am profoundly thankful to Mr.Thomas for such an encouragement.  In fact, he became an important link in the long chain in the events that followed.

DG's plant database provided invaluable information to gardeners around the world and my pictures added value to it.  The database had got popular worldwide.  Despite the images having limitations [due to available technology at that time, only 10 years ago!] people used to express their appreciation of the few images I used to share.  One day Mr.Thomas informed the bad news that his Sony had been spoiled by some neighbour who had borrowed. In the meanwhile, newer things had already begun to take shape.

My garden in 2005, taken with Sony Mavica.  I was so happy with this quality at that time!

I had uploaded this to the database.  I was so thrilled!  

2006 was a year that brought about many changes.  My cyberslacking was no longer a secret among fellow gardeners on DG and even many 'understanding' colleagues.  So also, about my borrowed Sony.  A kind elderly DG member, Mr.George, sent me his small Emprex Digital Camera [DC] that he did not need.  It became my first DC!  My neighbourhood friend Sathish who came from the US at that time carried it for me.

Shortly afterwards, a lady DG-er, Kim from Pennsylvania, United States worked out a plan without my knowledge, to send me a Fuji which turned out to be a wonderful 'upgrade' to Emprex.   Kim had seen my pictures and wanted to gift me.  This time, I had requested my old friend Kashi who was coming down from Chicago to bring it for me. So Kim had sent it to Kashi.

George's Emprex on the left, Kim's Fuji [FinePix A120] on the right, posing for me!

Around the same time, a kind elderly lady Ursula from Chile, South America had already secretly planned something for me. She was half way round the Earth and not familiar to me at all, except for an earlier occasion when she had collected my address and sent me a wonderful packet that contained numerous varieties of seeds.  I came to know later that she had done it to many others as well, in acts of generous giving.  It is unfortunate that none of the seeds germinated well enough to survive.  Ursula later wrote that she was following my posts and pictures. As was her wont, wanted to do something to 'better me'.

Fuji was taking good pictures. It went kaput after a long service.

Ursula's e-mail in my inbox one day was to change many things.  I did not know what to do after reading it.  She wrote that Dave and team had earlier permitted her to go about in the 'Dinu Project' [completely without my knowledge] and that a whopping sum of $1000 was collected!  Her main intention was to present me with a good digital camera as she loved whatever scenes and descriptions I posted in the discussion forums.  There was appreciation of my pictures from many members but she went one step ahead.

I later learnt that Ursula had earned a very fine reputation among gardeners and that there were many recipients of her wholehearted generosity.  We exchanged e-mails.  She expressed her physical condition and also the various situations when luck had betrayed her. It was really touching that such a kind-hearted person was so much tormented by life.  It is natural in the usual course to doubt actions like these from strangers, but her honesty, sincerity and affection were writ all over her mails.  What a human I thought!

Ursula lives close to the Andes Mountain Range.  Despite her arthritis among other things, she collected many plant seeds from the mountain slopes, sorted, packed, labeled and had sold online.  Her 'Dinu Project' found overwhelming response, much beyond her expectations.  Now she made me accept this gift from her effort.  Decision to accept was very tricky.  But I did it on my own condition that this is going to be a 'pay forward' thing, which found Ursula's liking. This chapter of my story will remain incomplete till the condition gets fulfilled.  I will revert and write here whenever that happens to 'complete the cycle'.  Kashi had also carried this thousand dollar cheque along with Kim's Fuji. 

Since the amount was that much, Ursula suggested me to buy a PC!  After getting some inputs from another kind friend Kimberley in Ohio, I chose the PC and got it assembled.

There was some balance left from it, enough now for a digital camera, which in fact, was Ursula's main intention. Another kind friend Ashok guided me to his friend Murali who was on a business trip to US.  He was kind to agree, buy and bring.  After reviewing many models on the Web, Panasonic Lumix FZ8 was chosen and Murali was let known.  This was also just right for the available budget.  He brought it to Bangalore and my cousin Ravi picked it up for me.   I collected it during my visit to his parents' house soon afterward.

Panasonic FZ8 just opened from the box.  Took the shot with Fuji.

My sincere thanks all those who came in this 'chain', particularly this Angel! I have no proper permission to share this picture:

An old picture she sent from Santiago, Chile.  She taught me the joy in 'giving'.  She made me receive! 

This changed the way I lived.  It changed my outlook, opened new pastures and naturally the way I 'gardened'.  Such exceptionally noble acts can move many a heart.  That this Angel is unavailable for communication is a matter of concern to many on DG.  But I learn that she is not having proper access to the internet where she is now living [after she moved her apartment, building her own, using eco-matarials near the hills] and I hope she is okay and all we can do is pray for her well being.

Internet connectivity that naturally followed its way to our house also was to alter our routines. Despite that, my cyberslacking was unaffected!

In another instance of kindness and generosity on DG, among several, was when another kind lady Debi [from Massachusetts] simply sent my daughters some Barbie Dolls and a lot of little knick-knack gifts - the huge parcel brought so much joy to all of us. She later said she loved kids!  She had sent me some day lily bulbs too.  They bloomed two seasons and could not survive the tropics.

In yet another instance, the DG  team itself, sent me the new DG T-shirt.  Self-shot image for this post:

You must be wondering why I have named as 'Dinu's Yarden'.  I love this word 'yarden'. It was my Chinese friend Jianhua, also on DG who is to be credited for this new word: Yard + Garden! He is a very talented and dedicated school teacher in China and a very enthusiastic gardener.  What a wonderful person!  When I informed him about this, he was kind to allow me to use this picture.

Don't miss the DG T-shirt Jianhua is also proudly wearing.

DG also has brought about many friendships across continents.  It brought one Kenton from the US, here to "My Eden".

Camera and Computer became important e-tools that brought out many latent things out of me.

Self-posing

There came another new website called "Cubits".  One American gardener Nancy wanted to interview me for her article in that site.  It was for her 'Spotlight' series.  It was fun to answer some questions.
Here it is. [click]

When my other posts follow, the photography aspect that I mentioned at the outset, will get shown.  But here is a collage showing the tip of the iceberg to end of final and Part 3 of the 3-part series.

My Gardening Story - 2

Time was ripe in 1998 to move out into the large house built between 1910-12 by my great grandfather at Lakshmipuram.  The tenant that lived for 47 years had not utilized the yard space around it to its best.   My exposure to shrubs and trees and the joyful experience of having soiled the hands and feet with earth at Chamarajapuram was to keep me in good stead for more work to do and with more freedom now.  Like this:

Sweeping huge leaves of Almond Tree that sheds them twice a year.

Computers were soon to change the way  almost everything functioned.  The digital era was blossoming.  It was July 2001.  Internet connectivity to my work place had just arrived and even within my reach. E-mails were already familiar and film cameras were giving way to digital cameras.

It so happened that around the same time I had an urge to list down plants and trees that grew in the yard, just to count the number.  I knew not whatsoever their real names were.  My exposure to Botany in 12th class was way inadequate.

My zeal to know the botanical names of plants around left me wondering where to search and how to go about?  Aid came in the form of the Head of the Gardening Section in my workplace, Mr.Yadava Rao. He recommended "Complete Gardening in India", a book considered as a Bible to gardeners and authored by the renown K.S.Gopalswami Iyengar.  Since he  referred this huge book often, he had 'permanently borrowed' from our office library.  Mr.Rao was kind enough to lend it whenever I required. That was the starting point in the identification process because I could actually find 'my plants' in it.  

I could now put names to my plants. My listing.

That was not enough.   I also turned to the web and 'googled' to find clues in databases of various sites.  I learnt so much more in this process.  

In my e-searches, a particular website was showing up often.  It was DAVE'S GARDEN - DG in short.

Familiar header I see everyday!  See the slogan.

Plant database was not the only thing.  I discovered that discussions about them also went on. And much more.  I was drawn to the discussion fora, like a bee to a flower.  I signed up instantly. It did not take long to realize that I was amongst a most helpful, knowledgeable and magnificent group of people.... that also gardened!  Dave Whitinger was the man behind this and I was #2747th member to sign up.   Instinctively I chose my screen name, the same what people call me.

Dave had not dreamt, that eleven years on, that the number of members would be an astronomical figure.  DG is now a world-wide phenomenon among gardeners.  He had only intended as his own garden journal and plants database.  This DG was a wonderful thing, in toto.

  

With no computer at home, I was 'cyberslacking'.  DG  had soon become addictive to the extent of having even dreamt of Dave once!. I called it 'Dave-dreaming'. Dave responded when I informed about it saying he was honoured!

I had now started to improvise on my own 'plant diary' with little diagrams.

DG's popularity had shot up vertically and there came a stage when Dave had to ask for subscriptions.  I am profoundly grateful to the "Garden Angels" which has since kept me on gift subscriptions with such generosity that can be called 'human'. I am stuck to DG like chewing gum!  I have learnt many aspects and even types of gardening, leave alone the names of plants and trees, but of insects, weather, temperature zones and a host of other things as well, almost from nought, just by involving and interacting in some discussion fora.

Seed trading was another beautiful activity on DG.  Gardeners love to spread the seeds far and wide and love to see a green world.  My first seed trade was with the young Evert Nylund of Finland. He was a very talented boy, just 14 and knew about plants like a veteran!  It is a great thrill to see seeds from other parts of the world growing here.  Some thrived and many failed to germinate which disappointed me. But I learnt my lessons in asking for seeds. I realized I was over enthusiastic.  I put brakes to my 'want list'.

Because of DG, my shelf got filled with containers having seeds from my own garden and trade packets! I started collecting them for giving away.  My Clitoria double blue was a great hit.

I used to meet an old Anglo Indian lady by name Mrs. Brown. She was fond of plants. No sooner than her old BiL died, she suddenly left the house to live with his son. This happened in 1988 and I did not get to know about her again. I've a blogpost on "Browns" [click to go there].  I cherish a couple of plants she gave me in 1985. A Geranium also lived for many years.  I show two of them from her garden, still in my garden.

Football lily

Viola odorata - a small plant.

DG helped me discover that gardening is one of the holiest and sacredest of hobbies. Every minute you spend, digging, sowing, transplanting, cleaning, nurturing, pruning, watering, composting or just sitting amidst the plants, observing the colour and greenery can be a divine experience.  You will have colourful and curious insects to observe, pests to bother and lovely birds and butterflies to entertain too. I'll tell more about the bird bath in a separate post and what a joy it is to see the birds play in water!

I created this board from an old wooden plank.  I would not have done if I had not seen the fora at DG.  New ideas propped up.  What was possible was thrown light upon.  DG gave rise to another DG, half way round the earth. See:

 I have also blogged about it in my 'junk blog'. [click]

This quote by Sir George Bernard Shaw impressed me. I painted it for display in 'my garden'.  I have found out that digging [for/in] the garden is divine!

Two of my favourite tools that help me 'seek God' in my garden!

 It was a more or less bare front yard when we moved.  It was like this in the following picture of 1999.  See the wide foot path outside and a Mysore Tonga happily passing by. Sparse traffic, road not yet widened. 

I started in my own layout plan to grow plants. Note the median in the road now.  Most of the foot path was also eaten by the road 4 years later.

My 'greening' efforts was soon successful.  A pond came in there later.  There will be a separate post on ponding.

DG was to become the launchpad for my interest in Photography also.

Continued in Part 3 of 3 .....[Click].

My Gardening Story - 1

I lived in our old house for my first 40 years in Chamarajapuram, an old locality.  I will begin with this place and then take you to "My Eden", at the now century old ancestral house in neighbouring Lakshmipuram where I later shifted.  The story will be a 3-part serial. 

.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

Our house had open spaces on all four sides having trees of mango, rose apple, jackfruit, coconut [six old and tall ones], pomegranate, bitter lime, guava, hibiscuses, Champaka, Parijata, yellow rose, flowering shrubs like Barleria, Taberneamontana, Oleander, rain lilies, some varieties of Jasmine, etc. 

Let me show a few pictures I captured before we vacated the house in 2008.

 Jackfruit tree which I climbed only once or twice.

 Rose Apple Tree which I used to climb.

Mango Tree I did not venture to climb since a branch was reachable from the asbestos roof.

As a very young kid, I used to watch my grandmother water the plants. The old rubber hose pipe had to be connected to the nearest tap which was in the latrine on the opposite side of the large house, through the window.  The pipe could reach only up to the first few plants.  The gradual slope in the yard took the water to the bases of all the plants further down along the groovy path made in the soil. I used to enjoy the water stream along, often clearing blockages caused by little twigs and dry leaves. Later, I floated my paper boats in this narrow stream and had great fun.

Water gushed out of taps with high pressure necessitating securing the hose to the tap tightly with a thread.  Even that got pushed away at times and we had to run in to fix it again!  Those were great days in the 1960s when stoppage of municipal water during daytime was unimaginable news.  It was as good as 24x7.  Storage tanks or big containers were neither needed nor even existed.  There used to be a loud 'whooosh' when it was released at about 4 every morning, which also alerted us that someone had failed to close back the tap at night when it used to be stopped for a few hours.

Water was definitely sweeter.  So my grandfather always said 'sihineeru', meaning 'sweet water'. Water was directly potable from the tap itself. There were no water filters either.

Fifty years on, this tool, the little hand-rake remains a favourite, despite a missing 'finger'.

Neither pests nor weeds bothered much in the garden.  The hairy caterpillars were a nuisance only during the rainy season. Ants also did not pose a big problem.  We had seemingly perpetual monkey menace in our locality.  If you just thought 'today the monkeys were not here..', presto, they would appear!  They left a small share of jackfruit, rose apple, pomegranate and guava for us.  But they made us tense when they went up the tall coconut trees for having their drink.  They sometimes would leave the empty nut on a frond and climb down.  We were afraid if the wind made the nut fall on the neighbour's tiled roof on which two trees overhung!   Watching their antics through the kitchen window was great fun.  My favourites were the youngsters. They broke branches and sometimes entered the house also in search of food. They also damaged young plants by running over, much to our chagrin.

A distant relative of our visitors, taken near Pashchimavahini, Srirangapatna

The southern yard was somewhat wild.  Sometimes, the castor plant would grow as a volunteer.  Growing castor by will was taboo.  Volunteer plants were accepted!  In summer, I used to watch from the room window the seed pods explode every now and then.  I used to sit for study beside it for its clear view of the neighbour's yard which was our little playground!  There is an Aegle marmelos tree in their otherwise bald yard where I enjoyed watching the squirrels chasing each other or mynahs making their many calls or hoopoes looking for insects.

[Pic from Wiki]

Hoopoe, with its long beak and peculiar head feather was amusing to watch!  They have become rare now.  I was also fond of watching the sparrows which happily nested in crevices inside our house.  They would often noisily chirp around looking for food which they got abundantly in the form of seeds and grains. Cawing of crows early in the morning indicated dawn hour.

Only those that are inclined to Gardening and Nature develop such an interest to enjoy. I was to know later that gardening was in me!

Green thumb:

It was my mother who had recognized that I had a 'green thumb'.  When something needed to be planted or transplanted, she would often refer me for such jobs.  She would say in simple terms: 'give it to him, let him plant, it grows nicely.'  I could only correlate  this when I heard the phrase 'green thumb' long later when I joined a gardening website of which you will know in the next part.

My earliest sowing:

The first flower seed I sowed was Cosmos which someone in the neighbourhood gave.  I think it was my friend Rajendra who lived in the opposite house.  It was in the small space behind the white structure [Tulasi katte - Holy Basil for worship] seen in the following picture.  This is the front right yard.  Also in the backyard, I remember sowing seeds of bean, observing their growth and also eating the bean. It was exiting to match what I studied in class.

[Seen here are brother and his friend, 1969 picture, just to show the area]

This is a picture of the same place.  Notice the same Tulasi Katte.on the left.  A room came up in 1975.  The small area where you see plants is where I actually started to grow plants and felt like a 'gardener'.  This was in the early 80s.  Since I had left the place earlier in to my new abode, this piece of garden is seen unattended. 

A little introduction to gardening was already in our text book of 4th class, but I had completely forgotten. When an old classmate visited me more than 40 years later, I was so happy to be fingering through those chapters again!  Look here!

There was a line of plants of Peacock flower along the compound of our school.  We primary school children believed if a bud spike of this was kept in our books for some days it would produce kitten! 

For my 12th class Botany, I had made a nice collection of plant specimens mounted in a book.  This was in great demand among my classmates. Someone borrowed it during our exam time but never returned.

I knew that gardening was in me.  It blossomed when I was old enough to start digging the earth.  It took colours much later when the internet arrived!

I could not have thought or done what I did esp. in the garden because of the good fortune of having some greenery around the house, which was the result of my forefathers' hard earned savings.

The great satisfaction of making the garden in our Chamarajapuram house green was with me.  I moved over to my now 100-years old ancestral house in 1998 that had become vacant from tenancy.  It was another large area to maintain!  So, let's go over to a more eventful Part 2 and see what I did to the yard space at Lakshmipuram.

Go over to Part -2. [Click]