Thursday, July 16, 2009

Castles in the air

Ok, I don't really want a castle. A medium sized cottage would be fine.

And around that medium sized, cosy, comfy cottage, I would have-

a mango tree
low branches, green leaves turning brown in the autumn, flowers strewn on the ground, kanni maanga for Vishu and for homemade pickles, and lots of ripe mangoes to pluck as well as pick.

a neem tree
a wonderfully healthy breeze all round the year, a swing for me and Sonny boy, that lovely noise of swaying, swishing leaves, and helpful armful to all those chicken poxers (!)

a jackfruit tree
ok, this one is just cos it used to be there in my Mom's ancestral house, and also because it was great fun to make spoons of their leaves and spoon kanji and chammandi. Ate with it once with gusto from a friend's place while at college and have loved that experience. So maybe one day when the husband and I are old, and I'm too lazy to wash spoons, I can go out a pluck a coupla leaves and have a meal to relish.

a banana tree
for all those fresh glistening leaves to eat your meal from, for the bunches of plantains, for the delight of cutting a straight line thru the leaf, for cutlets from the stalk, the kaambu and the koombu...

2 palm trees
I can hardly be a mallu without these around my cottage, can I? Brooms, dish scrubs, tender coconut water, coconut curries, coconut toffee...what all things to make form it.. truly a kalpavriksha! Of course I can do without the fuel for those old fireplaces.

And these flowering plants
a jasmine creeper,
a few hibiscus plants...
that orange creeper that's a feast for the eyes in B'lore during the season- dunno what its called

And these for the veggie garden
tomato, curry leaf, mint, chilli...

And a dog to run amuck around all these and make me scream in mock despair....

Sigh! Time to wake up (to realities), shut down, pack up and go home to Sonny boy.
Ciao, good people!

*popping back for a second* what's your tree wishlist??

7 comments:

Praveen said...

haha :)

indha endha tag aano chechi?? :)

Scattered Thoughts... said...

Huh!! Leave the trees.. what about guest room.. where will we stay when we are there???

Collection Of Stars said...

Me too...me too.
When we were young, we used to stay in the HAL quarters (my grandpa worked there) and we had this very small house surrounded by a big garden. My grandma had most of these trees and plants that you have mentioned here :)

Sunita Venkatachalam said...

God I'm not a green person at all, although mango and jackfruit are on my list too. But to be honest I don't hanker after large houses or gardens around them.

Maybe a farmhouse that I would visit every weekend And in that farmhouse, there would be a Rufus, a chocolate Lab.

Rufus belongs to the sweet gardener, who maintains the place, and his equally sweet wife maintains the house and cooks yummy food from the fresh produce when we visit.

And there'd be a huge library and a tennis court (for hubby) and a swimming pool for the kids and all this would be located near a hill of some sort but still only an hours drive from Bangalore.

Ok Ok I better get back to work as well.

aMus said...

sigh...

a house on the hills with mist and lots and lots of nature and close to teh city and and awesome weather...

do you know its so damn hot out here, i feel i'm in a sauna..WAIL!

Just Like That said...

Praveen: Feel free to take it up. :-)

ST: Oh, we will definitely make place for you and Neha..:-)

CoS: I know what you mean..My love for neem has come from the colonies in TN that Dad used to stay in.. so many trees lining the road in the middle, with houses on either side.. Heaven! Sigh! and each house with enough plants/trees to fill the small backyard... sigh!

Poppy: ROFL! Rufus, huh? I need to pick out a name for my dog!

Suma: there, there! What happened to the ac???

aMus said...

oh the ac's perfect...but then we have been spoilt by singapore's green and walking paths :)