Full width of the Tule Tree (Image credit: Gengiskanhg, Wikipedia)

Aspen grove (Image credit: scottks1 [flickr])

Axel Erlandson underneath one of his arborsculpture (Image credit: Wilma Erlandson, Cabinet Magazine)

Banyan tree (Image credit: Diorama Sky [flickr])

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Here’s another bit of my nature watching stuff.

And then came the day, when I met wise ol’ Mr. Owl in my cycle shed. He sat there sternly like a teacher with his disobedient students. He seemed to be sleepy all the time for he never opened his eyes wide or round. Mr. Owl was tall and bright with his eyes peering out to see the lighted world. He was in my shed from morning to evening and of course the shed was stinking when he flew away.

Most of the evenings, we go to the terrace for some bird watching. We lie on the terrace looking up at the sky. And then comes my favorite – the eagles (Not the band)! We see two or three eagles circling high up in the sky, searching for their prey. If they don’t find something, they go to one of the many coconut trees to rest. The eagles have their nest on a huge mango tree nearby. As the trees in our neighboring compound make it like a forest, they have no problem in catching their prey. They feed on snakes and rats. I have seen then soaring up into the sky and swooping down at their prey. Sometimes, we could see snakes dangling from their claws as they go back to their nests. These eagles have a white neck and a brown body. The sound that they make is almost like mewing. Most of the time we watch them as they sit on the huge coconut trees, while the crows circle around them making a big fuss.

As we come to the end… I’d like to thank you for all the kind comments. And keep on waiting as I will try to keep on writing

B-bye everybody

Here is the next bit of my previous post…

In our compound there are three big mango trees, many coconut trees and other different plants. Our neighboring compounds too are full of plants and trees. As a result, many varieties of birds come all around us. I have seen pigeons, sparrows, cuckoos, mynahs, white cranes, humming birds, kingfisher and other unknown (to me) kinds of birds. Even migratory birds come here.

In a headless palm tree, a woodpecker had made its nest in the hollow trunk. I have seen the baby woodpeckers sticking their tiny heads out of the hollows crying for their mammas. But this tree was so weak that it kept swaying in the wind and the woodpecker family had to move.

We have some plants with big leaves. On one of these plants, my mother saw a tailor bird working on its nest. On seeing this amazing sight she called me immediately. When the tailor bird saw us looking at it, it flew away and never came back. Two leaves had been sewed together so neatly with a white tread like thing that I thought someone may have helped it.

In the evening and in the mornings, I have seen baby bats flying about. They zoom around so fast that they seem like black miniature jet planes. Sometimes, when we play badminton, these bats come and distract us. They hang upside down on the branches above us. Maybe it is playtime for them from 6 pm to 6 am. That is their day time.

To be continued…

Bye,

Rupashri

As I’ve told you before, I have always loved nature watching. We have a tiny lawn where I run about to catch tiny dragon flies and butterflies. Even though I have caught two or three of these I’ve got to admit that it is very hard catching them. They are very swift and never sit still when I get close to them. Once I caught a grass hopper – a tiny green soft little thing. It tickled my palm by jumping all over trying to get out of my fist. I held my fist very loose as I didn’t want to hurt it.

Once I watched a caterpillar for a few days. I wanted to see its cocoon and also as a butterfly. It grew up from a tiny little one to as big as my middle finger and much fatter than it. I had put a net over the plant on which it was helping itself to the delicious leaves. The net was for keeping the caterpillar on that plant itself; or else it would be a tough job searching for it elsewhere. It had a lush green shade and tiny little spikes. I even saw it munching on the leaves very fast. One fine morning when I thought the caterpillar was about to make its cocoon I found out that the net had been blown away by the mean ol’ wind and a mean ol’ crow had swept down and eaten my precious little caterpillar. That was the end of my caterpillar watching.

Talking of crows, there is a crow’s nest on our mango tree. Sometimes when we go to the terrace, the ugly black crows try to attack us. This is because they have their precious eggs or babies in their nests, and they are afraid that we might steal them.

I love birds. Watching parrots as they fly about swiftly in the air with their sharp voices ringing behind them reminds me of my wish to fly. I love watching those green feathered birds as they nibble at their food with their bright red beaks. Oh Yes! Once I saw a parrot on my neighbors terrace walking with ease from one branch to another of a flowering tree plucking the pink flowers one by one and dropping them down. The mischievous little parrot plucked almost every one and left only three for our neighbor. It was hard to imagine our neighbor’s face when she comes to collect the flowers and would find every flower lying on the terrace. I couldn’t control my laughter. Heh! Heh!

There’s still more to come on this very subject. I’ll post the rest later. Well, I do really hope you enjoy reading every bit of it.

-Rupashri

As I have told you earlier, after reading Ruskin Bond’s Children’s Omnibus, I joined Rusty in “Rusty’s Adventures” (another book by Ruskin Bond). Then I made friends with ‘Swami and friends’ in “Malgudi Schooldays” (R. K. Narayan). Poor Swami, always getting beaten by the teacher.

Yesterday, I started on the “Mystery of the Disappearing Cat” and today, I finished it. It was really an exciting book and I was surprised to find who the “Cat Thief” really was. Today, I am reading “The mystery of the Secret Room”, also by Enid Blyton. And I am very curious to know more about the secret of the room. As I am busy reading, I don’t have much time for writing. I can hardly keep all these exciting books down.

Bye for a few days (just 2 or 3),

Rupashri

On 7th March at about 8 pm we went to the Kochi Wharf to see Her Majesty. On seeing her I felt the thrill coming up my spine as she was gigantic, much bigger than I had expected. She is as high as a 23 storied building and 345 metres long. She was so close to the Kochi Wharf that it seemed as if she was a huge building and not a ship. Her front and rear ends were blocked from our view by trees which made her look more stately. As it was night, she was lightened up and looked very beautiful. Some of her passengers waved at us.

I understood from the newspaper that her capacity is 2650 passengers and 1300 crew. each passenger had to pay a huge amount of about 90 lakhs for a trip round the world in 80 days. She has a huge library, 4 swimming pools, 5 theaters, a huge dance floor, 10 restaurants, a planetarium, a jogging track, a cultural academy and an art gallery with world famous art works. She is 72 m high and has 13 decks. And oh! 1310 cabins with 80% having their own balconies. Amazing, Isn’t it?

She looked so majestic and her name suited her very much. These luxurious ship touched only our “Kochi” in the whole of India. On the 8th afternoon, we also went to see her off. She looked so different in the daylight but she wasn’t leaving yet. Most of the passengers had gone for sightseeing in and around Kochi. Some had even gone to Alapuzha (50 km from here). As a result, some passengers were late in coming back. We had to wait there in the hot, scorching sun. It was a breathtaking view even though the sun was unbearable. We all grew very sweaty.

Almost the whole of Kochi was there, with not even a place to prick a needle. And then we heard the Queen’s horn. BOoong! BOoong! At last, all the passengers were back and we saw her slowly coming our way. All the passengers were out on the balconies, decks etc waving their hands, towels and flags at us. We also waved back. The people rose from their seats on the grass to get a better view. The smaller boats of Kochi were like ants compared to her. Thick black smoke was coming out through her “chimney” and as she sailed to the sea .

Her departure time was at 2:00 PM, but she left at 3:00 PM only. She sailed past us quickly but stayed in view for a long time. Here are some pictures of her:

Regards
- Rupashri

As I said yesterday, that slithery incident reminded me of an earlier visit of a snake to my house. But why do these snakes crawl into my house only? Oh! Those meanies!

It was a few years back when I was small – maybe four or five years old. I was having my evening snacks sitting on the middle of the living room floor watching television. My brother was on the sofa. My mother went to the terrace to water the potted plants; and I followed her like Mary’s little lamb leaving behind my food.

It was then that this ferocious snake entered our house as fast as it could; and my brother who was sitting there glued to the television suddenly took notice of this snake which was showing of its big and bright head. My brother seeing it ran out faster than the snake when it had come in.

My mother, hearing about it went inside carefully to see where the snake was. Can you imagine? It was inside our bedroom trying to get onto the bed so that it can sleep there peacefully. I think its own natural habitat was too noisy and so it came to our house.

My mother then closed all the doors to the other rooms including this bedroom’s. Oh! I got so scared, so scared that I started pulling my mother’s hand so that we could run away. My mother had phoned my father who rushed home along with his cousin.

By the time they reached home the snake had climbed on top of a shelf. We could see its tail moving from behind the radio kept there. Maybe it was trying to listen to some soft music and at the same time scare us.

My father and his cousin entered the room and closed the door. All we could here were some “whish”, “bang”, “boom” and “thuds”. We could see nothing, but what was happening inside? Then we heard the window opening. So we all ran out to see if the snake was coming out. Yes, It was… My father was poking at it from one side and his cousin was poking it from the other side. The snake may have thought, “What a terrible neighborhood? It is better to be with my old family in the noisy natural habitat”. So the snake slithered outside through the window and onto the road through the gate. We all heaved a sigh of relief.

But the excitement had not ended. The snake instead of going away had entered a nearby shop. Oh! The poor old lady inside the shop screamed and ran out almost stepping on the snake. The poor snake too, got frightened and went up to the roof. It was a long time before the snake was sent off on its way. It went as fast as it could, willingly leaving this neighborhood. And that was the end of that snake’s visit.

Another time, a baby snake… Ok! Ok! I won’t tell you now… we will stop with this snake thingy.

Bye,

I hope you enjoyed this incident,

Good Night, Sleep tight and don’t let the snakes bite!!!

- Rupashri

Snakes in my House

Snakes seem frightful to some of us and nothing to others like Steve Irwin… because they just roam around with a snake on their shoulders! Here is something slithery that happened to lil’ ol’ me.

A few days back after lunch I was watching T.V. when one of our neighbors knocked on our gate warning us that a snake had entered our compound. Hearing this, I was shocked as I am very scared of snakes, no matter how harmless they are.

My father quickly took a thick stick and we all ran out though a side door. My mother was already out in the garden and we could see the snake peeping out from the darkness behind a flowerpot. It was a tiny head that stared back at us just the way we stared at it. Thinking it to be a young snake, my father went near it. But the snake crawled into our sit out.

My mother rushed inside to close the connecting door so that the snake wouldn’t enter our living room. My brother followed her but for another reason. He wanted to get a good shot at the snake. I know that you may think of a gun shot but what I’m really talking about is just a camera shot!

The snake was slithering here and there, down the footrest of a chair and it almost seemed like it was flying or gliding in air. My brother got a great shot of this unusual movement. My father poked at it with a stick and then it crawled out at full speed towards the garden where the rest of us were standing at a safe distance. It slithered over the lawn towards our cycle garage.

Oh! This snake was not as small as we had imagined. It was very long – about five feet long and it had a bright yellow body. For me it was a frightful sight to watch it slithering directly into the garage where my precious bicycle was kept.

My father opened the garage and went straight in bravely. There was the snake – coiled up behind a ladder with its head sticking out. My father poked it right on its tummy and it swizzled and swirled between my fathers legs and crawled outside very very fast leaving some confused people full of fear staring at it. It went crawling in a zigzag manner towards the big foresty compound behind our compound. My father did not harm it as it was only a harmless garden snake called the friend of a farmer. It feed on the rats and frogs which ruin the farmer’s crop.

This incident reminded me of an earlier visit of a snake to my house. I’ll tell it to you tomorrow. Well, it seems like this it enough for today. Don’t you agree?

B-bye,

And don’t forget to login tomorrow.

Rupashri

I’m back! In our school, we have many kinds of activity other than studies – Dancing, drawing, singing, and and my favorite Work Experience(WKE). For WKE, we need to join a club. It can be an Art club, a Home Science club, Music club, Dance club, Games club, or Nature club.

I like to draw, but I feel that my drawing are not good, even though my mother says they are nice. In home science, they teach cooking(making sandwiches only) and making bracelets and such things. As I am already my mother’s little helper in the kitchen, I didn’t join this club.

Just songs, songs and songs… I don’t like music club because, I hate my voice! I hate dancing because my hands and legs don’t work together. I am a slow runner and in game, all we have to do is run and bounce basket balls, kick foot balls, or smash shuttle corks.

Then comes my favorite, the one I joined – Nature Club. I love growing plants and watch them bloom. At first,  when I joined the club, they told us that, after the monsoons, we will go for nature walks or trips for which, I just couldn’t wait. Until then, we spent our time collecting different kinds of leaves, flowers etc and sticking them on our books. We germinated bean seeds and watched them grow. We recorded the different stages of germination. I thought I liked this club, but more was to come.

Outside the classes, on the wide open ground, we were allowed a tiny place to grow some flowering plants. I planted many table roses and the others planted hibiscus, china grass, bougainvilleas etc. in out allocated flower bed.

My plants grew so fast and bloomed too. It was very beautiful, and I was very proud of my flowers. But then came the rains. Water clogged the flower beds and many plants were destroyed. Only a few plants survived the rains and we were happy that at least these plants were left.

But Oh! Then came some dreadful workers, who mercilessly dug over what was left of our flower bed. It was a sad sight, and the end of our gardening.

After the monsoons were over, the day I was looking forward to came. They were going to take us for a nature trip. I hoped they would take us somewhere further from our school, but they took us to the boring old school ground. They told us to just roam around and observe the plants there! And that was the end of it

For the rest of the year, we sat idle, watching the other clubs hard at work, but enjoying themselves. Now I know, how boring this nature club can be.

Talking about this, I feel very bored right now. Yawn! Well, I guess I have to leave as I have many things to do. My exams are going on, but I dont have much to study. All I do most of the day is read, read and read story books. Now I’m reading Ruskin Bond’s “Children’s Omnibus”. It contains lots of funny stories of little children. One day, I hope I can write a book just like that.

Bye for now,

Rupashri

I am here again. As, I was telling you yesterday, our English teacher gave us some topics for creative writing. It was to write an autobiography of either a Teddy Bear or a Football. All the boys, obviously, selected football. And we girls wrote about Teddy Bears. It was really easy for me, as I not only had a teddy bear, but also used to play with it as if it was alive and talking. But later on, I expanded the article and you can read it now. So here it is..

Autobiography of a Teddy Bear

I’m a native of China. A kind Man there had collected lots of fiber and bear skin. He had lovingly stitched it in shape of a bear and stuffed it with fiber. Thus, I was born. He also fixed a big smile on my face and it got stuck there. In short, he created me – a handsome fellow with an evil glint in his eyes.

Then I flew over the land and the ocean to Kenya. There, I was bought by a man or stranger as I call him along with my three cousin brothers. He stuffed me and my brothers in a big suitcase where I could not even do my business! Oooh! I got so angry. I didn’t know what was happening in the world outside my dark old suitcase.

I felt like I was going up n’ down n’ up n’ down… and later I heard a roaring sound. I was up in a plane! When the plane landed our suitcase was picked up and dropped on a roller belt. This wasn’t too bumpy. Now I knew we had reached our destination.

From there the stranger picked us up and placed us in a car. There I knew that we were going somewhere. But I didn’t know where we were going. We reached the house where we were to get down. When we got inside the stranger and his family went to get fresh. Then they unpacked us. Phew!! What a relief it was to come out of the cramped suitcase. The place we had come to was Cochin.

Then I was given to a little girl. The stranger was the girl’s uncle. It was July the twentieth which was proclaimed as my birthday. The girl shyly held me by the ear and I felt insulted. Then she took me to show her mother. Later I found out that the li’l girl’s name was Rupashri and she lives at a place a bit further away from here. She thinks she is my master… but honestly she is MY slave! Even though I call her my pet. She has got a big brother. He thinks he is big and some times he takes advantage of me.

I know that you may think I am very small ’cause I was packed in a suitcase. But oh no! I’m not that small as you think. I’m three whole feet tall and almost as fat as a refrigerator! Just kidding! Even though not so fat, I’m still on a fiber diet . They don’t even lemme cut a cake on my B’day!

Often, when she goes to her uncle’s place, she takes me along too. I happily go there because her cousin’s bear, Ballu, is my cousin. But the main reason is that I can rule over him too saying “Bow to his majesty”! Oh! I forgot to tell you that one day while going there in a car, brother took my hand and waved it out at somebody thinking that the man would not see us. But to his astonishment the man saw us and waved back! It was such fun. Heh Heh!

My pet brother and sister do not know that I am older than them. And they try to boss over me. Humph…. Err…um… But you can say that I’m the one who rules over them like Hitler all the time. But yes, in the night she gets scared and pulls me under her blanket. But actually I’m the one who is really scared and creeps in between my pet sister’s blanket and she takes such care of me that I some times wonder what I’d do without her.

As I am getting old, I am beginning to get skin diseases. That’s when my skin tears and my fur comes out. They point it out to their mother. Their mother takes a needle and some thread which matches my colour and OOOOOH! Should I say more? After the surgery they pamper me a lot.

But what can I do without them? Where can a plump little teddy bear be- A teddy bear with two personalities; at times a ruler like Hitler, but normally acting like a brainless fellow if not with them?

Three years have passed since I, the one who made a huge change in this family was born. Let me wish myself a long life and rule over them of course! LONG LIVE TEDDY!

If you have enjoyed reading, kindly post your comments, as they would really encourage me. For more articles, watch out tomorrow.

Bye,

Rupashri