Adding a little holiday cheer

MERRY CHRISTMAS

&

BEST WISHES TO ALL THIS FESTIVE SEASON

Its always nice to add a little holiday cheer.  Even festival times call for extra cheer.  Though its nice to add cheer all year round.  Its upto us how we steer our day along.  

Here's how we added cheer

Tossed some exotic vegetables.  Its more a soup.  Don't know what its called :)

The colours just sing

We made this fried rice.  These pair up to be the favourites of all at home

My centre piece.  How can I forget that.  A dash of rose petals definitely  bring in cheer. 

The beautiful crochet doily was made by my mother for me

How could I miss out on baking a cake for Christmas.  Certain sweets are associated with a festival 

I recently attended a baking class.  Oh! that has given me so much of confidence.  We get a number of recipes on internet.  But this hands on experience does give confidence.

The exquisite ingredients required for icing requires a visit to a bakery essentials shop far way.  My kids did'nt have patience to wait so long.

So I made a base vanilla cake.  It turned out to be yummy

Am so happy and so were the kids

This blog post has come up after a lonnnng time. Literally from Diwali to Christmas.  Doesn't matter.  This is a journal for me to record moments..... 

Beautiful and Treasured.....

The Zoo

Absolutely no headway since my post on `why do we put off things for tomorrow' .  I admit.  Is that a habit?  I wonder!  So after  the vacation and the Dubbare visit and The Golden Temple visit at Bylakuppe, we went to the Mysore Zoo.  Spread over a large area (more than 3 kilometres walk!) and over a century old, this Zoo is  definetely a delight.  We spent over four hours at the Zoo and enjoyed every bit of it.

Giraffe was the first attraction.  They were standing tall and still.  My daughter refused to believe that it was real until it starting rolling its tongue.

Isn't this rare?

 

The stork

The Macaws

The rainbow macaws

Look who's lazing out in the shade after lunch

The black necked swan

Scarlet Ibis

The baby on its swing

Can you spot the bear?

My! the Rhino was huge. Spraying clouds of dust with each breath

My kiddos loved the zebras

 Lazing after lunch

Star turtles.  Pic not very clear because of the glass enclosure

The Monitor lizard. Reminds me of a day in my childhood when a monitor lizard ventured into our backyard and Dasu our ferocious dog, fought relentlessly for two hours with it and killed it.  He was panting for so long after that.  We gave him lots of water and patted him for his act.  I can vividly remember his eyes as we patted him.  
History also takes us back to 1670 battle between Tanaji, Shivaji's closest friend who fought and recaptured Kondana fort, now named Sinhgad using monitor lizards to scale the forts Monitor lizards hold on to anything very very tightly.. Tanaji however died in the battle. Shivaji quipped later ` Gad ala pan sinh gela' meaning, fort was captured but the lion was lost.

Creepy creatures ahead!  The python

Anaconda... eeks he had very cruel eyes.  Scary!

We were amongst the first visitors to the zoo that day.  We had gone in early. It was quite sunny and hot Tired though at the end cause we walked more than 3 kilometres 

The girls however, enjoyed every bit of it.

happy moments

At times, we fondly remember visiting a place.  They infuse moments of joy and happiness.  Bylakuppe was one such place.  After Bandipur and Bandipur and Coorg, it was Bylakuppe.  The Tibetan Monastery is situated there.  I was speeckless.  Colours bright and beautiful all around.  Serene and peaceful. The Buddhist Golden Temple.

Three different angles.

Outside the temple was this huge bell

What led us in was this huge beautiful gate

   

Inside the temple, was this huge cloth bell hung at the ceiling.

It was a little dark inside.

Look at the door......

And the walls

How colourful the pillar is........

What adorned the wall outside was this picture. Depicting harmony even amongst unequals.

And.......... the sanctum sanctorum.  The deities

Can you see the dragon and the long cloth bell?

The Flags,,,,,,,, what colours!!

There were monks practicing some kind of ritual

And these small flags.... They are believed to carry message of peace, love and harmony when the breeze flutters them..... how sweet

The temple is surrounded by 

We left saying bye to these beautiful birds..............  Bring back happy moments :)