new life in the family

Sheer joy to see the new life joining all of us at the farm!

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first happy blooms

Well, it has been a fascinating journey so far since the time I developed my interest in Orchids. It all started because I loved photographing them in the wild. They are the most beautiful flowers I've seen. I wondered and was very curious to know more about them and since then, it has been a very interesting journey for sure. These days I don't just photograph them, I also try to know more details on every species I come across and read a bit as well. I am also lucky enough to run into good people who are passionate about orchids and I am glad to have my association with them. I also became a member of The Orchid Society of Karnataka and it has been a very good learning experience for me to interact with many orchid lovers. Somehow, I never had the courage to grow orchids at home, perhaps I was worried I would kill them. But then I thought growing orchids at home will be the only way to learn more about them technically, so I decided to grow them and got a few hybrid plants home and potted them a year ago. Initially I did a lot of mistakes (not that I am not doing mistakes now) and saw many leaves drying/burning up; and never had any hopes of good blooms from them at all. Monsoon arrived sooner than I expected and I just left the plants to get treated by nature in its own way. Slowly I saw many new spikes/leaves coming out and one fine day I was ecstatic to see a bud as well. Perhaps, I learnt how to water them better after that and I was happy to see more buds in all the plants. Even now, I do not think I have understood them better, but I am trying my best to save them at least. Being a novice in growing orchids, I was absolutely delighted when I saw these blooms at home. Hopefully, one day I will be confident enough to tell myself ~ 'go ahead and buy those lovely plants' and take care of them as well. These blooms are the first happy blooms at home.

Phalaenopsis hybrid

Loved the velvety texture and the color

Equitant Oncidium ~ Lava burst (Dancing lady)

Equitant Oncidium (Dancing lady)

Dendrobium hybrid

Dendrobium hybrid about to open up in full

Cheers,
Srik

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rains, lakes and happiness

Its raining good this year and hence most of the lakes are full. The two small rainwater storage lakes in our experimentation ground is full as well. Perhaps, the best rains in the past 10-15 years they say! It is good to see green and wet everywhere, plants in the fields are happy, farmers are happy.

Ragi to the left and Togari (Toor Dal) to the right

Togari fields

Rainwater storage pond

Sapota trees and the veggie patch

rainwater storage pond (sunken ponds)

Chapparadaverekai (Flat beans)

Groundnuts

groundnuts

rainwater in the pits 

Togari

where wild lives

the first one

Chillies and the spinach plant

the dwarf one

brinjal

Okra flower

tomatoes

Okra

cluster bean

Okra

the round one

Wild Glory lilies - Gloriosa superba

Cheers,
Srikanth

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the age of imagination

A post that moved me!

Excerpt from the article here:

We say we want children to achieve at the highest level—to be the next generation of great scientists and innovators and artists and world leaders—yet the system we’ve put in place makes it nearly impossible for each child to reach their potential. Those worst off are typically the ones whose unique skills and talents we need the most—the most creative thinkers, the natural innovators, the ones who find comfort in the discomfort of not knowing, fearless in the pursuit of their vision.

Link to the article: The educational value of creative disobedience

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Well, I can also relate to the story very much and it is in sync with my life in many cases. While we realize the importance of the experimental learning, we still tend to think on how are we supposed to do it. There are a lot of folks around who are struggling hard to do such things. I was talking to a friend of mine today and he said he is trying his best to make his son learn the experimental attitude. In spite of the current system not supporting the current generation kids in learning what is actually 'essential'. And not to let them waste their age of imagination as it is rightly pointed in the article.

All that is required is to help them think, fail, think, fail, think, fail and the process goes on. In the process, the actual learning happens! and hopefully something gets created. 

Srik

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