Sindoor Sangham, our neighborhood mahila sangham had a Diwali Party this week. One of the activities we did was make clay diyas. I made those two and jeweled them for that festive Diwali feel. It was a nice thing to do with family and friends.
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Indus Ladies, the popular women web forum has compiled a Diwali Sweets and Desserts e-Book. Recipes are contributed by food bloggers around the world. You can find my recipe “Almond Burfi” in page 65. It’s a free e-book and you can download from: http://www.indusladies.com/100diwalisweet.
Vijay had to go to El Paso on his work for a project he has been working on. He said he wanted to drive to El Paso from here (Sugar Land, TX) if I would accompany him. It was going to be a very long drive in the peak hot weather of Texas summer. But we decided to do it. This was unlike any other road trip we did before. En route to El Paso, we stayed in San Antonio for the night. The next morning, we started from San Antonio and rather than taking the popular I-10 all the way to El Paso, we went on rural Highway 90 passing through west Texas – Uvalde, Del Rio, Amistad lake and Pecos river. Got back onto I-10 at Fort Stockton. Hot and dry summer weather, empty highways, deserts, mountains, canyons, rivers and lakes – it’s Texas at its primitive form. Surprisingly scenic and pleasantly silent, we had great time driving through West Texas.
1750 miles round trip driving distance and about 22 hours on the road. Here are some photos from the West Texas trip.
The Car for the Trip, Typical to Texas ~ The Mercury Grand Marquis
A shower in the morning, the emerging light on the east and refraction through droplets on the petals – The goddess Nityamalli had never looked prettier!
Like the sindhuram that brightens up a mature face, the palm-sized, five petal swamp hibiscus flower in bold crimson color lightens up a landscape. This cheerful goddess is a sun worshiper, showing up with sun, smiling broadly as sun does his afternoon stroll and shying away with sunken sun.
Swamp hibiscus plant dies to the ground in freezing winter but comes back from roots in spring in Houston weather. A reliable, low maintenance plant with beautiful vigorous blooms, it’s another must have for a hibiscus collector.
Honeysuckles are fragrant flowers that exude sweet nectar. Picking a fresh honeysuckle flower and sucking the small bits of honey out of it used to be a joy of my childhood summer outings. This sweet goddess is the nourisher of bees and hummingbirds, a beneficial herbal medicine for summer heat and a must have for fragrant flower fans.
A little youthful exuberance, a bit of quiet elegance and wide-eyed with innocence. A whiff of its heady scent, the passion swells. This lovely seven-layered jasmine has to be one of the most beautiful jasmines out there in garden world. She is the goddess of day dreams, fantasy and romance.
I am very fond of Desert Rose flower, another goddess of my garden, because the flowers resemble the gorgeous frangipani of India.
I have desert rose plant for the last two years. It was a tiny seedling then, with four to five young leaves. I planted it in a container and placed it in an east facing spot. The plant thrives in sunshine, it doesn’t need much water but needs protection from winter cold. Desert rose comes to life during summer with flowers in beautiful shades of rosy pink. It truly is a collector’s plant.
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