I showed last week the roses this month brought me on the east side of the roof garden. But there were lots elsewhere up there too. In the bed in the middle one of the earliest plants I had put there had a lovely pink to purple blossom, and I show it full on to begin with, and at the ...

Last week’s post was chaotic, with the third paragraph being repeated, and then the next two also, at the end. How this happened I have no idea, unless it is that the computer thought it should meet the word count of 500 I had earlier set myself, having failed to register that I thought shorter posts better for this year, ...

Back after two weeks to the Roof Garden, which has continued to flourish. I was away for ten days, and when I got back it was to find another host of roses, with blossoms aplenty visible from the balcony yesterday morning, in the pots and the beds of the eastern edge by the stairway. The first picture here shows the ...

I wrote last week of the tragedy that befell the fish in the tank by the dining room, which I had looked at with such pride just a few days earlier, its eight fish darting and gliding along in great elegance. That tragedy followed not long after the nights of the predators, up on the balcony, and also I noticed ...

I looked at two of the beds on the balcony last week. There are three others, or rather two beds and a pot. In the last are white roses, a tall plant that has not failed thus far to produce blossoms, one or two every month or so. They are perfectly formed roses, and I show first today a close ...

The first post for this series in the current year was on a positive note, as was what I showed last week. I was exulting in the two new ponds, the second very new and doing well it seemed, the first having recovered from its earlier bleak situation with the arrival of new fish which Janaki’s brother Dharshana gave me, ...

The roses on the balcony also did well at the turn of the year. I showed some of them in December, so here I will confine myself to what was there after Christmas, and in the first couple of weeks of this year. This included a new plant, which I brought back on December 27th after two nights at the ...

The fish Kavi gave me I put in the new tank next to the garage, which I have described already as providing a home for some of the angels who were born on the balcony way back in October 2022. There are four of them there, placed after I had put in a lotus plant that I hoped would provide ...

Despite the absurdities of the weather, fierce rain interrupting intense sunshine, the roof garden continued to flourish. Less than a week after I had denuded it so that Christmas lunch would be with flowers from up there on each table, the place was again in fine fettle. On the last day of last year the variegated bush had several blossoms, ...

I had wondered whether, with the advent of another year, I should start a new series for the Saturday post on this blog. But so much happens in the various ponds and tanks that I have, that I will continue with the same subject, as I do with the gardens on Wednesdays, though whether there will be enough happening throughout ...

I had thought about starting another series for the Wednesday post on this blog, but so much happens in my garden, at its different levels that I decided to continue with this subject. But the posts will be shorter, to give even greater emphasis to the pictures, which I have no doubt are of greater interest to readers than any ...

Let us end the year though on a positive note, following my account last week of the death of the angel who had lived most of his life with me in the little pond on the balcony. He had been moved with his mate from the big pond when the other pair spawned, and they had seemed a threat. But ...

I had, of course, while the workmen were with me, to do more, and I also suggested a few raised beds all over the place, two against the south wall, another under the guest bedroom to the north, and a fourth also on that side, against the bathroom, between the water tap and the cement covering of the water motor. ...

For my penultimate post in this series this year I will get back to my lotus ponds on the balcony, the subject with which I began the series, but which I have neglected since the end of September. There was a host of blossoms at that time, but though not so profuse, this continued over the next few months. So ...

I go down now to the main garden, or rather, first of all, to an area I have not looked at before. This is the little strip of land at the back, which was generally covered from view by the garage, the old one, and now the new one. But of course above the new garage is the new building, ...

And there was another pond to add fish to when I got back from Greece at the beginning of this month. This is down below, in front of my seat outside the garage. A few months back Ranji had the bright idea, when they were clearing up after the last major work on the new building, of setting up an ...

It was six weeks ago that I wrote about the flowers on the balcony, and that was just in one post, for I was keen to move up to the profusion of roses in the roof garden. But I did show the profusion of roses in the bed on the east of the balcony, with its three bushes, orange and ...

I mentioned last week Kavi’s advice about moving the two white gourami that remained from the lotus pond, and that was done the next day. Some months back I had built another tank on the balcony just outside my dining room, the balcony that had been expanded from the narrow one that led off the blue bathroom which had served ...

I have over two weeks shown nine flowering rose trees in my roof garden, and there are still more to show from that memorable Saturday in early November. These are the flowers on the eastern border of the roof garden, a bed with three trees just on the right of the stairway as you look down, then a pot with ...

I got back home yesterday after two weeks away, having worried more now when I travel than I used to do when I was younger. This has a lot to do with increasing age, but it is also because I miss more and more what I have left behind. How this happened I have started to explore in the Tuesday ...