I wrote last week of other flowers, but what were of greatest concern to me on the roof garden were the roses. The first I placed there, in the bed nearest the balcony, was a rose bush which had done well on that balcony. It had had a white blossom when I bought it, but after that it produced blossoms ...

I referred briefly last week to a little granite seat, made from a large block left over from building. That was set up by the pond around the dead temple flower tree, and against the wall of the enclosure that has another little pond, though that wall proved useless to restrain Hilary. This was the tortoise that had walked in ...

I return after two weeks to the development of my roof garden. When the structures were in place on the slab, and the intensity of fresh cement had faded, helped I should note by the incessant rain we have had in the latter part of this year, I got the basins and the beds filled with earth. There was much ...

Having failed to post on Wednesday since I was in Kumana, I wondered about talking today about my roof garden, but thought it best to leave that for Wednesday and reserve Saturday for the ponds in my gardens. And having dwelt on those in the balcony for two weeks, and the lotuses therein, I will move down to the garden ...

I had thought to move, after the introduction to this series with the lotuses that inspired it, to a historical perspective on my ponds, and the fish and the flowers that have developed therein. But this week too I will dwell on lotuses, for the last week too has been fantastic, with the larger pond too producing two blossoms in ...

Constructing the seats on the roof garden was a complicated operation, for after the supports were built the cement seat itself was made down below, and had to be carried up the stairs and manoeuvred through the narrow entry points to the stairs up to the balcony. But my expert team did all this carefully, and soon enough the seats ...

I had thought initially to post on the same subject on Wednesdays and Saturdays, as I have done from the days when I reduced posts on this blog to two a week. Those were travel posts then, but last Wednesday I moved to my roof garden, the latest innovation in the determination to surround myself in beautiful things. But this ...

Having over the last several months looked, on this blog, at my travels, I thought I should show something of adventures at home, and the new venture I embarked on in the last few months of 2022. This was a roof garden, built on top of the slab which covered the little stairway to the balcony which overlooks my little ...

Soon after breakfast at that desert camp near Jaisalmer, Jaishu returned and we drove back to the hotel, where I had a quiet day in my room, reading and working on the internet. But in the evening I was up on the terrace again, for beer and dinner, and then had to make sure Jaishu and the car would be ...

I was hungry soon enough after the downpour, and we waded through the lake that had built up to the restaurant, where I found only tea, and no snacks. Jaishu then went off and I had a long wait for coffee, and the not very tasty snacks they produced, a sad contrast to my mind with what I had enjoyed ...

From Lodhruva it was straight on after that to the desert, to what was called the KK Resort, one of several set in a row opposite layers of sand, known as the Sam dunes. Accommodation was in tents with toilets attached behind, in rows on the side, nothing like as attractive as the isolated rooms I had stayed in previously. ...

En route to the desert The hotel had arranged for a car to be driven by yet another of the ubiquitous waiters, this one I think the seniormost, called Jaishu. First we went to the Amar Sagar lake, which did not however have much water in it now. Next to it was an old Jain temple, which was being restored, ...

I was up for the dawn next morning, and had my coffee as the sun came up, the old man arriving there too. And after working on the internet I had breakfast there, served by yet another waiter, who turned out to be the brother of the one who had done much for me on my earlier visit. But I ...

Near the entrance to the fort in Jaisalmer is the Maharaja’s palace, now a museum, which I had not gone into on the previous visit, so I spent a happy hour in it, including on its upper terrace which provided views all round the fort, including of the terrace of my hotel. And then, after a sandwich back at the ...

And in Jaisalmer I went back to a hotel where I had much enjoyed myself seven years earlier. Though it was not quite first light when I disembarked from the overnight train from Jaipur at Jaisalmer, I got an auto which took me up into the fort where I identified almost immediately the hotel in which I had had a ...

From Deeg I went to Bharatpur, a short journey so I was there before the Fort opened. But there was enough to see round about, including a bastion to the right of the Fort entrance where there was an elegant pavilion and from which you could see into the gardens of the Fort, verdant greenery against its massive structures. I ...

I was off after my early breakfast in Alwar to Deeg, though the driver had tried to convince me there was nothing there worth seeing. He suggested we go straight to Bharatpur, but the guidebook said Deeg was far more interesting, and Christine too recommended it strongly. She referred me too to a description of the place in a book ...

This somehow appeared on the literary blog but I thought for ease of reference it should be here too. However this site will not allow me today to upload pictures so perhaps that was just as well. Those havelis, in Nawalgarh were the last I saw, for from there I went to the Dundlod Fort, which is supposed to be ...

I went on in Nawalgarh to the main haveli in town, the Anand Lal Poddar Haveli, which had been turned into a very interesting museum. The courtyards with their decorations were delightful, but I also enjoyed the varied exhibits, ranging from turbans to toy carts. I looked then for the Aarth Haveli, which very few people in town seemed to ...

I had when I saw it been delighted at the beautifully decorated room I had been shown at the Radhika haveli in Mandawa, so went back there as I had indicated I almost certainly would, and then the former serviceman who owned the place gave me a suite for the same price. The hotel was deserted, and I gathered that ...