The many mahogany trees around are in bloom and the ground is covered with the the little star-like flowers. The scent in the evening and early mornings is heavenly!



A photo I was able to take a little while back. You can get an idea of how tiny the flowers are. Yet how much fragrance they release!

My computer is up and working again!! What a relief.

I realise I am truly lucky to live in and work in beautiful surroundings. Both around my house and the schools I work at, are many trees, full of the common birds of our part of the world. Yesterday and today, at school, while looking out at the trees I spied so many birds and felt so grateful to my Creator that I had the opportunity to see these creatures.
I am at present invigilating the mandatory school-leaving public exams. The hall in which the children write their exams is surrounded by many trees, which are full of bird life. Now that the unseasonal rains are over, the birds are out in large numbers. Yesterday, just before I left the hall at around 5 p.m. I spied a black-headed oriole and felt truly blest. The plumage is such a brilliant golden colour and the head so black as in the pictures I had put in this post . It was a beautiful sight. I also saw a pair of tree pies fighting for a piece of twig, really amusing!.


A treepie. The bird is an average size. The tail is long and very attractive.

Then today I spied a pair of green barbets eating the tiny fruit of some tree. There were a pair of magpie robins too, who had obviously built a nest somewhere nearby, because I had heard their sweet sounds every afternoon, during the examinations, for the past so many days.

A magpie robin. He's a small guy and has a really sweet warble.



Can you spy the barbet in among the leaves? This is the way I usually spy the bird, in my guava tree or on the cinnamon tree, when it comes to eat the fruit.
All of these are beautiful and I really feel lucky I get to see them almost on a daily basis.

(All the pictures are from wikimedia)

A couple of links:-
1. La Delirante asked me for the link to Obama's speech on race. Here is the link.....


2. Link no. 2 How we spent our Easter long weekend.

I listened to Senator Obama's speech yesterday. I thought it was a brilliant speech.
But then again, I don't live in the US and I don't have to vote and so I can just like the speech for what it was.

Haven't been posting for various reasons, but the biggest reason is that my computer's motherboard is not working :( I have to share a computer, which is ok in itself, but then I can't add any pictures I might take with my handy phone, and somehow, I miss mine--boo hoo.

Well anyway, the recession in the US seems to sucking in and pulling down the markets of many other countries--really a global world. Since that is my husband's main interest and the source of our incomes--now that he is retired--that naturally there is a great deal of talk about it in our house. Has the financial downturn affected any of you?

In lieu of a proper post!

You are a Social Liberal (68% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (18% permissive) You are best described as a: Socialist Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also : The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

I did an online confidence test (yes, well...) and this was part of my report. The minute I read it I knew I wanted to share it.

Accentuate the positive. Put your energy into emphasizing your better qualities rather than trying to be an unrealistically "perfect" person.
Cut yourself some slack. Just because one incident goes badly, don't assume its result is determinant of how other situations in your life will turn out.
Accept yourself as a whole person. Try not to be so judgemental of your less favourable qualities. Learn to love the entire package that is you.

I thought all of the ideas conveyed here were good. I really need to pay attention to all three.

Now any posts I think of doing will probably be once a week. As it schools' year-ending here, I will be very busy all week every week till April 2nd. I did so want to do a 'letter to my body' which was started on Blogher. But turns out I feel just too lazy to use the mental effort :( But it's and interesting idea, which I will get to eventually I hope.
Will certainly be keeping in touch with all my fave blogs though. Have a nice week all.

A beauty

At school on Friday we were having a meeting with a parent with me facing outside. Suddenly a flash of brilliant yellow caught my eye. But the bird settled just out of my line of vision. I was desperately tempted to get up. But decided against it, since I didn't want parent to think that 'ohmigod my kid has a nutty teacher'. So I sat tight hoping the bird wouldn't fly away. But unfortunately, before said meeting was over, the flash of yellow flew past and over the roof. But I got enough of a glimpse to confirm it was a golden oriole and not a black-headed one. I haven't seen one in a long long time. I do wish I could have taken a picture myself. As I couldn't I have had to rely on the Net. The picture was taken from the tourism page of one of our states.



Golden Oriole (courtesy Jharkand government site)




Black-headed Oriole (courtesy Karnataka wilderness tourism)