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)

Some more pictures from around the hill, this time of flowers.






The 2nd picture is of white hibiscus--and it's brilliantly white.
The colour of the impatiens in my sister-in-law's garden was too inviting to pass up:)

These are some random pictures around our hill.




This is the bamboo in bloom. You may have heard that the bamboo flowers rarely, once in 12 to 36 years. Well this is 36 years, because I don't remember it flowering before and I've been married that long. It was planted by my mother-in-law. Apparently the bamboo will die after that and then regrow from the same spot. Waiting to see what happens.




This shows the tender young leaves of a mango tree. We've had the requisite 2 or 3 showers. So the mango trees are all putting out new leaves and flowers. These red leaves turn green in about a week.







This is of course a tapped rubber tree. Since I took this pic with my phone and through my window, it's not too clear. If you look carefully, you can see the black plastic container kept to collect the rubber.