TWO MYSTERIES

TWO MYSTERIES

LT COL NOEL ELLIS

25/V/2022

There are certain mysteries which remain unsolved. However, if one decides to get to the bottom of them, it takes time, effort and tons of patience. Our first case was the shredding of the only ‘moss stick’ in one of our pots in the garden.

Some plants have to be trained on moss sticks. How hard we tried to maintain them; the moss perished. My wife came up with an idea to create homemade creeper supporting sticks. Pipe of the original moss stick moss was available. Netting around it had become brittle thus thrown away.

Home grown coconuts were plenty, therefore coconut husk was readily available. The kernel and water were put to good use in the kitchen. Dry husk we used to keep for our ‘orchids’ were now used to make a “husk stick” replacing the moss stick.

Instead of the plastic net, we criss-crossed ‘sutli’ a jute-based thread to tie the husk around. Moment, we used to water it, the whole thing would swell as the fibres would soak in water. Creepers which were not all that happy because of lack of moss, now found a new grip in our locally modified Jugad.

It was time to move to the deserts. This husk stick plant also happened to find its place in our truck and travelled with us. The stick was doing its job as desired, till one day we found as if someone was plucking away the husk from it. Soon the head of the pipe started showing and all the husk tied to the top started disappearing. It took us a few days to solve the mystery.

As the summers set in, so did their nesting season. All of them were busy collecting ‘tinka-tinka’. One pulled out a few abandoned nests which they had built in the electric meter. Those straws were placed in an empty pot. Whichever bird wanted it could take it was free to do so. Birds never use already used nest building material. Each nest was built from freshly collected twigs.

Local birds have been congregating in our little patch of plants for shade and water and of course posing for a photograph.

Now comes the mystery part. The other day as usual Bulbuls came for a drink and a dip in the water container. Once they were through, they flew and sat on top of the husk stick. One by one they started pulling out the fibres of the stick and carried them away. With their sharp beaks they even opened up the knots of the rope which we had used to bind the husk on the pipe. One had a mind to shoo them off but then let it be. May they build stronger and better nests. First mystery solved.

The next mystery was the appearance of baby Tik Toks. We had seen just one big character lurking in our pots. These tiny ones were addons.

To keep the pots in shape, we have a few bags and empty pots lying in a corner of our veranda. All tools and tackles required for hoeing, trimming and cutting all are kept there after the day’s work.

Next to them we have the pepper vine for want of shade. The scorching sunshine was burning its leaves. In the evening after Mr Tik-Tok after finishing gallivanting, he would quietly proceed to the pepper vine pot. We thought that he felt safe there. The bush is so thick that a cat would get entangled giving enough time for this guy to make a clean escape.

The other day we decided to give our pots a face lift. Some paint was needed as it had been more than a year that they had had their annual maintenance. There were a few new earthen pots in that corner which also we decided to paint in case we felt like expanding our collection of plants.

In one of the pots which was hidden deep inside that cluster of bags had two eggs, little bigger than ‘peas’, laid in the left-over soil in the pot. We were not sure how long they had been laid and whom did they belong to? First instinct was that they were lizard eggs. But then from somewhere Mr TikTok shot out from its hiding under the nursery bags. My-my, the second mystery also got solved. That’s why our friend chose to hide there at night to keep a watch on its eggs.

Had we known we wouldn’t have disturbed that pot with eggs. To keep things as natural as possible, we placed that egg laden pot at the same place and angle as it was earlier. Hope those eggs hatch and we have new visitors in our garden.

How many more mysteries would be solved? I wonder!!!!!!!!

JAI HIND