NOEL ELLIS' GOOGLE BLOG

  SICKLE BUSH   LT COL NOEL ELLIS 31/VII/2024   We were visiting the Pink City a few days back. A visit to Nahargarh Fort went without saying. More than the stone walls, my interest was in flora/fauna and the scenery. The sky was overcast and quite hazy, not ideal for photography. That is when we came across some bushes flowering profusely. The flowers had a colour combination of the ‘Touch me not plant’ but these were much-much bigger. The net told me that this plant was from the ‘Mimosa family’ to which the 'touch me not'  also belongs. Now, I got interested. ‘Dichrostachys Cinerea’ is also known as,  Sickle Bush , Bell Mimosa, Chinese Lantern tree, Kalahari Christmas tree or Ashy Babool. Its  generic  name means 'two-coloured spike', from Ancient Greek. It is native to Africa & the Indian subcontinent. Flowers of the bush are characteristically arranged in bicoloured cylindrical spikes resembling Chinese lanterns. Flower...

  DIL KHUSH Flowers

  Ellis' Rooftop Garden ❤ DIL KHUSH 🧡

H AIN!!!!!!!   LT COL NOEL ELLIS 25/VII/2024   Every year I write on the budget, because every year I look for that little increase which in technical parlance is called ‘delta’ taken from Greek. Frankly, instead of understanding the alphabet, the whole budget sounded like Greek and Latin to me. Hope Aunty N has watched this serial called ‘Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai’, an all-time favourite of mine. There was a character called ‘Madhusudan Bhai’. Hard of hearing, deaf as deaf could be. He would understand what he wanted to. Manipulated sentences as what he conjectured them to be and not necessarily what others spoke. He lived in his own world. In the end, when he could not hear or pretended that he didn’t hear and said “Hain” in the 'croakiest' voice on earth. I think Nirmala Ben has copied Madhusudan Bhai. Heard intently to all conversations and grapevine talk. Implied what she decided to understand. Manipulated the budget which she thought was the best, acted stone deaf...

  YUMMIEST BREAKFAST   LT COL NOEL ELLIS 24/VII/2024   I am sure if someone asks you, what is the best breakfast you have ever had? Everyone would list out from ‘Doodh Jalebi’ to an endless list. Let me share my best breakfast with you. It is a very long story. It was while I was on a Long Range Patrol (LRP) with the PINJAs near Pangong Tso in Ladakh. Those days (1990), our ‘Chinky’ friends were not all that aggressive. Being from ‘Muck Infantry’, the ‘Maroon Beret’ force people sent you on a wild goose chase on the first available opportunity. It was a real LRP from Chushul which was our start point at the base of ‘Pankha Heights’ in the 114* Sector to Mahe in the 70* Sector those days. We had to traverse at least five passes in that High Altitude. We were self contained for the duration of 21 days, with a Platoon of Pinjas, about twenty local ponies, the same number of porters and pony drivers plus five Yaks. It reminded me of the Lashkars of the Moghu...

  P FOR…….   LT COL NOEL ELLIS 23/VII/2024   Yesterday, I happened to enjoy a unique fruit for the first time in my life. It was neither an apple, nor a pear. It had the colour of an apple and the shape of a pear. The fruit was flavourful and the skin was quite hard. Overall, it was tasty. For me, any fruit at any time of the day is welcome. I like to eat fruit as a whole. I do not prefer those cut, peel, remove the seeds and sliced kinds along with a sprinkle of ‘kala namak/chat masala’. Straight, ‘neat’, and just the fruit is what I enjoy. Working my way from the fleshiest part in the centre, till one reaches the seeds and then polishing away the sides, is my way of eating them. It took me ages back when we all were learning about fruits. A was for Apple and P for pineapple. Apple was very commonly available and Pineapple was a fruit which hung with ropes in a fruit shop, twisting and turning with the breeze. We also used to see them packed in ‘yellow pann...

  Ellis' Garden this morning 🧡 DIL KHUSH ❤

 Unbelievable, water lilies. Double 💜Dil Khush❤️

  A DAY WITH WIRE TAILED SWALLOWS   LT COL NOEL ELLIS 19/VII/2024   My ‘eleventh sense’ is always correct is my firm belief now. The ‘hunch’ which pushes you to explore must never be underestimated. It may turn out to be your luckiest day. Let me elaborate. After a good and refreshing downpour yesterday trees looked nice, fresh, and washed. Birds too were in a good mood. Some of them came flying like our helicopters follow a manoeuvre called ‘Nape of the earth’, these birds came flying at ‘nape of my head’. Morning inspection made it clear that their grain bowl was overflowing due to the previous night’s rain. Grains were all soaked.  Contents of the grain bowl were spread on the road to dry and fresh grain and roti was served for the birds. That is when loud calls of peacocks reverberated in my ears. My intuition told me to move to the river front right away. A quick cup of tea and my Bullet & I rolled on that way. The grains which the peacocks...

  ALL IS NOT WELL   LT COL NOEL ELLIS 17/VII/2024   “All is not well”, coming from a ‘Dil Khush’ person like me must have a solid reason behind it. I further go to say ‘all is in the well’ in J&K with the Armed Forces taking so many casualties in the past few months. Is it acceptable to the nation? Are we recruited only to die? Bugle calls, wreaths, and …. Amar rahe slogans, a guard of honour with full ceremonials and firing at the cremation ground, handing over the flag to the NOK, is this what we are going to keep witnessing every day. No sir, not me. Let us make this a movement to set things right as a dutiful citizen of India. Counter insurgency grid has been pierced and perforated by these dastards. We are not willing to accept it. Boots on ground have been depleted, we are just moot spectators. The politicians have denuded troops from one place and pushed them to another frontier. At what cost? Do we have our priorities right? Bragging about the ...

  WIRE TAILED SWALLOW   LT COL NOEL ELLIS 16/VII/2024   It happens on your lucky day that you ‘catch’ what was eluding you for so many days. It was while taking a walk on the riverfront about two years back, I saw from a distance a row of small birds sitting on an ‘High Tension’ wire running across the Jojari River. A black and white bird, about six to seven inches or so, with a distinctive white chest, scanning for food as the sun came up. It was difficult to get a clear picture due to the distance. Then swooped a kite and the whole ‘flight of swallows’ also called a “gulp” vanished. One of them did not take off in time and was caught in the talons of the Kite. Some feathers drifted down to the river and the kite flew away to have a hearty breakfast. It was then I noticed that these birds are fast fliers. They skim over the water surfaces looking for insects, which is their staple diet. Swallows are also masters of catching insects in flight. These birds stay near the hu...

  Watching 🐝 Pollination in progress 🧡 DIL KHUSH ❤