Skip to main content

REJUVENATING MORNING


 

LT COL NOEL ELLIS

 

24/IX/2025

 

Oh! What an action filled morning it was today. Literally, the birds and bees were in action all over the common garden. Zip zap zooming from tree to tree, branch to branch, flower to flower, even doing acrobats on lightning conductors.

 

Our baby Drumstick saplings which we grew so painstakingly from seeds have now come to flower. The top of their canopies is laden with them. Their mother or the mother plant whose seed pods one had collected, grown, and distributed alas fell to expansion and modernisation of a home it was anchored in.

 

Watching her go was painful. She was the fulcrum of many shoots where I must have docketed about twenty different species of birds which came to roost on it. Birds would romance on it, make love, bring their babies, fight intruders, have inter bird rivalries and duels, besides some making nests and hives in it was axed.

 

However, when the children take the parents place, it is such a smooth transition that we would miss her but feel proud of the new trees taking her place. She was just one, now we have three adults about thirty feet high.

 

The garden is full of flowers in red and whiter shades of pale. The Hummingbird vine, Drumsticks, Champa, Alastonia Scholaris or the Devil’s tree are abundant with flowers. I decided to catch some action around the garden.

 

The first ones which came into focus were a “shimmer” of Hummingbirds. They had come to sip nectar of the Moringa tree. One sip and whoosh, they would fly away. I counted five. They were cousins or rivals but would not let anyone settle at one place for more than a second. A dog fight of sorts would ensue. Nothing came to focus.

 

Then one lone hummingbird came and got embroiled with the dead Mulberry leaf. The old, dry, and brown leaves are sticking to its branches. Reasons for it dying could probably be an infection or white ants in its roots.

 

What caught my attention was that a hummingbird which loves nectar also loves insects. These twisted, curled, and deformed leaves have been taken as a home by small spiders.

 

Leaves which should have fallen were holding on as spiders had built webs around them. Spiders were nesting in them. Our Hummingbird was investigating and fishing out tiny mites and spiders from within the folds of the leaves, like a thorough baggage check at airports.

 

It was time to move around the common garden to see if there was more activity. Right infront was a ficus bush. It had been shaped and trimmed about a week back but the clipped dry leaves were still stuck on it. I tried to shake them, but they wouldn’t fall. So, I plucked a dry set of leaves but they appeared to be glued firmly together.

 

A quick inspection showed that spiders were in full action. Dried leaves that were holding on were because of multiple spider webs entwining them. This was new to me.

 

As I walked further down, I saw a cluster of Bumblebees hovering over the fragrant Devil’s trees flowers. They were too fleety and fast to catch. However, their buzz and hum could be heard distinctly. If one bee sat on a flower, the other one would rush to displace the other one. Their game of kho-kho I reckon.

 

Just then a ‘kaleidoscope’ of black butterflies appeared out of nowhere. They are laying eggs all around. We have a pupa developing in one of our lime bushes. These could be just freshly hatched ones or adults, I was not sure, but the sight of a “flutter of butterflies” was a treat to watch.

 

They too were in competition mode. All trying to gain access to the same flower where one butterfly would sit. They went around flower hopping and pollinating, carrying pollen in their legs and snorkels.

 

As I was returning home, I spotted a pair of parrots atop the lightning conductor. Were they playing or exchanging love bites, that only an expert can tell.

 

Just when I was about to shut the camera another small bird was spotted at the same dead mulberry leaf. It must be trying to scavenge what was left. A few quick bites and she too flew away, giving just one opportunity to photograph her.

 

The garden is abuzz with activity. I even went to check on the Wire tailed Swallow’s nest. They were fine. I couldn’t take a good picture as they were in and out of their nest at lighting speed. It was time to head home.

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/UGxvqpP6Mdo?feature=share

 

An hour spent in the garden was worth it. I suggest to you guys to pause and enjoy such beautiful moments. Will you? I wonder!!!!!

 

JAI HIND

©® NOEL ELLIS

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FINGER ON YOUR LIPS

  LT COL NOEL ELLIS   29/IV/2025   What has happened to Pakistan? While India is doing Fauji Exercises, Pakistan has mobilised for what! I agree that the people of India want revenge. But, from whom? Our PM has only said that “we will not leave the terrorists and their supporters till the end of the Earth”. He has never said he will sort out Pakistan, or has he?   It has been hilarious watching discussions on Paki social media channels. They seem to have already given up. Our RM meets the PM and Pakistan starts shitting bricks. They talk about jazba and gazwa, and start telling us about their nuclear arsenal. 160 I suppose. By the way we will send across one equivalent to your 160 if need be.   There is a saying, ‘Chor ki Dari main tinka” literal meaning is, a straw in a thief’s beard. However, the deep meaning is that a guilty person reveals his guilt through his behaviour, even unintentionally. Clearly, “a guilty conscious needs no accuser”...
16 comments
Read more

SCENE AT ELLIS’ RESTAURANT

    LT COL NOEL ELLIS   04/XI/2024   Every morning the scene in the Ellis’ restaurant is so refreshing. The notes birds sing sounds like ‘reveille’ being sounded by the buglers. The ‘scenario’ keeps varying with arrival of different birds at different timings.   It is like being a restaurant owner, working solo with minimum help. Yours truly is the waiter, housekeeper, cook, receptionist, barman, purchase manager, accountant, and storekeeper of this shack. Imagine!   Foremost thing in the morning is housekeeping of the garden area, followed by watering the pots. This gives the plants a nice bath, like kids being readied for school.   The first set of ‘clients’ called the ‘Tailor Birds’ appear. They love to hunt for insects which get disturbed by the watering ritual. They sing and dance, hop and skip and carry on chasing moths and worms, without bothering about my presence.   By then the Bulbuls and the Sparrows start lini...
22 comments
Read more

IF THERE IS A WAR…...

    LT COL NOEL ELLIS   28/IV/2025   I remember the 1971 war as a small child. We were in Kapurthala Punjab, very close to the Pakistan border. It was an evening in December, I do not remember the exact date. While returning from a friends house, the declaration of war was done as I skipped along the ‘Thandi Sarak’ of Kapurthala.   The gist was that a vehicle with loud speakers was telling people to head home as an "emergency" had been declared and war had started. I ran as fast as I could, shivering with fear and my heart beating unusually fast. Though I was a lap baby when the 1965 war had taken place, it appeared serious business now.   Overnight, Dad and other Uncles started digging trenches infront of our homes. Carbon paper was no dearth in a teachers house, so mom got into an overdrive to stick them to the glass windows. Though the glass had been painted during the 1965 war, some broken panes had been replaced. Mom told ...
6 comments
Read more