I spent a very pleasant morning at Lalbagh today….I started at the Glass House, where the floral exhibits for Independence Day are taking shape, and this Anthurium exhibit was stunning….

As I walked around, both cultivated and "grow-on-the=tree" flowers caught my eye. Here's an insect pollinating one flower: The Seeta Ashoka tree still has some flowers, though it's strictly not the season: The water lilies on the lake are breathtakingly beautiful... The spider lilies, aptly named for their shape, bloom along the shores of the water bodies: I couldn't identify this tree, which had such beautiful flowers: I walked past the old pavilion; what tales it could tell of the British Raj! The ants' nest, where several leaves are pasted together, was another great architectural work, to rival the pavilion... The spotted owlets were in one of their usual haunts, and looked down sleepily at me: A rose-ringed parakeet posed briefly for me before taking off to look for more fruits... It's easy to see, at this time of the year, how the copper pod tree got its name: The majestic trees sometimes framed the scenery of the smaller plants: I also came across one tree which was being venerated: Though it seemed a little strange to me to put the flowers of one tree on another as a mark of reverence and worship!

The trees and the skyline of the lake also made a lovely silhouette…

Having gathered more than these images in my mind’s eye, I walked out of the park, feeling at peace and refreshed!

PS. I had made this entry in my Citizen Matters blog, but I didn’t realize that the CM blog suddenly stopped supporting (it did,earlier…dunno what happened) pictures, so all I got was this weird narrative with no photographs!

So I posted the actual account above….sorry if any of you went to that narrative-that-made-no-sense-without-the-visuals!