Happy Valentine's Day!

A day for love,hearts and roses,is it so?Is it a day to buy all pink things and red roses.If there is some one you love,i dont think you need a day like this to celebrate.....If there is a day,then the perfect gift has to cost nothing..Have fun celebrating love.

Narcissus and Rains...

*Narcissus on my table 

*A kettle made a beautiful vase,

*Kettle where never tea was poured,but stored oil in my kitchen,innovative isnt it..?

*It made me think after i saw the image...

*Made me think about Greek mythology and Bed time stories

*Love and Myths go hand in hand..

*"Before the Rains" a beautiful movie 

*Passion has its price

*Frames by "Santosh Shivan"

*dreaming of Kerala

*love that blossoms in the woods

*love that finds an end nowhere

*exotic love affairs,touching and thought provoking.

*love without past taints of condenscension and guilt

 

Grey foggy days...

I love the fog,

so quiet and peaceful:

wonderful for a walk in the fog

the grey foggy days..

the fog rolled in and

we waited for the sun to shine..

hot cups of chai,carpets on the floor and heaters to keep warm...

freshness and the light in the kitchen

Even though days were foggy and cold, some wonderful light streamed into my kitchen.

They helped me in capturing  moments from my little kitchen.

The cutting board made  an amazing backdrop for my pictures.

Thanks to Archana Srinivas for the ideas in using cutting board as backdrop.

Poetry in the Windows.....

Everyone old has dreamed of all their lives--
Bonds and gestures pushed to one side
Like an outdated combine harvester,
And everyone young going down the long slide

Rather than words comes the thought of high windows:
The sun-comprehending glass,
And beyond it, the deep blue air, that shows
Nothing, and is nowhere, and is endless.

(Philip Larkin - High Windows)

*Looking from the windows,out,still remember the poetry recited by my dad

*the light seems to fade coming inside

*the bars and its patterns

*nostalgic memories running out

*a world of emotions out ....

*some pink hibiscus and windows make images most memorable in me

*they creek when they are closed

*and creek when they are open

*they are very old,some decades old...

*but they are still prettier than everything...

my windows...

A Bunch of Afternoon shadows..

*Shadows.

*are shadows lifes patterns?

*Bay windows at home

*grill work casts shadows,giving depth

*grills designed by my dad

*Life of the window

*Grown up with them,seeing them and their shadows;

*do these shadows breathe life

*they definitely breathe life to my images

**they make each image of mine a celebration of shadows and definitely life in a way;

*I do have spend hours sitting near them ,noticing the patterns they make each mode of the day..

*I always sit besides the window,looking out to the blue sky and the rains,dark green trees and the garden path..

*listening music and noticing the shadows ,thts what i did last vacations

*they definitely helped in noticing the finer things of life...

*a bunch of images ,a series of them,just taken to notice the shadows and its patterns..

*sitting near the windows,one afternoon with a book called "Monsoon Dairy" and some betel leaves floating in an uruli,took me to a "fairy land of shadows"...

*I opened the drapes and that took me ...

**.........into a Wonderland of Shadows..is it so,dont u all think?

**I think i am in love with each image below..

*this is just the beginning of shadows and its patterns

*lots more to be on your way

*by the way you keep reading while i am on the look out for more shadows...

"Gateway of Kumarakom".Enjoy!

*Hill stations are all over the country and palm-fringed beaches too, but the backwaters are a speciality of Kerala.

*during our last summer vacations ,enroute my mothers home town in Ernakulam,we passed Kumarakom..

*its not that this is the first time we pass Kumarakom and its backwaters:)-

*my fathers home town being Alleppey,we have grown up seeing backwaters,ponds,rivers,lakes and the white lotuses in the fields....

           running through fields to be  harvested,harvesting time used to be fun there,it was  always the onam time,harvested grains being brought to the front yard of the house,women threshing grains catching a long rod,grain separated by boiling,our grand father distributing wages,distributing  clothes during festivals bathing in the ponds,white lilies and pink lotuses in the ponds and on goes the story...

*tell u all about "The Kumarakom", slumbers on the banks of the famous Vembanad Lake, which is a part of Kuttanad ('granary' of Kerala). 

*the Vembanad Lake with its majestic canals, streams and tributaries along its banks weave an intricate and enchantingly beautiful web.

*the gorgeous green of the fringed palms ripple in the blue waters and blend into wavelets A boat ride in the countryside offers a close look into an engaging rustic life. 

*large flotillas of ducks waddling down to the water from thatched houses on the banks

*skilled-fishermen launching their cockshell boats.

*private boats ferrying people to alleppey and Kuttanad in plenty

*women, neck-deep in water, with their waist-length hair heaped in a crown, searching for fish with their feet,washing clothes in the little streams in front of their house.

*and aimless cattle grazing in lush pastureland, where white lotuses lie here and there in small, low-lying pools.

*then comes the huge house boats,a luxury these days...

*even we did a tour of the Vembanad lake in the house boat...

*enjoy Kumarakom and the Journey through Vembanad with me ...

Green  fields..

Private ferryScenes from the houseboatKumarkom resort 

Bird sanctuary 

KTDC resorts on the lake

Other double storeyed house boats plying on the lake

Each frame of the sky from the boat seemed beautiful and serene

Shot from the backside of the boat

Sky looked pretty and scary indeed,it was going to rain,the month of may,summer rains:)-

Close up of the house boats

side view with the ropes tied looked to be a decent image

this was pretty indeed with the two poles..

a chair at the back side

It was getting dark,the driver was getting scared,seeing the clouds roaring

we saw a small boat starting its journey at this time:)-

they came back seeing the clouds above them

By the time we reached back,it rained very heavily..

Just a  last shot and wrapped my camera in the shoulder bag,a nice journey,wanting for more......it happens always...

do enjoy the trip and write back...

Images and Ideas by Lakshmi Arvind

All images shot by the author,Pl dont copy images,do write if u need them