The tale of a mango pickle

 

Kids plucking mangoes for their grand mother .....

The collected mangoes after so much hard work!!



And here it is ! Yummy home made mango pickle... Granpa's Special as my father made it ! Enough to tickle Every Malayalee's Nostalagic Taste bud !

Word Family Charts !

Swetha has started with word families. She is done with 'at, an, ag,am and ot' words.

(In addition to the school work I download worksheets from net as well. But be careful . Don't click and open unfamiliar sites.Here are some of the good ones kid zone , education.com , printable booklets of word families )

She wanted to do a chart on 'ag ' words and when I couldn't find enough time she made one all on herself.

The chart papers are kept easily accessible for the kids , so she thought her father's printing papers are more precious and apt for her school chart . Poor girl !

She did this some what at 10 or 11 in the night as she could not sleep without doing the chart .



I was very proud to see it. Even her father was moved. Remembering our earlier experiences with Siva our heart swell with happiness to see her work on her own.. She has got something with spellings. What makes me even happier is her chart has got a heading , the contents clear and finally her name and class on it . Perfect for a chart. One day she will make a well organised student . I am sure of that.

But sadly , it is not the same with the school ! A chart should be a chart ! And I had to make another chart.



I feel her chart , so painstakingly done with little fingers is priceless when compared to this . I really feel that kids should be appreciated and encouraged for the effort and initiative they take, at least for namesake. Other wise we will have to dig out their works from the waste paper bin, just like I did. (The snap above of is a photostat copy of her work  I had taken. She  cut and pasted  her name and all on to the top .)

The positive thing I learned from this whole episode is even when she does it herself I should guide her and show her how to arrange the spaces in a chart .

( Yesterday I read an article and some of the words caught my eye. Works of kids which only a mother can love. May be this one is also some thing like that. I wonder ! )

Random Thoughts

Here the spring or summer or whatever it is , it has started rolling and my jasmines have bloomed . Which means we spend most of our free time gardening and bird watching.

[caption id="attachment_1437" align="aligncenter" width="468" caption="The first blooms of the season " Ithramel manamulla kudamulla poovukalkku ethra kinaakallundaayirikkam Sandyambarathinte mandasmithangalil Avayethra azhakullathaayirikkam ! ""][/caption]

And in the night we have to watch the moon as Siva has to observe and draw different phases of the moon :-D

[caption id="attachment_1436" align="aligncenter" width="468" caption="A view from my terrace"][/caption]

For the time being we are relying mostly on instant food packs ( Except for hubby dear) . It means less work and more happy faces!



I am waiting eagerly for the 'corn on the cob' to arrive in the market. Swetha and Me love them steamed and rolled on butter and pepper. yummmm!



I have got a lip smacking chicken stew recipe from one of Amma's old recipe books. Actually the book is in shreds and with lot of graffiti. But I treasure it. It is like a bible for me. Amma and Appa's old experiments.

But that also means I cannot copy paste it and have to type the whole thing. The book is in my kitchen and I feel too lazy to get up. May be some other time.

I have threatened Siva that I will make a vegetable porridge if he decides not to eat any vegetables !



It is getting really hot here and I find myself making lime juice again and again Aarrgh!!!!!!!!!!!! . To drink it any time is one thing and to make is another. I am thinking of making some sugar syrup to get me thru summer. Or I will go mad mixing sugar. Or may be I shud learn some of the juice recipes .

Bird’s nest

Siva Rathri

[caption id="attachment_1449" align="aligncenter" width="468" caption="Siva rathri Celebrations @ Thevar Murippel Temple, Pathanamthitta"][/caption]

Gulmohar and Me !

The first Gulmohar tree I ever saw stood near a bridge.............There was also a Manchadi and for so many years I thought both flowers and seeds came from the same tree.

As kids we would wait for someone to take us there.............We would make big yellow nails with the flowers and play with the manchadi seeds!

The beauty of this flower is unexplainable.

......... By the time school reopens all those trees on the road side would be in full bloom and it would look like a long red carpet rolled out.

There was a Gulmohar tree at our school also. I can only laugh remembering how we were caught running in the rain collecting those flowers.

The Gulmohar flowers gives me the feeling of coming back home after the long holidays, to embrace everything I had left behind.

Those flame-bright flowers always bring with them the sweet smell of soil after the monsoon rain, the smell of new books, school bag and uniform.

For me Gulmohar has been a symbol of all the resolutions I made for the new year ...

The resolutions were however soon forgotten; long before the flowers wilted.

A scorpio will show itself....

A true scorpio will show itself even at a young age.

Here is one of Swetha's rough work !

It says Siva ♥ Swetha and Swetha ♥ Siva.

She did it with so much enthusiasm and showed it around .

But I found this paper in the dust bin,  torn and crumbled with her name scored out .

What happened is Siva refused to accept that he loves her. At the age of 8 his idea of love is different.

But for a Scorpio like  Swetha " Love is all and all is Love ".

And don't ever mess with a Scorpio when it comes to love. You are warned !

As a mother I can see a lot of troubled waters ahead ! :-D

Happy Valentines Week !

Birds in my neighborhood

This is the first chart Siva has done by himself. Well, It needed a lot of poking and patience from my side.

One of Siva's new year resolutions ( of course , just like you thought I made it for him ) is that he will write down the pictures that comes to his mind and just like they come. No need to think if it will be OK !

They had to observe 3 birds for a few days and write down what they saw.

And here we are, All done and hmm.. well... almost neatly !



My moment of pride is he wrote the name himself. He would not have done  it,... if he thought it is not up to it or that he did not earn it . Until now I had written the names for all his assignments. And this is something!

Birds in my neighborhood

Crow

It is the most common bird in Kerala. It is black in colour.

There is crow's nest on my mango tree. I can see it from my terrace. The nest is made of sticks and dried grass. One day I saw the crow chasing a cuckoo away.

It perches on the branches and pecks almost anything. Sometimes I see it flying in small groups. It readily flies down to eat the bread crumbs and grains we throw.

It returns to its nest by sunset and there will be a lot of noise.

Sparrow

It is a small bird. Light and dark brown in colour. I see a lot of sparrows in my front garden.

They perch on small trees and hop on the ground. They feed on the  insects and earth worms.

Sometimes we keep left over grains for them. They even comes inside our house.It has a sweet voice.

There is a sparrow's nest on our bed room ventillation. It is made of hay. Sometimes in the night we can hear the birds chirping.

Humming bird

It is the smallest bird. It has a long and thin beak.

There are 4-5 humming birds which visit my garden every day. They keep on flapping their wings while they drink nectar from the flowers. They can fly backwards .   Every evening two of them come and sit on the jasmine vine. We even took a photo.

Also in my neighbourhood I have seen bulbuls, Mynah, kingfisher, quail, parrot , egret, pegion, wood pecker, owl, wag tail, and crow patridge ( uppan ).

Swetha’s big picture

[caption id="attachment_1363" align="aligncenter" width="468" caption="Just see the hands on the guitar !"][/caption]

MAD and Art Attack are their favourite shows and Rob is their hero !