Gardening for the soul

I have been missing as usual and for no major reason. Just that I am restless to get my house made over and make it prettier. It is however always a work in progress which  adds to the restlesness. My head is buzzing with plans and ideas and wish lists. Hubster wont oblige causing me much grief....anyhow, when things dont go my way I simply cool off with gardening in my balcony. I have been busy getting it ready for summer and so far have managed to do a decent job. The rest of the house is done up only half way through. I started with my son's nursery but then inspite of my best efforts it does not look the way I want it to. His room is the second (and the only spare) bedroom which also has a corner for hubster's home office. An ugly steel filing cabinet along with an uglier study desk and the ugliest printer/paper/office supplies piled on to it. I cannot work my way around it and in my mind I dont know how to let a nursery and a lawyer's home office co-exist tastefuly. I tried convincing him to throw away his stuff which made him threaten divorce which promptly shut my mouth. I am now resigned to the fact that men just dont have 'pretty things' genes.

The bedroom is getting another little addition today, hopefuly. My handy man has promised to come and hook up my dressing mirror and shelves I bought recently. Can you imagine, I need to get a profesional to come and just put in some nails on the walls because we believe the construction quality is so poor, we might end up causing the whole building to collapse if we ourseleves were to wield the drilling machine. Ordinary nail and hammer method wont work either. It is frustrating. To save up on space, I decided not to buy a whole dresser set. Am just going to put up a mirror and sheleves on the wall thus freeing up floor space. Not to mention keeping my cosmetics and trinkets safe from a certain little monkey around here!

I had grand plans of painting our living/dining space. I have not been able to convince the man of the house so far that indeed, if I dont get to paint the walls some bright colour, I might die. He thinks I shall live long because only the good die young. Sigh. Whatever. But I am a woman on a mission and slowly but surely I shall wear down his protests. And one day will share gorgeous pictures with you all. In the mean time look at my garden pictures and let me know what you think.

I think I must show you all some of my indoor plants too...since these pictures were taken, I have added some more plants to my collection but am going to ease off a bit now since I dont want plant-clutter in the balcony especially. Although, one can never have too many plants or shoes or bags for that matter....and oh, did you guys spot some random things hanging on the railings? Well those are my DIY'ed bird baths , just some clay pots strung from a jute rope and other bits and pieces lying around to add to the general prettiness. Like the unused candle mini jars, a wooden bell...

and this, see?

I have been spending many a soul enriching hours tending to my plants....the weather in Dubai is still lovely although I think summer should be coming along any day now. I am so looking forward to many evenings spent here in my oasis. What have you guys been up to?

My Tiny Oasis

Most weekends I have some project going on in my house. I like to potter around. Change things up. I have this urge almost every weekend. During the week my time and energies are consumed with housekeeping. I am so anal about most things. The way dinner is cooked, the way it is served. The way the beds are made every morning. Nutrition for my child who wont put on any weight despite my best efforts. The way the towels are hung in  the bathrooms. The way the microwave has to be cleaned and not to mention my other babies- my plants! I love them. I love having greenery around and those of us who live in this desert land's high rise appartments know how difficult it can get to avoid feeling numb with the crazy concrete jungle all around.

I have a fairly big balcony, but poorly designed and executed. I dont know why did the architects think that a 'really long but very narrow' balcony is a good idea! I mean, mine can be termed 'big' but it is practicaly rendered useless due to it shape. Long and narrow like I said. :( But anyhow, knowing me, hubster has indulged me and bought me some plants and greens. I had some cute ideas but had to make a choice between being able to sit out in the balcony for 'chai sessions' or having a bit of greenery there. Since I am vain, I chose the option of simply planting some greenery for my visual pleasure. I now, sit on my dining table which opens in to the balcony and have my chai in the air conditioned comfort. Here are some pictures of my before and after changes carried out this weekend. Much grunting, sweating, cursing the Dubai weather later, I present to you my garden corner ladies and gentlemen, (if any). And because it is Patricia's The Weekly Story-episode 50, I decided to jump in and participate too. It is the 50th after all how can I not join in at all !

Looksie now.

This is how my baby garden started....I went away to India and hubster ofcourse destroyed my flowering shrubs. I had to make changes to incorporate just the green stuff left....else I would have nothing to show, you know!

I used old wine bottles, discarded water coolers and broekn artifacts from my living room to add some interesting elements.

Then slowly changes were made. Watch!



I had been collecting little pebbles and rocks from sometime. And dying to use them here, finally got the husband to lug them from the car boot which is where I was storing them!

Look at my little Birdie and Mr Froggy! Adopted them from the Dubai-Garden Centre.

The other corner. All the clay pots are a result of ordering take away Biryanis! And the blue carton you see, that is how mushrooms are sold here, in those little tubs. Just drilled some holes and voilla I have a pretty container. I am collecting some more so I can add lots of blues to the greens.

A day light shot taken very early morning when I was out watering them babies.

A night view of the Dubai sky line beyond the balcony railing. I added some knick-knacks here for my smoker friends to have something talk about while they have their smoke here. Ha ha ha.

So thats it then. I have had a lot of fun making these changes. Got more and more and more plans going on in my head. But time and budget constraints will have to be taken in to consideration. I am going to be away for whole of December and dont know if hubster can handle more plant-care duties. I am dying to add so much more to my motley collection but for now we have to wait. Hope you guys enjoyed seeing my little oasis. Right here in the desert!

Edited to add: I missed the linky party to Patty's weekly roundup on her blog. So shall link up on Monday for the 51st round. Am leaving the link up here, so if any of you want to come back , you can.

A Happy Happy Post

Some time ago I had posted about my birthday this year and the beautiful plants I got as gifts. Gardening makes me happy but since I now live in an appartment I have just a small container garden in a corner of my balcony. I wish I could have painted the walls of the concrete railing around , but am not allowed to. I have some nice murals in my head. I know many people dont think it is wise to invest too much in doing up a rented space. Not me! While the landlord may not even permit radical changes like structures or some weird painting of the walls, we (i.e. hubz and me) still like to put in roots wherever we chose to make our home. I like to live in pretty surroundings and try my best to make my house look nice. I take care of not going over board with my budget and have over a period of time collected stuff which gets packed up for the next move whenever required. That includes my babies-plants.

Anyway, I thought I will share some pics of my balcony garden. The weather now is awesome in Dubai and sometimes we can sit out for a cup of 'chai' after a long day. Yohaan too loves to potter around here while I tend to my plants. I do encourage him to get wet and dirty. It is the closest he can get to nature while living in a tiny appartment building.

All plants new! Except that Jade plant in the white fat tea-pot planter on the left.

This is just a begining of filling up my balcony with greenery.

Predator man on the prowl. My garden lit up for my b'day eve.

Look at the Giraffe!

Tell me , tell me whadya think of the pretty lights??

 A close up. That little brass matka is from Benaras!

I love the play of shadows on the walls...I so want to paint this wall!

These pictures were taken by me on my birthday eve after a whole day spent repotting my new plants and cleaning up the balcony for a dinner Al-Fresco. The picture quality is sad because I am still learning people. They shall get better with time I suppose! Hope you enjoyed looking at them.

Cheers!