Sunflowers are supposed to turn to look at the sun, but this one was looking over it’s shoulder. I wonder if it was confused or distracted?
Bangalore–during one of the city’s many iterations–was once called the “garden city.” While this title is as likely to be mocked as honestly cited these days, if I were issuing that title to an Indian city it would have to go to Srinagar. Many Indian cities have an impressive botanical garden, and some have some picturesque parks. But Srinagar takes the cake for a city its size. Besides the Botanical Garden there’s the Nishat Bagh (pictured), Shalimar Bagh, the Char Chinar, and Nehru Park. Furthermore, there are historical sites such as the Pari Mahal and Chashme Shahi Bagh that are also loaded with plants and flowers.
I’m back from travels in Thailand, Zambia, and the UAE with lots of new photos. This is an African species of Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa caffra) hanging from a flower. Lusaka was in full bloom, despite the fact that it’s [southern hemisphere] winter there and the weather was cool.
We watched a chipmunk tug a blanket up a tree in the garden of the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Panorama in Amritsar. It was neither a small cloth nor a small tree. (But the heart of that rodent was huge.) It’s a beautiful garden, and the museum is highly undervalued by the “must-visit” lists–e.g. as TripAdvisor. If you’re in Amritsar, give it a try.
And here are some flower photos from the garden.