calm after the storm

 Let's say the storm has settled and I am at peace. Enough people in the tatting community now know the 3 sides of the story and hopefully it will dissuade the person from spreading falsehoods. I have no desire to bring an excellent and fair administrator into the eye of that storm, hence have removed the entire post, not merely the screenshots. 

I want to take this opportunity to thank all my well-wishers and friends who either left comments or spoke with me privately, in full support. I am trying to respond to each. You have restored my temporarily faltering faith in the goodness of the tatting community 🧡💗🧡

Now, after many long weeks of extreme cold and no sun, we are basking in the warm sunshine these last few days (and forecast for the next 7 days is similar). These are a few pics I took this morning.

Ajwain ('bishop's weed'). When we bought it a couple of months back, the leaves were very tiny and clustered in the center. Now they are proliferating and enlarging at a rapid pace. And the aroma that wafts out by simply ruffling the leaves is something exotic and calming. 

All attempts to grow it over the years had failed. 

Ficus - the new leaves it sprouted a month back are already quite big, though still retaining some sap green colour.

Lemon tree - this was my hubby's ardent wish because of the aromatic leaves. Lo and behold, the flower buds are already in sight!

From a slightly different angle. This plant, too, has grown splendidly during the cold months, almost doubling in length. 

The reason is the glasshouse effect since we glassed over the entire balcony to avoid pollution and lizards.

Now is this a moth or a butterfly? It was absolutely static for the longest time (hence I veer toward moth). This is as close to the vibrant rust shade and scales as could be captured. 

The moth had landed a couple of days back and was resting on the lower shaded side of the window frame. It was barely 1 to 1.5 cms and the photos are heavily cropped.

At one time I used to be the 'gardener' of the house. It included watering, aerating, manuring, propagating, pruning. This time all watering duties are delegated to hubby. My role is to make sure the pots are rotated every week, 10 days to receive sunlight distributed to each side alternately. We are fortunate to find this excellent plant seller and have decided to call him every few months to manure and buy any new plant we might want. He's already made one such trip.

Now to see how these plants fair during the coming summer months. Hoping for the best...