Giving Thanks

The holiday frenzy is on. Blueberry pound cake from Suzanne Goin, as always a hit, with A's parents- used frozen wild blueberries this time. Its also the time for persimmons and pomegranates and another of Goin's salad recipes that B had me make for girls' holiday lunch last year. No-one minded eating healthy like this. Its also the time when artists open up their studios and we got to see one really neat studio where she'd pinned up all her inspiration.  

On one of the Anthropologie visits, BigC had fun making reindeer using candycanes at their art station.

in the garden - chocolate persimmon tree in its first year

Sparkle and rejoice

 

The cadence of festivals has been well-paced and very enjoyable this year. Just in time for Deepavali, unexpected time-off from work meant it could be celebrated the way festivals are meant to be, on the day of the festival without having to dodge work despite taking the day off. With the sun shining in and out, managed to get some fall cleanup done alongside all the preps. Abundance of mums in the fall garden resulted in rangolis inside and out. Beautyberry, cosmos, chinese lanterns, peppers and even some persimmon twigs made for some fabulous fall displays.

With Amma here, obbattu was inevitable. A work-potluck turned out to be a pleasant surprise with the sportive guys rising up to the challenge of bringing a dish they had cooked - rajma, vegetable korma, paneer burji, mushroom biryani and above all, vada pav - all equally tasty, portions need some more practise.
The obbattus were devoured standing around the table, in the traditional Bangalore style of eating obbattu first ahead of all the spicy/savory food. The dinner was then moved to picnic blankets on the floor with everyone sitting around the spread, passing around the food and enjoying the easy talk.

 Much against the green freak in me, we stocked up on some sparklers and flower-pots over July-4th for this very day. For the first time ever, the kids got to "enjoy" the fireworks...ie, with BigC pinching hard on her nostrils and staying behind the wind to stay away from the smoke and LilC up in Appa's arms. The consolation being this phase too shalt pass with precious nostalgic memories for later.

in the garden - mums
 

 

October Blaze

Hard to believe that October blazed by without a single post - all credit to the virus that brought down everyone and the treacherous back-2-work. Mum arrived from India just in time to help us through the sickness and her favorite festival - Dasara. We celebrated a week late with "Bombe mane" - display of dolls and the flowers from the garden were again the star. Even managed to sneak in an impromptu night of Dandiya.
Fall colors arrived overnite with enough rains for the entire year. BigC wanted to be a ghost and witch this year and the graduation gown from a decade ago was put to good use. The school convinced BigC to "beg" for money for UNICEF than candies and they were very successful at that - raised ~$20 and no wasted candy. Its also time for the b'day - wiser or not, definitely, older! Lunch at Mingo of chili prawn salad with the girls and hazelnut cake with roasted pears by B

in the garden - loaded asian pear tree