Today I noticed something fresh; the sound of the human voice floating freely in the air. There is little traffic, no hum of tall buildings. I hear children’s voices and women’s voices and the men, too. Calling out to each other, singing fragments of song. Not competing with anything but the birds and the wind and the […]
Every morning at 5am, I take my cup of tea to the deck and watch the Peacock strut his stuff. His display area is amongst the Basunti flowers, on the meadow below the observation deck. At 8:30am he leaves, looking slightly dejected, all that effort posturing and calling and no results.
This morning he […]
For two days, all the staff helped me with the preparation of nearly thirty kilos of carrot chutney, for the coming season. Just the peeling and chopping of all the ingredients took seven of us nearly four hours. Twenty kilos of carrots, six kilos of tomatoes, six kilos of onions, a kilo of garlic, […]
The season closed at Basunti on the 6th of December which then gave us the chance to concentrate on the gardens. First thing was to harvest the remaining crops from the monsoon planting. First to come out was the Turmeric, (Haldi) of which we collected about eight kilos of beautiful bright orange corms. This […]
Arriving after the long drive into rural India and down the remote dirt track leading to Basunti, it was a great pleasure to enter the beautiful retreat garden with its colourful flowerbeds with fish ponds and stunning swimming pool. Its lovely location, elevated on a peninsula which reaches out into the reservoir created by […]
Our second day at Basunti and it’s 8.30am, a temperate mist hangs over the garden but the stretch of mountains to the North are clear and crisp. The birds are washing themselves enthusiastically in the baths and Sumna pads across the veranda with warm chapatti’s and omelets for breakfast. It’s already 23 degrees when […]
I had the very great privilege of spotting what I first thought was a very large pair of Geese flying over Basunti. Something did not seem quite right, as the necks were to long and they seemed to be bigger than any Geese that I had seen before. Forgot about this sighting for a […]
Mentioning how well the vegetable garden was coming along in the last blog was definitely tempting fate. Woke up a couple of mornings later to find that most of the beds had been completely eaten and the rest thoroughly stomped on. During the night a big male Sambar had found his way onto the property […]
Dressed for action by 11:30am, light weight trousers, tee shirt, wide brimmed hat, walking stick (should be light, strong and just reach the bottom of your rib cage), trainers with a very good grip, pocket full of peanuts and an orange. Head out the main gate and turn left, setting a brisk walking pace. […]
