The festive season !

Hello and a very happy Dussehra. I maybe a little late in wishing you all but then the festive season has just begun and there is so much to look forward to, so it's never too late :)
It's the most wonderful time of the year and the mornings are lovely. Today, I started to miss my shawl thrown over my shoulders when I came out of my cozy bedroom and stepped into the kitchen to make tea. Too early for a shawl ? Err maybe ( not)  !
    I love the sunny corners of my living room thesedays. It's great to sit with my morning cuppa and enjoy some 'me time' once the family has been packed off to school and work. The first flush of the sun instantly energizes you for the upcoming day :)

Picked up these lovely yellow flowers from the roadside few days ago. They were growing wild, as copiously as they could  and looked lovely.  They looked prettier when the first rays of the sun fell on them. Perfect reminder of  'ray- a drop of golden sun' :)

 I feel homes look so much better with flowers, real or artificial , whatever you can acquire easily. They make you smile every time you look at them :)
 And of course, when I think of flowers , I always think of how they would look against my orange wall. I am so very besotted by this wall that I become unbearable at times but then I'm sure you know that and have made peace with this madness of mine by now ;)







Talking about this lovely season, the first thing that comes to my mind are these lovely flowers called Harshringar at our end. They start to bloom in October and continue doing so throughout the Winters. There is something so magical about these flowers, their colour, their splendour and their fragrance that it automatically takes you to another world and also a certain nostalgia that it brings along with it. I, certainly have a lot of wonderful childhood  memories attached to this flower and somehow we always had this tree in every house of ours .
 These are flowers collected by my daughter; something she loves doing every morning :)







So, as I look around in the neighbourhood, I see almost every house going through a makeover, getting ready for the season ahead. The walls are getting painted, the doors and windows, polished, the grilles are shining with fresh paint on them and the meadows and lawns are being mowed, the hedges are being trimmed and in general the mood is lively and lovely . My neighbourhood gets ready to brace the occasion and I'm only too relieved I don't have to do it this year. Last year we got our house painted and what an exercise that was. It lasted for a good 3 months and I was so glad to see the end of the painters and their staff when it finally got over.
 This year, I just have to work on the interiors and get some rooms ready on the first floor. Of course, with Diwali just around the corner, it's always a pleasure doing so. It gives you a reason to go shopping, add certain knick knacks here and there and look forward to friends and family visiting you thereafter.
I've started with a guest room on the first floor and have created this corner , which gets ample sunlight through the day, in fact the whole room does so. It's beautifully located, faces the east, so gets the first rays of the sun and is brightly lit the whole day and also my favourite haunt in the winter season.
I am a big hoarder and baskets are something you'll get to see in large numbers at my place.  Tried to do something different with them this time and assembled  some of them up on the wall and this is how it looks now :)








 Getting a few corners ready by adding little things together. This copper jug/ kettle catches the eye instantly when coupled with a few stems of fresh blooms. Here, my oriental lilies, at their last leg of journey, failed  to hold up in the tall vase so just clipped off the dried  blooms and kept the fresh ones in this short kettle . They look pretty, don't they ??

I'm sure everybody out there is gearing up for the season ahead.   Wishing you lots of fun and excitement out there as you get your homes ready and yes, there's also  a wedding in my family, a much awaited one, so I'm all the more excited. Will keep you all posted. Till then..................keep those dreams alive :)