Autumnal Garden Wonders

 

After a substantial and longer-than-usual spell of monsoon last year, the garden was going wild, with each plant showing extraordinary growth. Meanwhile, the absence of gardeners ('maalis') due to the waxing-waning pandemic didn't make things any easier. 

All the trees in the front yard had grown tall and excessively bushy. Baba's attendant Ramu was already helping with chopping the lawn grass and had no time to give to the trees. That is when the hubby decided to take matters into his own hands, and brought home a couple of fresh blades to saw the trees.

One fine November morning, hubby finally got to chopping the red hibiscus tree. It had been flowering through October, and so was one of the last trees remaining uncut. After pruning a few branches, as we were putting together the wood in manageable piles, we noticed the bright green Jewel Beetle sitting on the main trunk of the hibiscus tree.

Jewel Beetle

Such a gloriously pretty colour it was! Though I recalled seeing one in bright ultramarine blue too, many years back. The next round of pruning revealed something even more extraordinary - a snakeskin lay entangled in one of the topmost branches of the hibiscus.

Snake skin entangled in chopped hibiscus branches

As we all watched in awe, we realized we shared our habitat with a slithery creature. In fact, we had found one sunning itself on our porch on a cold morning. Maybe the same fellow had shed its skin on the hibiscus.

Snakeskin held by Miss P

Gingerly extracting the delicate snakeskin from the tree branches, we examined the patterns on it before putting it away in a box. A gift to treasure from the garden!