A little cheer

Have not had this kind of allergies in the last ten years. Slept through the entire day. Came out feeling a lot better.

The kids came home and saw my screensaver, which had the Tulips.

Me : Do you guys like it?

Little One : Not really!

Jr. : Not really!

Me : Why? I thought it is a great shot!

Jr.: The storm clouds in the back are scary.

Me : It was taken near Seattle and it was raining when we went there. You can see the water drops on all the tulips, can't you?

LO : Now that you have photoshop, can't you make the sky brighter or something?

Me : LOL! Sure we can. Was using Photoshop to get the features in the clouds out. Now I will go remove the features and make it brighter for you..

So, the first thing after they went to bed..

Old Photo..

New Photo..

Think Seattle could use a perpetual Cloud brightening plugin on Photoshop, at least for kids who are born and raised here in Silicon Valley!

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Roosengarde Tulips

The perceptive lull in blog posts is due to three things

1. Lot of travel. In the last 21 days have visited Austin, Phoenix, Seattle. While the first two were business trips, the last one was personal. We attended the Ceremonial South Indian Baby Shower for my SIL. It was a fun event with family and friends.

2. The increased travel which translates indirectly to yoga attendance has left me with some vulnerability for hay fever and allergens. Also flights at this season must be notorious for picking up germs. No amount of Emergen-C packets prepared me for the allergy onslaught this week. Had to leave work thursday afternoon and slept through the entire evening. In a fit of determination, went and did Yoga first thing friday morning only to be sent back reeling friday night. Right now the body is on a delicate balance and have waved the white flag with the pollen around Cupertino.

3. There was a lot of photoshopping between sickness and work in the evenings over the last week. Finally got done with that.

While we were in Seattle got a chance to visit Roosengarde, a place for Tulips. We missed the fields of Tulips by 3 days. They did have a few gardens still left uncut and we were lucky enough to get some snaps. Now that my strategy for Photographing landscapes has changed with the Photoshop CS5, you can see the preliminary results ..

More to come, pollen permitting!

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Mother's day gift

We (me, Jr. and the Little One) were all obviously aware of this Sunday being Mother's day. The kids get reminders from school, get to make their little ceramic things with their bare hands as a token of affection and have the surprise planned out.

Daddy is out in the open and unless he has a secret stash of cash he cannot buy anything without Mom knowing it. Actually it is a crying shame that daddy doesn't go to the bank anymore, does not know his bank balance, credit card balance or mortgage balance these years..

San will scream every now and then if I talk about a lens or camera accessory or some long trip somewhere and as long as I refrain at the right times, things are okay.

On Friday we had to get groceries on my way back from work with a detour to Jr.'s dance class. We happened to see a Mother's day sign outside a Nursery and they had a nice Japanese Maple tree for 20 $ .. Knowing that we have been looking for a shade tree for the last few months and they were always around 50 $ thought this would be a great surprise.

Bought the tree, dug a big hole after fighting allergies and planted it...

to get a lukewarm response!

LO : I thought you bought the tree for yourself appa! How can a tree be a gift to Amma?

Me : Every mothers day she can go see how beautiful the tree has grown and you can all go water it. Didn't we buy this tree on a mother's day sale?! It is for mom!

Jr.: If we water it only once a year, that tree will die!

Me : Un vaila nalla vaarthaye varaadha di? (won't any good word ever come out of your mouth?)

San: I was going to spend 20$ on a pedicure. Now me pedicure is planted in the backyard! Don't have a problem with the tree. . just have a problem with it being a mother's day gift!

All said and done, the mother's day gift stands tall and will hopefully outlast all of us. Someday we can sit in its shade and open future mother's day gifts..

Time will tell....

Happy Mother's day to all mother's out there!

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