Short Trip

Made a short trip to Kerala last week. It was quiet hectic that I had very few opportunities to take pictures. 

My first stop was at Guruvayoor. I saw this beauty parked near our vehicle. 

We visited Narasimhamoorthy temple, Thiruvazhiyadu. Got these pictures from there.

It was my brother in law who saw this little champ, a tortoise hardly the size of a coin inside the temple. Had to wait a bit for him to put his head out, and slowly his tiny legs one after the other.

And few butterflies, skittish as always.

Random pics

These are some random pics that I took during my last visit to India.

This fellow was happy to pose for a close-up shot 

A seasonal visitor

Banks of Bharathapuzha on a summer day. 

Some macro flowers

Anar from my aunts place.

And fresh cabbages in different stages 

Kanikonna- The yellow wonder

The first thing that took my attention this time on my way home from airport is this wonderful yellow blossom-Kanikonna (Cassia fistula). This is one of the most prominent flowers for us Hindus, being centerpiece for vishukani. 

Few pictures of kanikonna trees are posted below. 

These pictures are of roadside trees from my hometown, Palakkad.

Nemmara Vela Mahotsavam

Nemmara Vela is an annual festival celebrated at Nellikulangara temple. The deity in this temple is Nellikulathi Amma, who takes care of nemmaraites in Nemmara and abroad.
Festivities starts on 1st day of malayalam month of Meenan and ends on 20th of the same month. 20th of meenam ,the vela day is the culmination of 20 days of festivities. Main events are ezhunnallethu, vadhyam, fireworks etc.

Thidambu, symbol of devi is carried on the main elephant. Thidambu is made of gold and decorated with fresh flowers.Elephants are decorated with garlands and nettipattam. 

There are different types of melams and vadhyams throughout the day( and night)

Next morning, everyone including the elephants comes back to the same place where it all started. The decorations on the elephants are removed and they disperse to their home towns, in different parts of Kerala.

Strawberry farm-2

The strawberry farm that I mentioned in my previous post had a decent nursery with beautiful flowers which are posted below.

This last one is some kind of wild flower that was found near the farm, not ornamental. Macro looked better, so posting that as well.