Indian Summer on its way!

Ooooh, I can feel the heat building now in Delhi. Suddenly in the last few days, the blankets have all been kicked off... the fans are on ... the coconut oil in the bathroom has turned from a thick, milky solid to a clear, oily liquid... and the light outside is much harsher... You break into a sweat going up the stairs and the plants are getting thirstier more quickly!

It's nearly Holi, when water balloons mysteriously start landing on you from above as you walk along. Suddenly, I'm wondering if our air conditioners work and noticing all the gaps in the windows and doors from which that vital cool air is almost certainly going to leak out, inflating our electricity bill!!

Meanwhile, I'm turning the little, cemented, piss-yellow-painted bit of our roof into what I hope will be a lush tropical terrace garden. It's not much now... just a few tall, unruly Ashoka trees (actually, just looked it up and they're NOT Ashokas! The latin name is Polyalthia Longifolia and they are called Mast trees or false Ashokas. Here's the real Ashoka.)

The main challenge is going to be keeping it all alive through the scorching heat of summer. Just to give you a point of reference: delphininiums and hollyhocks -- those stately staples of an English cottage garden which mark the height of summer -- are considered early spring flowers here!

I'm also determined to compost... not sure why. Ecologically it's not an imperative, as I'm pretty sure all our rubbish is manually sorted after it's collected. I suppose I'm curious to see if the habits we've cultivated in London can be transplanted here. The Altitude Store and Dubden Green in Delhi provide all our organic peelings, eggshells, tea bags, etc.

So here's my composter... It's basically a tandoor oven. But instead of making naan and chicken tikka in it... yup... I'm going to make dirt! (There is a plan to add a tandoor oven for cooking on the terrace too! But then someone's gotta be willing to work over it!!) I'll let you know how it goes... I've got to wrap some insect screening at the bottom to keep everything from spillling out before I can start, which means another trip to Bhogal Market!

For the uninitiated, I wish I could say that Bhogal is a lovely, exotic fruit or clothes or jewelry market... alas, while it is useful (you can get tandoor ovens there, terracotta pots, toilets, electrical supplies, plastic buckets, bamboo ladders, rope, plywood, trucks for rent...as well as computer classes, cotton mattresses, hospitals, churches, fruit/veg, garden supplies and welding services)... it also has the singular distinction of being home to the most idiotic drivers the world has ever seen! It has to be seen to be believed. Everytime I go, I get stuck for about 20 minutes while maybe 6 vehicles try to get past each other around double parked cars, cycle rickshaws, pedestrians, wheel barrows, scooters and giant trucks! The more stuck traffic is, the more you can bet that people and motorcycles will try to squeeze through, making the whole situation worse... In short, Bhogal is useful if you can face its honking, crazyness every single day of the week!!!

Finally, a lovely Delhi gardener's blog to share with you this week as India heads into blazing summer!