The colour purple!

It's been a roller coaster ride of curiosity to get to know the name of the purple flower which is in the flower arrangements. Check the pictures!

We went for Anu and Shirins Silver Wedding celebrations on Saturday the 9th June and all the arrangements in church had this strange purple flower. I really did not pay too much attention to them except when I went up for communion and got a closer look.
Even then nothing struck me as strange and I surmised they were artificial flowers Shirin had brought from the US.

It was only later at Angela and Pichiks home where the celebration dinner was held that Angela told me they were for real.

Pow! that was an eye opener and after that I made so many enquiries and my story has been sent off to the Hindu for publishing.

Nature never fails to fill my life with joy and beauty from the most unexpected quarters.

Flowers of passion!

It was the Jesuit missionaries of the 17th Century,who followed in the wake of the (then) all-conquering Spanish empire,that saw the first Passion flower as part of God's bountiful creation.The passion flower is so called because it symbolised Christ's suffering on the cross. Passion flowers are climbing vines, probably distant relatives of the cucumber.The flower, however, is a thing of unique and undisputed beauty, regardless of the provenance of its design.

The typical passion flower has five sepals and five petals, which are almost identical to the sepals. Immediately inside these is a structure with a shape found in no other flower. This corona is formed of two stacked rings of very fine filaments, often brightly coloured like the sepals and petals. Protruding from the centre of the corona is a small post, upon which rests the ovaries, five stamens and anthers, and three stigmas.The five anthers were the five wounds on Christ's body, and the three stigmas the nails. The leaves were the spear that pierced His side, and the tendrils the scourges that flayed His flesh.But fact remains that the passion flower is indeed an exquisitely beautiful plant.

Passion flowers are quite easy to grow. You can grow your own passion vines cheaply and easily by getting your seed from the fruit rather than a nursery and letting them climb all over a pandal or a fence.

I make a really divine juice from the fruit which does use a lot of sugar but which is full of the goodness of vitamin C.