A year since our return

Time for a visual tribute to the apartment that we made into our home in Singapore. These are images scattered over 18 months in no particular order but certainly in order of my lifelong memories cocooned in those spaces.

Follow the link:

https://photos.google.com/…/AF1QipMvEJLU1cLzfp_T1pIai3hvNmz…

All images copyrighted to www.limegreenwalls.blogspot.com

A year since our return

Time for a visual tribute to the apartment that we made our Home in Singapore. These are images scattered over 18 months in no particular order but certainly in order of my lovely memories in those spaces.
Follow the link:
https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipMcmL3QTK2gS6MR4DTPMotKjbi6MBeNmQpp2N0D

All images copyrighted to www.limegreenwalls.blogspot.com

Boxes, not Pandora's

Boxes in all sizes.

Small. big. medium. in-between.

Lined atop each other

face-down, bottom-up

side-by-side.

Can't remember anytime when it wasn't like this;

Can remember every time it has been their turn to be boxed and lined up. 

'Packers have arrived' tralalalala

the song paired with the screech of scotch taping,

the thud of the cardboard boxes on the bare flooring,

the fine dust that puffs up with every haul and manoeuvre.

The laughter, the banter, the whimsical whistling of the packer-boys bent-on filling them up, 

box by box, space by space, room by room.

Rounding off the days, four days in row

till the boxes 'carrying pieces of our life' are ready to board,

to be driven away boarded up, on wheels 

to travel homewards in the waters

to sail away and touch the shores at the other end,

much later than we touch home ourselves.

Like two-parts-of-the same traveling home on different time-capsules!

And maybe, just maybe

so that we are home to welcome back : the boxes 'carrying pieces of our life',

made up of the familiar, of the comforting, of pieces of memory and memoirs.

Each time a box is opened, a piece is revealed 
- a tiny familiar lurch augurs a memory, 

and a vivid inspiration for its nesting place

in the new home! 

(@Cliveden@Grange 10:45 pm Day1 of Packing)

Pausing, ever so gently

fresh flowers, fresh bedspread, freshness and anticipation; before flux takes over

Tell me if you ever feel this sense of Pause in the midst of the most ardent state of flux, a sense of weightlessness, a certain lightness in the mind which has allowed the body to relax ever so gently into a warm, glowing kind of stupor, not numbing; rather sharply aware of each sensation, each fleeting thought, each breath that leaves and flutters the edge of the lips - an acute awareness, a state of being!?

I managed to get into that Pause today in the midst of a colossally busy day - sending my son off to School on the last day of the year though only after a joyous reminiscing through his years there, his first day forebodings and many such tender memories; a jog in the sun;  two meetings with Clients in different phases of their journey with me; a moment to notice and fish-out the camera to capture the silence that rested in the different corners of my home this morning; readying the house before the arrival of our last visitors - our dear friends.  And yet I look at the clock and find time to bring these thoughts to paper.

Yes, our visitors are about to arrive and be with us before we say goodbye to this country, once again. This Country which effortlessly took us in— second time over— made us fall into its easy rhythm and of course, managed to get the tear glands active as we approach departure. 

So it is only fair to say to you : THANK YOU Singapore - you are that special home where every-time we get a little bit closer to ourselves, we travel inwards into the authentic a little bit more and find that special place inside of us that we missed noticing so far and thence, marvel at Life  !

(Images copyrighted to www.limegreenwalls.blogspot.com)

Books are everywhere (ought to be)!

We've been nomadic, leaving homes and arriving at a new, moving houses and/ or cities, averaging a shift every two years! Some others have travelled all that distance with us - most are subjects of many of my posts on this blog and some others un-mentioned though stoic in their presence!

Today I talk about the latter - our books.

If you've followed my home tours you would have spied them in various frames - lined up in my living room, framing my dining areas, standing tall in my study & bedrooms. Consequently, many bookshelves were acquired, and some given away! I can remember a year or two when we had to acquire more than one new bookshelf to ensure our books don't feel too nomadic and to give the new joiners some respectable seating!

Our current home is gorgeous in the many window shelves (a.k.a ledges) that it offers—potential home to the various hard backs and paper backs —within their breadth. Of all, the most dramatic is the little book-cum-reading nook in my bathroom!

 

Cosily inviting, right!

You can do it too! You can literally inject life into a dull space by placing some of your favourite titles - lined up, leaning, lying down or simply between fun book-ends. Here, I share some more ideas from my picture-treasure trove of bookshelves - stuff of dreams! (courtesy : various sources)

Ah, soaked in books!
Source : unknown

This one could surely be about books
Unknown Source

Source : unknown

Source : unknown

They sure deserve framing
Source: unknown

All pictures of my home copyrighted to www.limegreenwalls.blogspot.com, and taken by me.

Panorama

Immensely thrilled with the results of the iPhone panorama feature that I just discovered! Stunning results in extreme low light, only strays of ambient 2 p.m. light this afternoon!

 HAPPY DIWALI my friends and fellow bloggers.

May this Diwali light up several new blogging ideas and endless blogging inspiration! Love & Light

Nesting

... the year is almost drawing to a close, what with a visit to Pune planned for Dussehra and a Delhi visit on the anvil for Diwali & Bhai dooj and December being the month when my precious boy turns 5, I am thinking I should just go ahead and share my present home before it is time to move again!! Yes,  did I tell you that our own home is getting into almost final stages before we get a handover early next year!

and so here goes some visuals of my current abode, clicked on different days (and times of the day), different kinds of light through the last six months of summer & monsoon. As I have said, nothing is ever settled in my home, the placement of that cushion, or that piece of artifact, or that color match, almost always in a whirl of flux, so reflecting my mood of that day and that of the light that is filtering in!

This home is kind of a rectangular spread of space, two apartments made into one by knocking off the wall in the middle. So the result is this broad un-artistic doorway, wide rectangular space, a bit too much to hold my treasured belongings:). The challenge, if there was one, was thus to give the space some visual partitions, create separate dwelling spaces and give the wide frame some visual reprieve, aesthetically. A well heeded promise that my husband and I made before we moved into this rented place was not to acquire even a single new piece of furniture or artifact while in this house or before we move to our own. Hence, this totally negated the most adopted option of filling up odd and empty spaces by acquiring new odds and ends. This, believe me, has been the toughest promise to keep to ourselves!! That's another reason why the state of flux is so real and so imminent as I choose some of my favorite frames to share -

this favorite book shelf lends itself to a visual partition to the TV lounge area.

The welcome spread as we enter the living space

All pictures clicked by me. 

Jades in a vignette!

I am glad I captured these beautiful Jades in full expression before I left Vastu, our ex-home. Because something has happened to my little garden since then, actually since the workers painting the building  paid homage to my little garden by dropping paint all over them and how it hurt! I raved, ranted, almost screamed at them but the moment happened right in front of my eyes, as a brood of them painters descended and before I could blink, it was all over, literally. A lot has happened since then, we've moved home, set up (mostly), my few planters placed in a more open deck next to the living room overlooking the greens & yes the misty ranges. But my plants have never been the same, yet! Most of the Jades have died, barring the mother of-em-all, and most of the other plants are trying, trying hard along with me to get back to their natural healthy green - yearning for them to look healthy again with the monsoon rains here! Love them!

and that watering can is on the same mission with me to revive our remaining green friends!

White and contemporary!

My Singapore stay was special in that my home reflected a lot of what I wouldn't have been able to do in India. The white sofas, the very contemporary, modern apartment blended beautifully with my traditional wooden furniture from India. and yes Buddha entered by home in a major way!

It's magical how about a year before moving to Singapore I'd started craving (pregnancy induced) for white interiors, evincing a very specific wish for a white upholstered sofa seating in my living room, which, of course, became a frequent topic of banter between Narayan, our friends and me and the fact that Narayan owed it to fulfill my wish.

And it all fell into place!

Ikea cushions breaking the white monochrome

Narayan's inherited silver synced beautifully with the white 

View of the dining area

View from the entrance

the White of the drawing room offset with an amply colorful family/ TV area

My baby's favorite growing up area, the TV couch and the cosy family area

Irresistibly happy & sunlit corner

The Nest our next

Knock, knock

@The Nest (end 2006 to mid 2008) - nestled in the heart of Catholic Bandra, in the quiet lane right behind Mehboob Studio, where very few of the original bungalows have fallen prey to gluttonous builder-development. Thanks to the prosperity & pride of the Mumbai Catholics, the colony stands manicured, landscaped almost pristine and we became quite respectful of them, living amongst them. The Nest - this barely 3-storey building with one apartment each floor, big balconies, windowsills with small patio-like extensions and brilliant grill work overlooking Gulmohars, Peepal and Coconut Palms. And incessant bird chirps!

My living room by the sunlight

My sun streaked dining area

The bar

My Chaise by the lamp shade

the Sideboard 

The balcony overlooking the Palms