Strawberries in the backyard

Since Urv mentioned that he loves strawberries too along with cherries, I thought I'd share some of my latest photos. These are the ones growing in the backyard on two little plants (or are they called shrubs? I dunno), which are less than six inches tall because the leaves are heavier than the stems and they are growing sideways more than vertical. The whole plant actually fits within one square foot.

I will take photos of the plant and share as well. Until then here are some shots of the tiny fruits. :)


The fruit is born from tiny white flowers.


Which eventually grows into tiny yellowish green fruit like this.


That grows into bigger fruit turning a shade of light pink when fully grown.


And before you know it, the pink turns into bright red! (Btw, those tiny blank ants love to eat the leaves of strawberry plants)


This is what it'd look like when you've just picked it off the plant. :D


Here's what the plant looks like (top view).


A typical strawberry farm looks like this. This one is located in Brentwood, CA.



More strawberry photos taken by me.

My favorite photos - Bing Cherries

Finally got a chance to visit the cherry farms this year during the season in May.

These are some of my favorite photos. :)


Five cherries in a row.


Still together, even on ground - these cherries. :)


A bucket full of cherries.


It's things like these that make me go "WOW..." @ Mother Nature!

Photos taken at Dias Farm in Brentwood, CA

Elephanta Caves, Mumbai

During my last India trip, I got a chance to visit the Elephanta caves. Elephanta caves are located on Elephanta island off the coast of Mumbai.

We started out from home around 9:30 and got to Gateway of India around 10:15. The drive down towards Colaba was quite nice and with practically no traffic. I got to see so many interesting buildings, many skyscrapers, business offices, the Haji Ali sandwich place (this place makes some fantastic sandwiches) and of course the dargah itself.



The thing I really enjoy about India is the statues we have in several places in our cities throughout the country. I don't get to see those here in the US. The first one I got to see was Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri statue with the famous 'Jai Jawan Jai Kisan' slogan.



We got a nice parking spot right away, and everyone took their belongings and hats/glasses for the rest of the sunny day. There's a little walk from the parking area to the Gateway of India where the ferryboats depart from. On the way, got to see this restaurant owned by none other than Sachin Tendulkar.



Near the Gateway of India, got to see two more statues. One of Swami Vivekanand and the other one of Chhatrapati Shivaji.





After getting the tickets for the ferry boat ride at the stall near Gateway of India, we boarded the boat right away around 10:30ish. It wasn't as much crowded for a Sunday morning.



The ferry boat ride from dock to dock is about 45 mins. The weather was quite wonderful and breezy on that warm day with clear skies so I had fun taking some great photos.



On the way, got to see some naval stations or something similar in the bay and countless boats and a few cargo ships.



We arrived on the Elephanta island around 11:30. There's a nice little walkway from the docks to the park entrance.



They also have a cute little train that brings people up to the park entrance, in case the visitors don't want to walk. We decided to walk as there was so much to see around and stop and take photos, of course!



We got to see some beautiful birds, trees growing in the sea water, quite a few fruit stalls, a lot of boats and many other things along with excited visitors.







From the park entrance, there's wide stone stairs that lead up to the caves. The climb isn't very bad but it's easier if you don't have too many things to carry. The stall owners have the stairs covered with plastic canopy so it's cooler during hot weather. As you climb up, you see lots of souvenir stalls and food/drink stalls along with monkeys and other life that go around the island for survival.







Once we finish climbing the stairs, we come to an open area where they have a small museum with quite a lot of good information about the history of the caves and some sculptures.



A little further from the museum, there's a nice gazebo like place where people sit and relax or have a picnic at.



From here on, the extra-wide stone/concrete walkway begins that leads to the caves. It is beautiful as on one side of the walkway there are the caves and on the other side, there's either hills covered with green trees/plants or just an open view of the island down below or the sea.





The first couple of caves are large and the others are little smaller in size.





All of them are carved from rocks/stone and have stone-carved sculptures and Shiv-linga in them.





The concrete walkway ends when the caves end; from there on it is a dirt trail that leads up to the tallest hill called the Cannon Hill.



At some point this used to be home to a real cannon (which is still there) and the other remains of the buildings that probably were used by military back in the days. There's a nice shaded food stall on the way to the top that also sells cold drinks and fruits and other food. It was quite crowded.



The climbing down was quite easy and fast. At around 4:45 PM we decided to head back to the little train station that takes us to docks. The first train we saw was too crowded so we ended up taking the next one and boarded the 5:30 PM boat back to Mumbai.



Got to see beautiful setting sun while riding back to the mainland.



This is a must visit place if you already haven't been there before. I'd love to go back there again.

For more photos in the series, click here.

Some photos of Mumbai at night.

Urv's Elephanta photos are here.

Good tourist info on this site: http://wikitravel.org/en/Elephanta_Caves

Full Moon

Shot these last week with the full moon of Guru Poornima around the corner.

Didn't have the tripod with me so quite a few have turned out blurry but here are the better ones.

This was taken a couple of days before the full moon.



Moonrise over the lake



Bright moon rises on the full moon night.



More photos of full moon

Squirey Hopjump in Breakfast at Backyardy's

This morning Ms. Squirey Hopjump came for breakfast in the backyard.

She modeled for me from as close as 3 ft for this photo shoot.


This was when I saw she had invited herself for breakfast.



"Oooh... my side's itchy"



Gives me the "What? You want me to go away half way through my breakfast?" look. So I had to tell her not to. :P



There she is coming back.



"No paper napkin, so pardon my messy hands and mouth"



"I think I hear the kids calling... gotta go! see ya later..."

Here's a little video clip:

The Bay Bridge

The San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge is a double-decker bridge - you drive at the lower level to go towards the East into Oakland and on top if you're coming West towards San Francisco. This is also Interstate-80 (aka I-80), which goes cross-country, all the way up to New Jersey!

The bridge has two spans that are connected at the Treasure island.

This is the same bridge that got damanged during the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989.

The Bay Bridge on a bright clear day.

The bridge and Treasure island (on left) on a cloudy day.

Art work on the Embarcadero and the bridge and Treasure island in the background.

Driving on the upper level of the bridge. San Francisco skyline is seen on the right hand side.

The Western span (between San Francisco and Treasure island) of the bridge has higher towers than the Eastern span.

San Francisco skyline at sunset from the bridge.

The bridge at night.