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2023 - The Year That Was

Places impact you for a variety of reasons. And the same place impacts different people in different ways. This is especially true when it comes to spiritual experiences, where every single person’s experience is unique. And personally, every spiritual experience is unique, the same person can have different deeply spiritual experiences at different places, at different times. This thought has emerged because of my own experiences over the years, but especially so this year, with different and unique experiences at various places I have visited recently. I began this year with a visit to Baroda (Vadodara) with friends. It was meant to be a relaxed trip, a touristy trip, with our sons. We enjoyed ourselves to the hilt, but the highlight of that trip was a visit to the Lakulisha temple at Pavagadh. It was the iconography of the temple that I connected with, and I spent a few hours simply lost in the details of the figures carved around the temple. There was an indefinable connect with

A tea plantation walk in Dharamsala - a Photo Post for Skywatch Friday

This weekend promises to be a hectic one for me, and I am sure you have plans too. Therefore, instead of something for you to read, I have a photo post for you... These were clicked when we went for a walk in a Tea Estate in Dharamsala. The sight of greenery against the backdrop of the mountains, birds, butterflies and flowers never fails to inspire me, and I hope they will inspire you too! 

It was supposed to be a Tea Plantation walk, but the first thing we saw were roses!!! lots of them! 


And here is the Tea Plantation.


The play of light and shadows early in the morning is always a beautiful sight!

The tea plantations merge with the natural groves, and create a fascinating sight against the backdrop of the Dhauladhar Ranges


A Male Asian Paradise Flycatcher poses for us, pausing in its play with another male. 


This is a sight I can never have enough of.. and we were the only ones here, so we had it all to ourselves!

A pair of female Plum Headed Parakeets

A pair of Grey Hornbills were hard to spot, so well camouflaged were they,
but once we did, they kept us entertained for quite a while. 

These were just a pair of many hornbills around, but these were the only ones I managed to capture with any clarity

The tea plantation gave way to a wheat field and the golden sheaves were a pretty sight 



Among all the sheaves of wheat were these pretty butterflies, flying everywhere




And there were lots of flowers!


And of course, more birds, like this barn swallow

Our walk brought us to a river, a mountain stream, flowing from the snow clad Dhauladhars


and the clear, cold water glimmered in the morning light

a Black Drongo watched as we wound our way homewards, tired but exhilarated after our morning jaunt!

I hope the photos have been inspiring enough to have you smiling. If you need any more inspiration, head over to the Skywatch Page for more inspiring images from across the world! Have a great weekend, everyone!

This post is part of my series on my #summertrip 2015, and I hope to take you along with me as I recount stories from my month long trip, which took me across the country. To get an idea of all the places I visited, and what you can hope to read about, click here.  

Related Posts:
  • The Himachal Series- 

Comments

  1. I love the birds and butterflies you've captured!

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  2. I enjoyed my walk around the tea plantation with you. Thank you! :)
    I love all the shots with the mountain range in the background, also the stones in the stream and the lovely one of the butterfly on the white thistle are beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  3. nice. Looks like you did a lot of exploration in Dharmashala..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Shrinidhi! we did manage to get around a bit... and since we skipped the temples, we had lots of time to explore other places...

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  4. Nice Captured of the natural wonder i like it.

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  5. So beautiful. One usually does not associate Himachal with tea estates

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, The Untourists.. thats true. we dont usually associate Himachal with tea estates, which s why this was a real surprise for us too.

      Delete
  6. Beautiful clicks! That blue flycatcher is gorgeous!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sounds like a good mountain day :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anuradha, thanks for visiting our tea estates. Dharmsala Tea Company (www.dharmsala.com) owns the tea estates that you visited - Hoodle Tea Estate, Towa Tea Estate and Mann Tea Estate. Thanks for the lovely photos you've taken - and we're glad that you enjoyed bird watching as much as we do! Kangra is really well known for its bird watching - and also for its teas:) We look forward to hosting you again - you can come visit our tea factory as well. For more details about us, you can visit our website, www.dharmsala.com.

    ReplyDelete

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