Kaberi's stream of (un)consciousness

My friend Pritha is a trained cook and she also taught India cooking in a community college in New Mexico. Food was great and moth watering. I do not think I have done such elaboarate cooking in a long time especially since my kids were born! But Pritha with her two almost grown up sons, a job that requires an hour commute each way is still very enthusiastic about cooking! I was amazed how much she prepared with a short notice...

visit.

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birds in my parents' house in Khardah

This winter so far, I have recorded about 30 species of birds in my parents house. The whole area was once wooded (even 15 years ago) surrounded by wetlands,ponds, a canal that is 300 years old, a brick field, bamboo groves and agriculture fields in the middle of industrial belt of Kolkata. My parents bought this piece of agriculture field with a pond in 1971. They built a hut with a outhouse initially. Since 1976 they started building a concrete and brick house which finally took the current shape in 1992 just when Madhu and I got married! We grew up hearing the jackals calling every now and then at night, palm civets coming in the house, mongooses coming and killing our ducks in the house at night. We had goats and cows as well until late 1980s. In late 1990s when the bamboo groves were still around we used to hear jackals regularly. The last jackal that I saw in the property was in 2006. We all watched how the biodiversity of this rural island is lost over the years. Everyone talked about it but did nothing! NOt even a little piece of green grass left in the hood for the kids to play! I remember how we used to play in the open fields! The last bit of the bamboo and jungle is gone now which was once part of the irrigation department's land. How Ironic that this land with quite a bit of biodiversity was lost in the year of 2010, International Year of Biodiversity!! I have no clue how that parcel of land got sold!!!! Some crooks somewhere in the irrigation department and the local municipalities made tons of money by giving permits to sell water bodies as well as irrigation department's land! Local municipalities' law says one cannot sell any water body or wetlands! Some of the trees that I miss seeing this year are a silk cotton tree, a huge Polyalthia longifolia tree and a large neem tree. The canal which once connected the Ganga and the Ichhamati (a river that goes through border of two Bengals) was main route for business by water between many districts of undivided Bengal and partly dug by local Zaminder Ramhari Biswas about 300 years ago. Ramhari Biswas's house was on the bank of Ganga. In 1999 when there were more canopies around I had recorded about 40 species this time of the year. Some of the species that I did not see this year were common kingfisher, greenish leaf warbler, Indian cuckoo, Brahmany kite, Coppersmith, Lineated barbet, Brown fish owl, Blue tailed beeeater, bank myna etc. I hope the rest will not get lost! Some of them that I saw this year are here....
White throated Kingfisher
Stork billed Kingfisher
Little Cormorant
White breasted waterhen
little egret
pond heron
house crow
common myna
house sparrow
magpie robin
black headed oriole
Blue throated barbet
Tailor bird
white wagtail
Asian brown flycatcher
Blyth's reed warbler
green bee eater
greater coucal
Asian Koel
Rose ringed parakeet
Asian paradise flycather
Redvented bulbul
Black kite
Scopes owl
Jungle babler
Flameback woodpecker
Eurasian collared dove
Rufous treepie

Birds in my parents' house

This winter so far, I have recorded about 30species of birds in my parents house. The whole area was once wooded ( even 15 years ago), surrounded by water bodies, a canal that is 300 years old, brick field, bamboo groves and agriculture fields in the middle of industrial belt of Kolkata. My parents bought this piece of agriculture field with a pond in 1971. The built a hut with a outhouse initially. Since 1976 they started building a concrete house which finally took the current shape in 1992 just when we got married! We grew up hearing the jackals calling every now and then at night. palm civets coming in the house, mongooses coming and killing our ducks from the house at night. We had goats and cows as well until late 1980s. In late 1990s when the bamboo groves were still around we used to hear jackals regularly. The last jackal that I saw in the house was in 2006. The last bit of the bamboo and semi forest land is gone now which was part of the irrigation department's land and I have now clue how that parcel of land got sold!!!! Some crooks somewhere in the irrigation department and the local municipalities made a ton of money in the recent past by selling water bodies and irrigation department's land! Some of the trees that I miss seeing this year are a silk cotton tree, A huge polyalthia longifolia tree and a large neem tree. The canal which once connected Ganga and Ichhamati (a river that goes through border of two Bengals) was main route for business by water between many districts of undivided Bengal and partly dug by local Zaminder Ramhari Biswas about 300 years ago. Ramhari Biswas's house was on the bank of Ganga. In 1999 when there were more canopy around I had recorded around 40 species this time of the year. Some of the species that I did not see this year were common kingfisher, greenish leaf warbler, Indian cuckoo, Brahmany kite, coppersmith, lineated barbet, Brown fish owl, blue tailed beeeater etc. List so far this year 2010-2011

White throated Kingfisher
Stork billed Kingfisher
Little Cormorant
White breasted waterhen
little egret

pond heron
house crow
common myna
house sparrow
magpie robin
black headed oriole
Blue throated barbet
Tailor bird
white wagtail
Asian brown flycatcher
Blyth's reed warbler
green bee eater
greater coucal
Asian Koel
Rose ringed parakeet
Asian paradise flycather
Redvented bulbul
Black kite
Scopes owl
Jungle babler
Flameback woodpecker
Eurasian collared dove
Rufous treepie

Iron Bird Cafe on a Sunday morning

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In a little town called Steamboat Springs

On our way to Dinosaur National Monument from Rocky Mountain National Park we stopped at Steamboat Springs, Colorado (in the North Western end of Rockies) for dinner and night halt. Since our plans had changed, we had to stop for dinner in this town. We had not much idea about the area! We were driving on Highway 40 and stopped for gas outside the town and then came into town (one main road only). Saw a marmot in one of the parking lot of a building. Madhu took some pictures while I was searching online on the iphone to find some info on food places. "Yelp" gave us a list of restaurant and locations. It is a popular ski resort and summer gateway for tourists for water sports. Beautiful town of about 10,000 people nestled in the mountains and Yampa river (a tributary of Colorado river) flows through here. Later I learnt that it is a historic town and played an important role in the history of ranching/cattle rustling in the early part of last century. I t also porduced a number Winter Olympians in ski jumping and other ski sports. It had oldest ski jumping area that was started by a Norwegian in 1913. The name Steamboat springs derived from the hotspings in town that used to have noise like steamboats.

We drove through a big rain storm while looking for a nice local place to eat and came across a fancy looking Indian restaurant near the new ski area. Since Sanzari did not want to go to a Indian restaurant instead we found a really nice cafe in the main downtown area. One of the waitresses there is Nepali. How interesting is that if you go to any little town in the Rockies of Colorado and you will find someone from Nepal! Then came the task of finding a place to stay. Called many motels and did not like the rates they were offering for one night stay. Finally found a motel named Western Lodge and called them. The person who spoke did not sound Indian (no Patel Motel that means:-)). I could not figure out his accent! Anyway, 11 pm at night and headed to the motel. It was pretty much empty. I asked Madhu to go in to check out while we waited in the car. He did and took a while to come back. He came outside to the car and told us that the owner is from Sweden. A really nice old man who came to this country in 1969, lived in San Francisco and ran some sort of machine workshop. But in 1990 he and his wife decided to move here to start a motel. The motel is not very fancy in today's standard. Almost felt like a vintage place from the 60s with vintage furnitures and interiors. We learned that he and his wife run the motel by themselves. In the morning he told me part of his life story. Very nice and hospitable person but does not get much business because it is not new and fancy!

Next morning we went to a Bagel Shop for breakfast. After that, our kids discovered the river. It looked like this place is great for biking and white water rafting. Most people use bike to move around within town. We hung out along the river for little bit before headed to the Jensen, Utah for Dinosaur bones. It is really nice to find this little town which has quite a bit of stuff to do in the summer including a Summer Strings and Jazz Music Festival. Wish we had more time there!!

Inside the Western Lodge Motel. I love this chair.

Western Lodge Motel n Steamboat Spring

Western Lodge Motel

Downtown with the Ski Resort in the Background

This is where we had our breakfast

Strings Music Festival in the summer

One of the store front in the downtown

people biking around

lovely flowers

eating breakfast

really nice and friendly cafe

bikes for rent

Nice bike store on the bank of Yampa River

Stores on the river front. This building has a organic food store.

Sanzari taking video of the river with her camera

Yampa River

Busy Sanzari documenting the town

Nilavi happy playing in the water

nice cool water

People were tubing

tubing and canoeing

looking for river rocks

Western Lodge

An older Ski place behind this building. It is supposed to be one of the oldest one in Colorado.

more downtown... a lot of art studios including one with stuff from South Asia named Kali.

DSCN2010

A park for toddlers and preschoolers

At the park

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Park Avenue Hike in the Arches National Monument

It was a hot summer late afternoon. Temperature was close to 100 F at the time of the hike. But who can resist going down to those red rocks when you can see trail down there! Sanzari was initially hesitant and complaining about the heat but the moment she saw trail and we walked down little bit towards the trail head, she could not be stopped! She went ahead of us. Nilavi was not comfortable walking in hot sun but wanted to follow her sister anyway. Madhu was trailing behind for birds and taking pictures with his big lenses. After a while, Nilavi decided to climb back with Madhu while Sanzari and I went down along the trail. She did not want to come back up to hike back to the car!

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One summer morning at Arches National Park and in Moab Utah

Before we went to Arches National Park, I tried getting a camp site reserved (three weeks in advance) but was not successful! Unlike other popular National Parks in the Southwest, Arches only has one camp ground with 50 sites which gets filled up quite fast! And I had no luck even when I called that evening for any last minute cancellation... So we reached Moab town and decided to camp in the BLM campsites along the river outside the park. By the time we reached the camp ground it was dark and could not figure out which one of the 5-6 campgrounds have water and functional toilet. In the dark we could only see the sign of the first big one which said " Camp Ground full" . So decided to go to the next one and found some camp sites empty. We pitched tent in one of the spot that looked ok and close to the water! Most of the good spots were gone by then. Next morning when we woke up before the sunrise, we saw the mighty Colorado river and sheer red rocks forming formidable canyon walls on both sides of the river. Road going along the river is right outside the camp ground. You can see roads in some of the pics. The first image is taken as soon as the first light came. This camp ground do not have water and a has really stinky dry toilet for 16 campsite. Unfortunately, BLM does not do as good job in maintaining camp grounds as the National Park Service does. We packed our tent and headed towards Moab town for breakfast since we did not have much of a dinner the night before. Moab is gorgeous little town and heaven for backpackers as well as outdoor sports geeks. It boomed in mid 1970s from the uranium minings in the region. After the mine was closed, economy slowed down and became a popular spot for tourism. We decided to check out Jail House Cafe based on its review on YELP and the food was excellent! It was really a Jail House and the first court for Moab town. We had Southwestern scrambled eggs. egg hollandaise, pancakes and crepes! After the wonderful meal we headed to the park and hiked around before the temperature hit 106F. We hiked in the Park Avenue Trail and then went to see some of the arches in the park. More pics of the Hike in later post.

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Central Coast of Oregon

Two summers ago we were in Oregon driving along the coast of Central Oregon stopped at Florence, Oregon. Kids did some swimming and playing in the Cool Pacific Ocean water while we did some birding.