Wisteria, Peaches and Bamboo Groves in March

it's a lovely late march day here in kathmandu, total spring, with the lilac-colored wisteria in full bloom hanging over the house, a cloudless blue sky on the hills above our home. the bright red, pink and white peach blossoms have already begun turning into small, olive colored baby peaches on the trees. there are mango and avocado buds on the trees, orange flowers in bloom and new bamboo shoots coming stalk-like out of the ground. dry bamboo leaves are falling to the ground (which they do in the spring) and eager new leaves appearing all over the willow and sequoia trees.

leah & i just took a mid-morning bath so she's laying on the terrace out in the sun wrapped in a towel. josh is organizing his stuff to get ready to head back to the states. ezra just woke and is about to shower. shakun is out in the garden admiring her red and blue poppies.

outside i hear tek steadily breaking the obdurate below ground concrete barrier that has kept out our 40' henonis phyllostachus bamboo from running into our yard. there's a 18' stretch along the western wall, below karma lama's house, where we're extending the bamboo grove another 10' into the garden by shifting the water canal (that sits beside the concrete barrier) along a more meandering route so that the 5' wide henonis grove can become much broader and more attractive. it's a lot of work, though. we have to remove 8" of the concrete so that the shoots can push out into the new open soil, then replace that immutable barrier w/ a new concrete one 4' deep so that the relentless phyllostachus (running) shoots are controlled imperpetuity. it'll be lovely when it's done.

i've got my work in the garden, too, when we come back from taking joshua to the airport at 1 pm. his flight is 3:45 pm to delhi on jet air. then, he's got to wait til 1 am for his continuing flight to jfk via brussels on jet. the connections are pretty good and if all goes well, he'll arrive at jfk two hours before his nmh bus departs for school again. he'll be in the air until we wake tomorrow and then arrive in new york when we're ready to go to sleep tomorrow (sunday).

such an odd world, nature in all of her beauty while our children depart for their own lives on the opposite side of the world...