Monday, February 05, 2007

Positive Parenting




I had a very interesting exchange of comments with some 'jammie' and you can see it here . I wanted to share it with all of you and see what you people have to say about it. I usually avoid political discussions and I created this blog to share my photographs, paintings and some interesting episodes from my day to day life. However I am interested in knowing your views on the limits of parenting. My own views are clear on this topic from the comments on that post.

Friday, February 02, 2007

Carpenter Ants



I took dozens of pictures when i went to Pakistan last year. I could not access my blog from there and therefore could not share any of the pictures. Here is one taken in Capital Park aka Fatima Jinnah Park Islamabad. The kids were distracted by these carpenter ants. They stopped playing and observed these ants for quite a while.

Gardening


Our back yard was in pretty bad shape when we moved to this apartment. It looked like a dirt field. The girls and I worked so hard everyday, raked leaves, made borders and planted flowers and grass. The winter stayed longer than usual this year. It rains every other day (which I am starting to hate) I had a feeling that the plants must’ve been destroyed but despite all the freezing rain and cold weather the grass blades have started to shoot. They look so beautiful, and I feel so happy to watch’em grow. The flowers will take some time, I think.

I had never done gardening before and knew nothing about it until now. I enjoyed doing it but also realized how tough a job it is. I thought about all the maalis (gardeners) we had when we were back home. It made me feel a little depressed that they work so hard and get paid so little. When we move back to Pakistan someday I will make sure that I pay our maali what he deserves. I have so much respect for all the hard work they do to make our lawns, gardens, and backyards look beautiful.