The Glimpses of Laguna Beach- Out & About

The other day our tour minds destined us to Laguna Beach. We never thought that we were having such an alluring sight to view only in the 15mnts driving distance from our home. It caught my attention when one of the Orange County magazines awarded it as the best Editor's Choice Beach.

Laguna Beach, located in the southern Orange County, California, is mainly famous as a sea-side resort and artist community. You will just get moved by seeing the wonderful art Exhibitions lined around the beach. We spent a great time in strolling along the boardwalk on the main beach, walking the scenic overlooks of the Heisler Park and wandering through the shops and galleries in the downtown. Around the Beach you will have exiting trails to hike. Your long exploration may bump you into some adventurous caves. You can get a wonderful panoramic view of the whole city and the beach from some countless peaks accessible by the innumerable local hiking trails or you may spend hours mesmerized by the amazing diversity of the beauty of the marine life that surrounds the Laguna Beach. Here are some snaps to enjoy:

Just think how lucky they are, where the brains are getting intoxicated by the three S- Sound, Sight & Smell of the incredible Pacific Ocean.



Here is a proof where animals also cherish the beauty of the nature.



I was quite disappointed not to find a single sea-shell. But the seaweeds really enchanted me by their wild beauty.

Don't miss the creative Car- a proof that Laguna Beach knows to appreciate the artists.

Front of the Artistic Car.

One of my favourites. I wish to be there holding the other hand of my daughter, not behind the lenses and somebody is taking a natural family picture for us. The yacht is the dream may be someday come true.





Due to the cloudy sky we missed the colours of the setting sun. Anyway the cloudy sky also showed how much beautiful it looks and also powerful when it covers the sun.



The snaps are off the Simplicity Photography Challenge: Out & About

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

This week’s Scavenger Hunt Sunday’s themes are:-

1. Miniature.

2. Water droplet.

3. Bedhead.

4. Colourful.

5. Eyes.

Following are my entries:-



1.Miniature:-

2.Water Droplet:-

3. Bedhead:-

4.Colorful:-



5.Eyes:-

 If you want to see more photographs on this event, then please click on the bellow button:-



Simplicity Photo Challenge - Mood

Pensive



Courage

These pictures are off to the Simplicity Photo Challenge - Mood . If you want to see more pictures on Mood, click on the below picture-

Bracelet

Karma was heading towards his office after a long vacation. The treetops had started to catch the fall colour. He had never seen the beauty of the fall in this way. They seemed to him like the newly wed bride getting the first blush on her face with the first touch of her husband. Then he had the second thought of the bride, getting the cachet of marital bliss on her parting line with the dispersed vermilions. A very contented smile spread all over his face. He was married now.

He had taken only a two weeks break, but it seemed to him a long vacation as he got married in these two weeks. Now he could proudly say,' I am married ' and would stop envying his married couple friends. Though the life of celibacy has its own essence, marriage has a totally different charm if one is married to a beautiful lovable lady. He always wanted to get married to the earliest and to love his wife from the core of his heart giving all the happiness of the world as much as he could provide. A romantic by heart he always kept on nurturing the life with a partner in his imagination. When he first saw her picture in a matrimonial site he fell in love instantly with the endearing smile stretched in Jinia's face. And he found himself then the luckiest man when the proposal proceeded and everything got fixed. Everything happened like a fairytale. They got married within 3months and returned back to Denver a couple of days back. Now it's a new journey of life with his beloved wife and to make the home a dream land where only the language of love will décor their nest.

His office was just in 2.5miles distance form his home. He had not yet reached his office, he started to eagerly wait for the lunch time, when he would go home and have lunch with his wife. He tried to think what she might be doing right now. Might be she was sipping the morning tea, sitting in front of the patio and admiring the beauty of the new land. Or  might be she was arranging the kitchen in her own way and preparing herself what to cook for the lunch, or she was adorning herself in front of the mirror and gently combing her black silky hair or she….His office came. He parked his car and headed towards the office. He was feeling little bit of nervous to face the gang and the rummy tattles by them. And thinking of the devil there he was.

Joy spanked his back from behind and spreading a puckish smile all over his face, said:" Hey dude, got the magic?? Enjoying??? How is Bhabi(sister-in-law)?? ". Karma now started to blush and his nervous soul just gave a smile instead of saying anything. Silence is always the great saviour from anything. He slicked in to his cubicle as soon as possible to avoid the group. But the gang jumped on him with a big congratulation and had made him embarrassed more with the songs of connubial bliss. It didn't last long as the work pressure buried every body in a cracking silence with a rhythm of the tick tuck sounds on key boards which kept on echoing from this corner to that corner.

Karma called his wife to say that he reached office and wanted to talk for few more time. But the conversation just finished in 'ok' ;'bye'. Karma's impatient soul kept on tracking the time and when it's 12 noon , Karma rushed to his car and headed to home. He thought today at night he will give the card and the bracelet to his wife.

When he reached home he expected a warm welcome or he would give a hug to his wife. But instead he confronted a pale face and a gloomy atmosphere at home. The lunch was served very heedlessly. His wife was just in a different world not willing to talk to him at all. He thought, might be she was not well due to the long journey and that's why she was not in a mood in talking or might be she was missing her home too. Karma was not in a hurry but set off to office early to avoid the glumness of his wife and to give her more space by her own. Before leaving he told his wife that they would have the dinner out side today. He drove back to office. He consoled himself that everything would change when Jinia would get the bracelet and the card and he would tell her when and how he bought this gift of love and saved it all these years only for his love.

It was 2 years back when one of his female colleagues, wore a bracelet and showed proudly to every body at the lunch time that this was given by her husband. The bracelet was embedded with some colourful bids and stones. It's very simple but unique too. Karma noted down the gift of love and that day in the evening he went to the shopping mall and bought the bracelet in a hope that when he would get married he would give this gift of love to his wife. Romantic by heart he bought a card with a poem of love printed on it along with bracelet. He secretly treasured this in his closet all these years and finally it’s the time to gift them to his beloved wife.

The afternoon how became evening he was not able to follow as all the pending workload didn't give him a single moment to lift his head from it.

He was now feeling excited from the bottom of his heart and planning how to make the evening one of the most memorable evenings of their life. He tried to imagine when he would give his wife the first gift of love how she would react.

Karma waved goodbye to the office gang, promised to throw a grand party in the next week, hurriedly slipped in his car and rushed back to his home. He unlocked the door with the extra key and saw his wife sitting on the sofa facing towards the patio. The dinning table was in a mess with the dry unwashed dishes and bowls. He put his hand on his wife's shoulder, she jerked his hand and disappeared in to the bedroom with out saying a single word. Karma was not able to understand what had happened to her. First he thought she was sad for missing her family, then the second thought rose, she was angry with him. But he was not able to trigger out the reason. Karma followed Jinia to the bed room and saw she was crying covering her face with her hands. Karma rushed to her and held her in his arms and just about to ask the reason why she was crying, she pushed Karma away from her and said:"You liar, why didn't you tell me that you had an affair before??"

Karma seemed to fall from the sky and didn't understand how to react. He told:"I didn't get you what you are saying?"

"Yea I know now you will just deny the whole thing. But I get the prove of that you had an affair before."

"I am telling the truth. There must be some misunderstanding."

"What misunderstanding??" She showed him the card and the bracelet.

Karma started to laugh and said with a relaxed tone:"This one is a gift that I bought for you."

Jinia yelled at him:"You liar, liar, liar!!! Don't involve me in this awful game. You bought it two years back, I got the cash memo to prove that. You hardly know me less than three months. How come you could tell that you bought it for me. If I would know that I am going to marry a filthy fibber, I would choose rather to die.. "

Karma tried to convince her that he was telling the truth. But everything went in vain and she threw the card and bracelet at him and told him to get out from the room. Karma with a sinking soul picked up his treasure and dragged himself out from the room. He heard a bang of the door shut behind him. He just felt that all his energy was drained out. He never thought in his dream that the token of love could show him the bitter side of it. He felt that somebody had shovelled his heart in to pieces and put a big stone on it. Now the stone came up and sat on his throat. He was not able to see clearly as his eyesight had become blur and everything around him was getting hazy. Jinia came in and announced the final judgment:

"I want a divorce. I don't want to stay with a deceiver."

Today was the 12th day after they got married, they had just started their journey and now it had come to an end. Karma was not able to say a single word. The bracelet in his hand had fallen down on the floor in parts and the bids and the stones scattered around the room.

(Behind the scene: I have taken the snaps of the bracelet few days back and wanted to post it. So I thought of writing a story and use the snaps to make it more fascinating. So this is how the story of Bracelet took birth. All the characters here mentioned are fictitious and entirely plotted in the imagination of the author)

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

Scavenger Hunt Sunday is another event on photography. This is started by the great photographer Asley Sisk. Visit her blog to know more about Photography and Events on Photography. I have become a big fan of her Photography and the way she sees the world behind the lenses. This Scavenger Hunt Sunday event has some rules:

1. Anyone can participate.

2.You're encouraged to take five new photos this week for the challenge.

3. If you get stumped, you may use one photo from your archive (although I'm not too strict about it - I do my best to take fresh shots).

4. Link up here on Sunday (or Tuesday at the latest) - you can use the button below.  

This week's themes are:
1. Wish or Dream
2. Clean
3. Currency
4. Pair
5. Square
Here are my interpretations:

1. Wish or Dream

I wish to get back my childhood again.

2. Clean

I hate vacuum cleaners as they make a very annoying sound. But cleaning is also an inevitable part of life.

3. Currency

Do I have to give any interpretation at all..

4. Pair

This is one of my favourite snaps. The best pair to me is the reflection or the shadow of an individual. While photographing on my daughter, this snap caught a beautiful glory and perfect example of a pair.

5. Square

I was searching each square object of my house to shoot. Suddenly I got the best squares of my life with which I spent most of the time apart from my family.

Hope you enjoyed the photographs. Thanks for visiting my blog.

Macro Monday

Photography is always a passion for me, but I always have taken snaps aimlessly. But now I am getting focused to know the tiny little things about Photography. So this is my first entry to an event on photography. You have to take a macro or a close up shot and to link it to the Macro Monday Event. Hope you will all love the clicks.  

If you want to see more Photographs then click here:

The Fumbling Little Chocolate Pie

The late afternoon hours are the guilt hours that haunt Rim to succumb herself in the world of junk foods. Everyday, walking & jogging for 2 miles, shedding 300 calories a day, becomes futile for this irrepressible habit. She calls it the ghostly hours which bewitch her to do the guilt. Her tongue starts to tickle, her belly starts to rumble and her limbs hypnotically draw her to the sneak picks to collect the chocolates or the chips which are hidden in some secret chambers away from her daughter's eyes. Her mind never supports this act, rather it will keep on counseling showing all the negative approaches with a long speech about' loosing weight is not a simple job'. But none can stop this gaga moment when she feels like tasting the heaven and enjoying the most serene hours of her life. Each bite to a chip, the munching sound, start to play the rhythm of happiness in her heart. She feels the childhood again, the stealthy attitude to steal something from her mother's kitchen. Now she is playing this kind of hide and seek with her daughter. She never makes any sound to wake her daughter up and destroy this happy hour when she gets only a chance to delve in the world of obstinacy, doing something totally unacceptable to some savvy culture who believe in beauty of a woman lies in her perfect chassis.

This was one in those ghostly hours she gave birth of the gooey creamy chocolate pie. When at the prime time no chips or chocolates were found, the chocolate pie from the movie Julie and Julia suddenly came in her mind and tried to strangle her. The delirium made her all most mad unless and until she made a so called chocolate pie to aplomb the crazy hours. She dug up her refrigerator and treasured a half pint of cream, a left over crumble cream cheese, from the shelf she rescued the chocolate morsels to ultimately free them. She made the chocolate filling and pour it in a pie crust. Proud she was quite in a transition when she first tasted the umber filling. It’s the best chocolaty chocolate repletion that she ever tasted in her life. The moment got frozen, the world stopped moving. It's only she and the pie who were propelled in smacking. She never thought that she would ever fall in love with this moment, with this taste. She never thought that the chocolate pie will give her the amorous feeling to feel the youth again.

She closed her eyes and she became Julie Powell of Julie & Julia suddenly, who was busy in making a chocolate Pie and searching for the pacification in it to get rid of the tension of a dissatisfied job. Then Her husband would come and give a pat for her creative culinary creation. Rim doesn't have a job. For the last couple of months she got tired in search of a job. So she can't grumble on that rather she has an excuse to show her discontentment for the unemployed state.

But she didn't want to spoil this rattling moment when the chocolate pie was working as a psychoactive drug and giving her the intense pleasure of reaching the utopia. She giggled in her mind as she thought that she had become a chocoholic and going to the doctor to get treated.

She suddenly heard a sound. And her heart started to beat fast.

Was her daughter woke up from her noon time siesta?

Her heart sank down for a moment. She wanted to enjoy this moment more for sometime. Her disheartened soul stalked to her daughter's room. She jumped with joy. No her daughter was still in a deep sleep. Her heart melted down in love seeing the innocent face, a face in peace and totally unaware of what was happening around. She showered a bucket of kisses from a distance to her daughter and then tiptoed back to the kitchen.

Now it was the time to give a final look to the chocolate pie. The filling she made that only covered half of the crust. Rim got baffled in thought how to fill the empty space of the crust. She started to search her kitchen to find an accompaniment for her chocolate pie. Her hand suddenly bumped with a packet of Britannia Thin Arrowroot biscuit. She hated this biscuit through out her life, till now Rim hated that 'dry', 'less sweet', 'no taste' biscuits form the bottom of her heart.

Then why were the packet hanging around her pantry??

In her first visit to the Indian store in this extraneous land she collected all the Indian labeled food as a souvenir. This packet also came along with those. She bought it, pushed it in a suffocating dark corner to decompose. But every time whom we neglect too much they rescue us in our most low time.

'Ting'-The thin arrowroot biscuit packet lighted an idea in her mind. She grinded half of the packet of the biscuits and spread a bed of biscuit crumbs on the empty space of the pie. Her favorite bottle of chocolate syrup also didn't hesitate to empty itself in designing a clunky topping on the pie. An enchanted smile started to spread in her face and a jolted sensation started to run in her vein, in her blood. She put it in the Refrigerator to set.

Her greedy soul was not in a mood to wait for any more so she cut a small piece of the chocolate pie and relaxed herself on the chair. She took the first bite . She felt a luscious commingled taste of a tangy-sweetness of the chocolate filling, the crispy crust and a tasteless powdery puff of the biscuit crumb. Rim closed her eyes. She saw her mother, 10 years back, requesting Rim to have thin arrowroot  biscuits as the grocery was pending and only the biscuits were there to calm the hungry tide. And Rim in full of rejection showing her mother to get tortured by finding some other way to feed her. She felt her throat was choking and tears started to well up in her eyes. She took the second bite. She felt like she was at home with her parents. She was cuddling in her mother's arms. An intense happiness fluxed through her body. She never knew that the fumbling little chocolate pie would turned those ghostly hours in an enlivened flavor. She never knew that a silly little crazy desire would show her the spirits of life.

***********************************************************

This is off to Of Chalks And Chopsticks event hosted by Padmaja and started by Aqua,
and
Spotlight : baking without oven, hosted by Indrani.

Dear readers, please do let me know how you like the story. Honest opinions are very much welcome. I really need your frank and true feedbacks. All characters mentioned in the story are fictitious, unless and until mentioned. And of course don't forget to let me know how you like the Chocolate pie too. This is very easy to make and the taste is too good.  Now enjoy the recipe below:

 

 

Ingredients:  Instant Pie Crust- 1 Chocolate Morsels- 1 cup Light Cream- ½ cup Cream Cheese- 2 table spoon full (room temperature) Sugar- as per taste Thin Arrowroot Biscuit- 12-14 Chocolate Syrup (optional)- For topping Method:- 1. Melt the chocolate in the microwave for 1mnt. Pls keep on checking in between so that it should not get burnt. You can also use a double boiler instead. 2. Add the cream and fold nicely. 3. In a separate bowl beat the cream cheese in a smooth paste and then add the chocolate mixture in it. Taste the mixture, if you want to add more sweetness to it, then add a couple of spoons of sugar more. 4. Pour the mixture to the pie crust. 5. Grind the biscuits in crumbs and then pour on the pie. Spread the crumbs evenly to make soft puffy bed on the top of the creamy chocolate layer. 6. You can add some chocolate syrup on the top to add more chocolaty flavour and make it more attractive. 7. Set in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours. Then cut it and enjoy as a tea time snack or a perfect dessert at the dinner table.

Flower Collection- Part III

Wayside Flowers

Pluck not the wayside flower,

It is the traveller's dower;

A thousand passers-by

Its beauties may espy,

May win a touch of blessing

From Nature's mild caressing.

The sad of heart perceives

A violet under leaves

Like sonic fresh-budding hope;

The primrose on the slope

A spot of sunshine dwells,

And cheerful message tells

Of kind renewing power;

The nodding bluebell's dye

Is drawn from happy sky.

Then spare the wayside flower!

It is the traveller's dower.

                    -by William Allingham