Nature's time-keeper

THE ONSET of the seasons - autumn, spring and summer are faithfully conveyed by the flowering trees through its different moods and changes. But we hardly take notice of these subtle but sure signs.

Fortunately, my family of Nature-lovers, never misses these occasions - the blooming of the first flower, its changing colours, sprouting of new leaves etc.

We always had beautiful flowering trees in our garden - particularly, an old tree with widespread branches and lilac flowers always fascinated us.

As a prelude to the summer, this tree would shed all its leaves and flowers, suddenly looking colourless with its bare brown branches spreading out against the blue sky.

But one good summer shower will be enough to dress up the tree again in green. Gradually, the delicate flowers too start showing up, only to quickly crumble and fall to the ground. What a sight - the huge tree standing majestically on a lilac carpet!

After all the flowers disappear, the light green seedboxes hang on every branch. These seedboxes provide a perfect treat to parrots.

With the flowers gone, the birds lend their beauty and colour to the tree. Their red beaks busily feasting on the fruits stand out amidst the green and brown.

As the heat becomes oppressive, the remaining seedboxes turn dark brown and then comes another tryst with Nature! The seedboxes break automatically with a crackling sound and scatter the seeds all over, including our verandah. On one blazing day, when the sun was at its scorchiest best, the tree became very active, bursting all its seedboxes like Deepavali crackers.

In fact, the exercise went on from noon to evening continuously.

After the summer saga, the tree announces the arrival of the cool days by displaying its pale lilac flowers with one of its five petals sporting a dark maroon vein. The heart-shaped green leaves add to the pretty picture.

At night, when the moonlight filters through the branches, the tree would adorn an ethereal look.

The sighting of the first flower on this tree would be celebration time in the family.

The beauty of the full bloom tree would cast such a magical spell on us that we would be compelled to look at it several times in a day.

PARVATI V. MENON

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