Jaipur: Pink City

Nadivalya yantra

During our visit to the city of Jaipur in Rajasthan we got to see one of the finest astronomical observatories from the Mughal period, the Jantar Mantar. Built by Sawai Jai Singh (a Rajput king), it was modeled after one in New Delhi.

The site is full of large equipment used to measure the solar system, time, astrological signs, and also used to determine times for wedding dates.

Jai Prakash Yantra

My astrological sign

Hubby next to his sign

Observation deck of the samrat yantra

sundial

Also that day we stopped by the City Palace. It was a palace for royals but now serves as a museum. It has a pretty impressive armory which unfortunately I have no pictures of.
It is at the City Palace where you will get the idea of why Jaipur is also named the Pink City.

Some work going on for a private event

Love the detail on this balcony

Our tour guide told us that the maharaja would bring a couple of these vases full of Ganges water with him when he traveled. It is hard to see the size from the picture but imagine it is tall as a human. Quite a bit of heavy luggage for his international trips!

Complex designs in the arch.

It will only take a couple hours of your day to visit the City Palace. I recommend you at it to your list.

St Pete Breweries Day 2

We started off our second day of St. Pete with brunch at Peg’s Cantina. It was a good time on the patio enjoying food beer and friends.

I thoroughly enjoyed this cheese appetizer. It didn’t last long.

Blueberry goat cheese pancakes

The bill comes in this fun box.

Soon after Peg’s we headed over to 3 Daughters for our first beer tasting of the day.

The 3 Daughters tasting room was attractively decorated there. We spent quite a bit of time sipping our samples there. I soon realized that they had an outdoors activity area. You can play games with a view of the brewing facilities.

Our next stop was Cycling Brewing. Their cream & sugar, please was all the rage. We had fun hanging at their tasting room but soon it was time to head back home.

Not quite done yet. We decided to stop at Rapp Brewing Company heading out of Tampa. It proved to be the best stop of the day. You can tell they love what they do, you can taste it in their beers.

So the trip comes to an end. I will return someday. However next on the list is all the great breweries in Dunedin. See you soon!

Eataly

After asking for NYC recommendations our friend suggested Eataly NYC. It is difficult to explain what it is. I guess a simple description of Eataly would be a collection of restuarants, food markets, and food related products.

When you sit down to eat at Eataly, you must choose a specialized restaurant to eat at. The menu will be limited to dishes of a certain food type. If you want to try variation, you must move on to another restaurant.

We choose Il Pesce NYC, a fish restaurant, to start with. We ordered a salad and fish to share.

My husband loves whole fish and this orata did not disappoint. It was cooked perfectly.

While we enjoyed our salad and fish, Eataly was quite busy.

When we were ready to move on to the next food stuffs the restaurant portion was getting ready to close. We were unable to try more of the restaurants.

I was able to spend some time looking at all the food for purchase at the market.

I love squid ink pasta.

There are so many desserts. Too bad I was not in the mood for dessert. They look so good.

Last but not least is the cheeses. I could tell if I lived in NY this would be where I would hang out. I will take a cheese plate over a dessert any day!

India: Adventures in Jaipur

Jaipur is a very lively city in India. On the must see list of Jaipur is Hawa Mahal or Palace of the Winds. It looks interesting from the outside but we were told there is not much to see inside. We stopped briefly to take a picture of the building that was used for women of the court to get some air and see the street below; while being shielded from the outside.

Camels

One of the infamous emporiums they try to trap tourists in

Donkey

Orange Man

Street Vendor

Huts on the side of the road

Random palace ruins

Chicken

Street Vendor

Colorful truck

Spring Harvest

Spring is here and the garden has come alive. Our winter was mild so all the plants I had started in the fall did fairly well. It is getting hot quickly but we are able to harvest some goodies before the major heat, mold and bugs arrive.

I wasn’t sure because it started off slow but it looks like we had a good year from the blueberries and tomatoes.

We started picking the blueberries one by one as they ripened. I thought we could beat the birds this year. I guess the area birds are not a fan this year. They left plenty for us.

They are almost all gone. In retrospect I think the new drip irrigation that I added for them has helped them this year. I always thought they had plenty of irrigation where they were but I guess I was wrong. With consistent irrigation and the right schedule of acid, next year should be even better!

While we soon say goodbye to the blueberries, the tomatoes are thriving.

Tomatoes growing out of control. I need to secure them.

In other news….

Grape vine is fully grown for the season.

Broccoli has bolted. We never really took advantage of harvesting it this year.

Chive flowering.

It might be a good year for the citrus. I started a new fertilizing routine last year. None of the other disease control measures were working and the trees still seemed to be dying off. The new fertilizer sits on the leaves and provides nutrients. The idea is that the plant will remain strong and fight off the diseases its self. They seem to be holding on for now and producing fruit. I won’t know for a while if this routine will work long term

Grapefruit

Lime