Fit living - possible?

        I have come to a point when I start worrying about fit living. I have no problem with my weight and still somehow stay on a same mark, though I feel that a little bit more and I will start gaining on extra kilos. Last year me and my D tried to involve ourselves in such activities as dancing and gym. The dancing lasted for 3 months while we could keep up with gym only for 2 months in total. After that we were quiet occupied with jobs, house, family, friends and so on. Well, I say that our life is busy, not hectic though. So I am again thinking of how to improve this situation.

    Even if we can't go out for activities much, we still can do good for our bodies at home by walking at the backyard, I also try to do some exercises in the morning before office. It is more difficult to make my D to do the same, not everyday at least. He just says he doesn't have time for any yoga/fitness stuff in the morning (in the evening as well).  From time to time I just ask "When will WE start gym? I really want to...". I shall admit I am also lazy, I feel tired after office hours too. All this results in us staying at home in the evenings, peering into a laptop and eating something. 

     Another issue is eating healthy. Me and my D are non-veg people however almost whoever lives here in India becomes more or less veg. It happened to me. It doesn't mean that I didn't eat vegetables before, in fact, my family eats loads of them too, but more of meat as well. 

    So our diet does include lot of veggies, cooked and fresh, beans and peas, which are also good for health. We don't eat much of sweets, though we both love them, we eat different fruits, we have started eating from outside rarely now and try not to skip meals during the day. Still, some problems with additional body shapes come! Our work contributes to it surely:  eating not home made food, spending too much time in an inactive pose, which is also bad for a back... I am also worried that very frequently we have a late dinner at home. If take into account all I said above, then you have to change the entire life style in order to live a healthier life. So is it possible to have fit living without much effort? 

     

Double blogging - Witchcraft and more

  Not all the readers of Indian sunny Days know that I have one more... blog! I have no idea how I got into it as it makes me double my efforts on a blogging front, however I like doing it.
 Another blog is called "Witchcraft and more" and is not related to my "Indian Sunny Days" at all.  On the pages of it I explore a theme of witchcraft in literature what gives me loads of pleasure to do. While making the posts for "Witchcraft and more" I discovered so many interesting things for myself and it also enriched my mundane knowledge of the subject.
  In virtue of my second blog I was granted an opportunity to make a guest post for a blog A Witchy Life by Sita. You can find the post here.Its name is "Margarita - a witch of Russian descent" and it narrates a story of a witch from the novel by M.A. Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita". I hope you will like it.

Our homely rainy weekend

        My husband arranged a short trip to Kasauli last weekend... almost straight after my arrival back to India. I am very grateful for this as I wished to spend more time with him after one month of separation :) And the feelings of being back and seeing him again are just awesome! However, I don't want to be without him anymore. 

     So here are few snaps from our rainy trip to Kasauli.

    Ohh... I was so much pleased when I found these two cute cats (I guess, mother and her child) on the day of our arrival. Doesn't this look make you feel homely?

   One more discovery of the day was this incredible flower bush with the huge white blossoms! Never saw anything like this. By the way, these flowers have a nice fragrance. May be you know the name of this plant? I got to know it recently, these are Angel Trumpets! What a lovely name, isn't it?

This flower looks like some kind of a coral to me.

 It was raining almost whole night and continued in the morning. The place where we stayed was surrounded by the clouds when we came out of the room... I have goose bumps when looking at the clouds so close!

Ahh, so nice tiny blossoms :)

Of course.. marigold! But an Indian one this time. How many times have I posted about them already?

This was the crowning jewel of my snaps - a rose after the rain.. So much  romantic, isn't it?

I had a great time, full of beautiful views, happy moments and homely atmosphere. This week I am back to work and dreaming of another weekend like that one.

***Have a great day ahead!***

    

Back to granny square - a doily:)

         Nearly one month back  I got some yarn with me from India keeping in mind that I would want to make a few stitches some day. And this day has come :) Today I'd like to present a dacha inspired and dacha made crochet work - a granny square doily with flower decoration.

        This is not a step by step tutorial, however might be giving some ideas on how to use granny square pattern for a nice decoration of your room.

       First I simply started making a sunny granny square using basic single and double crochet stitches.

 When 6 rows were completed, I changed color to blue and made 3 more rows to "frame" a crochet piece. 

Then I decided that the flower details and leaves, which can be arranged in a variety of ways, would be the best to make a doily look summery!

In order to keep the middle of the doily free for putting a vase or a photo frame on to it, the flowers were placed on the corner. I stitched the details to the doily from the back side.

                           

I gifted this granny square doily to my parents so that the memory about this summer would be with them always :)

Dacha is...

      All my vacation has been full of trips, nevertheless, the closest of all is, a trip to dacha (a summer cottage a few kilometres away from a city), brings me the biggest happiness. I was posting about this place not even once, because it is very special and dear to me, as my entire childhood is connected to it. Though a present dacha was a second one we owned after the first one was destructed in order to clear space for a city... we love it not less and even more and whatever we have there now  is a merit of my parents' hard work put into its development (I also tried to help them with few things there :)).
      So Dacha for me is...
   A variety of flowers which make me feel good and so bright inside when I look at them. They can be marigold planted by Mum beside the house...

and little zinnia...

or a flower, name of which we don't know

     Gladioli of various colors.  My Mum carefully collects gladioli bulbs every autumn to keep them for planting throughout the winter till the next summer.

A yellow flower bush which pollen is being collected by bees.

         Sunflowers which were sown on their own all over dacha. Don't they deserve to have a SUN root in their name?

Way to discover nature: how the plants grow and what they need for it.

A rustle of birch trees in the wind... 

and a walk in our own pine tree alley. My parents planted all the trees about eight years back.

            The opportunity to see endless and changing sky due to the weather or the time of day. 

                  A feeling of comfort while sitting in the house, chatting to parents and having tea.

A creative way of making simple things like these potatoes baked in a charcoal.

       Communication with nature... when it comes to you on its own. These two cats came to our dacha and spent the whole day there... then disappeared.

And of course dacha for me is... be proud of the fruits of your work. This descent harvest we collected one week back. 

     Now as I am leaving soon, I will take all these memories about dacha with me, I will be remembering moments of joy and happiness for the rest of the year and till next summer... the only thing - I wish my D was here with me to share all this.

***Have a lovely day ahead and value the simple things!***

Magical forest - see you!

      These days I am less crafty and enjoying more what nature has created... My trip back home is coming towards the end next week... and I still have so much to share! Today - a post about another visit to the forest in the countryside. I don't want to say much but I merely invite you to get to know my country and take a glance at...

     A cherished road to the forests.

A green wheat field and the cloudy sky...

Grazing horses - idyll.

A lovely house on the river bank.

 A settlement in the forests.

 A heart-shaped stone.

And a flower of a wild onion.

Also at a tiny frog.

A bur plant...

and another one...

A field of "carrot grass" - coming closer to the forests...

A dried forest strawberry...

  Magic... remember? Such color combination and such "design", perfect ones, can be created only by nature. Let's learn from it!

A stone berry found by my father! Yummm :)

 Some other stone berries which I found myself...

A mushroom on a birch tree.

 A forest itself... peaceful there, ..no worries...

Someone must be living there.. may be a gnome?

A cobweb with drops of water looked really nice!

 A moss carpet.

These pictures I took when we were in another pine forest. There were berries too.

Cherries from near by plantations.

A dog rose...

A meadow among the trees is shining in the sun.

Some mushroom, I guess, not edible.

But my mum found plenty of these edible milk mushrooms. They grow under a thick layer of fir-needle and you have to dig to get it.

Just a random forest plant. May be you know its name?

Now seeeing forests from far... Don't know when I will be back here again, but hopefully next year and not alone.

See you - my land and sun which shines here also otherwise...

***Have a great week ahead and never forget your home!***