Mango Trees and Cats

Appu and Dessie, two of our cats, love to sleep under the two mango trees in front of our house these days. During the daytime, that is, when the temperature threatens to brush 40 degrees Celsius. The shade beneath the mango trees remains a cool 28 degrees or so. Mango trees have this tremendous cooling effect.

When I constructed the house, the area in front had no touch of greenery as you can see in the pic below. 

Now the same area, which was totally arid then, looks like what's below: 

Appu and Dessie find their bower in that coolness. 

I wanted to have a lot of colours around my house. I tried growing all sorts of flower plants and failed rather miserably. The climate changes are beyond the plants’ tolerance levels. Moreover, all sorts of insects and pests come from nowhere and damage the plants. Crotons survive and even thrive. I haven’t given up hope with the others yet. There are a few adeniums, rhoeos, ixoras, zinnias and so on growing in the pots. They are trying their best to cooperate with me. Let’s give them a little more time and then they’ll appear in this space with a lot colours. 

Bringing up a garden, however small, is far tougher than pampering cats. 

And I wish I could lie like that bear on an iceberg now.