Morning Reflections: Nature’s Blessings, Orchard Worries, and Community Connections.

Greetings, dear friends, how are you all? I hope you all are fine and enjoying your day. I wish you all good health, wealth and a prosperous time ahead.

I got up to the bright sunlight that pierced the curtains struck my eyes and didn’t let me stay back in bed. I was pretty quick to get out of my bed and perform ablution before going to prayers. I was a little late to join the community who had already got in to start the prayer. After spending almost an hour in the mosque left to set off for a walk. Today I went towards a different side of the village to witness some more mesmerising scenes. I take it as an opportunity to reconnect with nature and also to get engulfed and overwhelmed by the blessings of nature to improve my health. Breathing in fresh air early in the morning and walking through the wet grass covered with the dew that falls overnight makes the grass impart a carpet-like feeling, which has a very soothing effect on one’s body and mind. Walking barefooted through the dew has been my hobby for quite some time now, and it usually is the best part of my walk. The early morning walk through the hilly terrain of the village helps me to get rid of some excess calories and remain agile throughout the day. Reconnecting with nature early in the day helps me to shed off my stresses and to overcome challenges that I face in my daily life.

Today, as I was out towards my Apple orchard, I found some black dots on the apples, which made me quite horrified because it may probably harm the quality of the fruit later in the year. I am not quite sure about the disease, but the black dots have increased in number and density for quite a few days, and I am worried about what will happen if it does not stop. I remember last year when I found the same dots on a few apples in one of my orchards and then later as the days passed, these dots deteriorated the crop and at the end of the year, our produce was not worth selling and it resulted into a huge economic loss to our family. The diseases that the apples have been in contact with are scab and San Jose scale, and we are pretty much familiar with the diseases, but sometimes the diseases become so wild and uncontrolled and leave the crop destroyed. I talked to a few experts whose opinion was the same to some extent and gave me a suggestion to spray calcium on the crop as the crop has been suffering from calcium deficit and those grey dots are a symptom of the same.

While I was out towards the orchard, I got an opportunity to play cricket with minor boys of the village. These children have occupied a piece of our land and have been playing cricket there for many years now. We have abandoned that piece of land and have reserved it for them to play as that part of the village does not have a playground for such recreational activities. I enjoyed my time playing a friendly game and also took it as an opportunity to burn some excess calories. As the weather was humid and I was all wet due to excessive sweating, It was a good way out for salts to escape from my body.

While I was playing cricket with these boys,I roamed around the place and was quite puzzled with the way People have dumped non-biodegradable waste towards these areas. Because of the lack of a proper and suitable method of disposal, people are forced to dump these waste towards these corners of the village. These dumped wastes result in foul smell and make our fruits more susceptible to diseases. I am very much concerned about dumping of these waste towards these areas and it was for the first time that I could see a new site being polluted by the local people . A door to door waste collection mechanism is in place for the households who live in the main village, but it seems to be quite insufficient for the people who have just got out to live in the outskirts towards these orchards.

I immediately contacted the officials of rural development department who have been assigned the task of door to door collection of waste and the concerned official have assured me that they will make sure that no such wastes are dumped in these areas and the ambit of door door collection would be Increased towards these areas as well.
The assurance from the officials was a sign of relief and I could spend the rest of the time contended with what I did throughout the day and the experiences I gained.

Thank you for going through my post. Have a great time ahead.