Another year is almost gone, and rather quickly at that, something for which I am thankful in a way. A year with plenty of ups and downs, lots of good memories and some not so. It was a year when some of my dearest girl friends (all food bloggers too), got together and took a short but most fun vacation. It was a year when we finally gave shape to some of our personal decisions and made the move from Goa, where we lived for almost 17 years, back home to Kochi. It was year when we got to see a lot more of our daughter than the previous year. It was a year when I took on more professional work related to my blog and photography. It was a year when my husband and I did a bit of travelling after a long time. It was also the year we lost our darling 5 year old dog to sudden illness rather unexpectedly. It was also a year where I’ve been plagued by illness (nothing serious, just your average garden variety of infections) all of which meant that I have been rather irregular with posts on this blog. It was also the year when I decided to start another blog to largely share my non-food, street and travel photography.
I’m not someone who makes a habit of making New Year resolutions, and I think it’s time I confessed that it is because I’m not very good at keeping them! Though I’m so much older and not into throwing cats out of the window, jumping down from the roof of the shed, or most of the stuff in the poem, this poem by Robert Fischer pretty much sums me up to a T when it comes to resolutions!
“I will not throw the cat out the window
Or put a frog in my sister’s bed
I will not tie my brother’s shoelaces together
Nor jump from the roof of Dad’s shed
I shall remember my aunt’s next birthday
And tidy my room once a week
I’ll not moan at Mum’s cooking (Ugh! fish fingers again!)
Nor give her any more of my cheek.
I will not pick my nose if I can help it
I shall fold up my clothes, comb my hair,
I will say please and thank you (even when I don’t mean it)
And never spit or shout or even swear.
I shall write each day in my diary
Try my hardest to be helpful at school
I shall help old ladies cross roads (even if they don’t want to)
And when others are rude I’ll stay cool.
I’ll go to bed with the owls and be up with the larks
And close every door behind me
I shall squeeze from the bottom of every toothpaste tube
And stay where trouble can’t find me.
I shall start again, turn over a new leaf,
leave my bad old ways forever
shall I start them this year, or next year
shall I sometime, or …..?”
As I sit at my desk writing the last post on this blog for 2016, I’m left with the sense of thankfulness as always, for all that I have been blessed with this year and the good people I have been fortunate to have in my life.
I leave you with a retrospective of my 2016 through some photographs I took this year that are particularly close to my heart.
I wish you all a very happy, fulfilling, peaceful and prosperous year ahead.Looking forward to seeing you all, right here in 2017. Season’s Greetings & Happy Holidays!
The huge key that opens the main door of one of the many mansions my girl friends and I visited during our trip to Chettinad (Tamilnadu).
A Pressed Pear Tart from the blog recipe archives.
Making Ramasseri Idlis, at a small restaurant in Palakkad (Kerala). Ramasseri Idlis look like small dosas/ savoury pancakes but are steam cooked like Idlis. There are very families making these Idlis these days.
Sapotas/ Sapodillas from my Aunt’s garden. These ugly looking fruit when ripe are extremely sweet and creamy on the inside.
“You really are a chameleon, aren’t you? Fitting in wherever you go….. ” ― Suzanne Palmieri, The Witch of Belladonna Bay
Fresh Red Cherries in a Glass
Wood fired oven in Goa where Pao, the local bred is baked.
Corn, all shucked and ready to be roasted over coals. A staple during the monsoons in southern India. Taken at Munnar (Kerala).
Fresh lotus seeds sold in summer on the streets of Old Delhi
Daulat ki Chaat (A taste of wealth) – a light, airy, creamy melt-in-your-mouth winter time treat sold in Chandni Chowk, Old Delhi.
A little sunshine can drive away a storm.
Christmas & Cookies – made for each other.
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.” – Robert Frost
I'm Aparna and My Diverse Kitchen is my ovo-lacto vegetarian food blog where you'll find recipes, food stories & photography. I've been blogging since 2007 and believe the kitchen, and the dining table (by extension) is really the heart of a home. 
Lovely post and lovely pictures. What a kick it gave me – and what an honour – to see the first photo. I never realised you had such a picture. I like the lotus seeds picture too.
Thanks. I took that outside the palace. We were standing outside and this person came out with this huge key in his hand and let us photograph it.