Day 26 : Gardens!

          The mere thought of gardens takes me back to the time spent in my childhood in parks and gardens which I and my sister would used to frequent. We were truly blessed to have them in our home's vicinity where all the children from nearby homes would come and play. Just one hour of play taught us so many things - co-operation, team spirit, victories and defeats, sportsmanship!

          Alas, today, there are very few gardens available in metros thanks to all the out-of-this-world-shopping-malls creeping up at every open place. Parents today, don't realize the importance of free play with fresh air and greenery doing wonders to their children. The weekends too are typically spent in this order - shopping, lunch, movie, dinner - that too in one mall!

          At least we have books to inculcate gardening and love of nature in us. Gardens was the prompt for today. Here are the books read -

1. Bondapur ki ek ajab kahaani (hindi) by Shamim Padamsee
2. Farm counting
3. Night sky wheel ride from Tradewind books
4. Spincy spider by Harminder Ohri
5. Brahma's butterfly
6. Storm in the garden
7. Magic vessels
8. The hedgerow circus by Ruth Thomson
9. Riki tiki tavi from Ladybird retold by Sampoorna Chatterjee
10. Hungry pants by Mary Batten
11. Topsy and Tim go green
12. Adam and Eve from Bible
13. The enormous turnip
14. The seed
15. The snail storm in the garden
16. The ugly duckling
17. Pinochchio
18. The green ship by Quentin Blake
19. Ruby Nettleship and the ice lolly adventure
20. The giving tree by Shel Silverstein
21. Tabby McTat
22. Room on the broom
23. The champa flower who took my strawberries
24. The tamarind tree
25. Oh, say can you seed
26. The prized pumpkin from Berenstain Bears
27. Tales of Peter rabbit
28. Flower fairies by Cicely Mary Barker
29. Sea in a bucket by Deepa Balsavar
30. Amelia Bedelia goes camping
31. Flowers - picture book
32. Farmer Donald's pumpkin patch from Mickey Clubhouse Storybook collection
33. The pig's egg
34. Geronimo Stilton
35. Cinderella
36. In the night garden
37. Wangari's trees of peace
38. Zhaad (marathi)
39. Teddy and a magic trick
40. A rainy day adventure
41. Bees and butterflies by Gina Philips
42. Little fox's picnic by Debie Glior
43. The oak tree
44. Pepper learns about recycling
45. Pepper learns to take turns
46. How does your garden grow by Disney
47. One mole digging a hole by Julia Donaldson
48. Alphablock
49. Eric Carle's ABC
50. The little gardener by Jan Gerardi
51. The butterfly children
52. Peekaboo in the farm
53. The tamarind tree
54. Busy bees' flower friends by Nicholas Hawkins
55. Come to the circus - Fenelia gets into trouble
56. Phonics first
57. The little mouse, the red-ripe strawberry and the big hungry bear
58. Tell me a story before I go to bed
59. Bubbles goes to school
60. Read and grow with Pepper series
61. A busy day with patches the puppy
62. Peppa's Easter egg hunt
63. Sid the seed by Daniel R. Panag
64. Hop on pop
65. Upside down
66. Even Stevens Odd Todd

          A whopping number of books were read today. While doing so, don't forget to take your kids to a little bit of greenery this weekend!

          AS for Swara, she is truly blessed to have a garden for herself and her friends in our backyard thanks to the green hands of my father-in-law.
 Happy reading!