Dede Sophie

It is one of India’s best birding hotspots. It is an integral part of the elephant corridor in the Eastern Himalayas. One can see the most surreal sunrises of the Eastern Himalayas here. I am talking about the extremely off-beat and hidden Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary that is located in the Himalayan foothills of West Kameng district, Arunachal Pradesh. Made up of sub-tropical forests, evergreen forests and bamboo forests, shrubs and thickets, the beauty of Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary lies in its wide altitude range (500 m to 3,250 metres). This diversity in altitude range gives birth to a wide variety of flora and which in turn attracts many birds, herpetofauna, mammals and butterflies. A part of the Kameng Elephant reserve, it conjoins Sessa Orchid sanctuary to the north-east and Pakhui Tiger Reserve across the Kameng river to the east. It’s call to fame was a new bird species that was discovered here in 2006 by amateur birder and astrophysicist Ramana Athreya. This bird was named B...

Today I’m happy to welcome Josi Kilpack who’s guest blogging here today. Josi is the author of fourteen novels, including Sheep’s Clothing, which won the 2007 Whitney Award for Mystery/Suspense, and Lemon Tart, a 2009 Whitney Award finalist. Pumpkin Roll is the sixth book in the popular Sadie Hoffmiller Culinary Mystery series. Read more »

In general, when and how to trim, prune and cut back Camellias is all about making sure you do so in such a way that your prized specimen will bloom again the following spring. Get the timing wrong on this and you could delay flowering until the year after next! The same goes for a hard pruning, do so after flowering but this can still shock the plant preventing it from flowering the following year. If you want to have your camellias flower the following year then there is only one opportunity to trim, prune and cut back your camellias and that is immediately after flowering. If you wish to make hard cuts then theoretically this can be done any tie of year but over the summer is generally considered the best time s evergreen plants are generally dormant and also the dry whether reduces the risk of infections entering the wounds. If you would like to see more content like this then check out our YouTube channel ‘Walking talking Gardeners’. It is absolutely free to subscribe t...