Dilkusha Palace, Lucknow

A large part of the original Dilkusha gardens
lies beyond the wall that runs close to the palace
 preventing visitors accessing the front!

A back view of the Dilkusha Palace, Lucknow
Visitors have been deprived of a look at the front view
because of a wall that now divides the original garden.

Short of restoration and more than
preservation!
Within the low-walled enclosure, left of pic,
are the graves of Lieut Charles Keith Dashwood
and Lieut W. Paul 

This ruined palace complex was built of lakhauri bricks,
 plastered with lime and decorated with plaster
mouldings in a typical European style, during the
 reign of  Nawab Saadat Ali Khan (A.D. 1798-1814).

Sydney Percy Lancaster 1886 --

The Lucknow Botanical Gardens: Two years ago the aeriel roots
seen in this pic were enclosed in hollow bamboo to help them
take root, undisturbed by people walking past. A tree whose
branches spreads so wide, needs not only more moisture
and nutrients from the ground but added support!
Sadly, the banyans in the Residency haven't had the same
attention so are gradually dying. There is also the historic banyan
at the Lucknow Zoo that, according to folklore, gave shade,
at the height of summer to hundreds of soldiers during the
uprising in 1857. This banyan tree has been pruned so drastically
that there isn't much left. Adding to the problem is the fact that
the area around has been paved.
 

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Who was Percy Lancaster that he should have
this shed for plants given his name?
A search of Wikipedia.org and Fibis.org revealed
that Percy Joseph Lancaster was a banker who
was also an amateur gardener. He married
 Ida Gordon Blunt at Fatehgarh in 1885.
He was also Secretary, Agri-Horticultural Society
at Alipore (Calcutta), a post that went to  his
son, Sydney Percy Lancaster on his father's
death in 1904 at Alipore.
It was Sydney who had worked at the Lucknow
gardens and is said to have spent his last days
in Lucknow but Wiki has no date of death. I
have covered the Lucknow cemeteries quite
extensively but I have yet to come across his
place of burial. However, there is a grave for
William Robert Lancaster 1885-1954 in the
Nishatganj Cemetery, Lucknow but I've not found a
family connection.

The Flower Show on Saturday Jan 20 2018 at the
Botanical Gardens in Lucknow 

Old, old pics

The Shepherds in the 1980s

Collecting donations. .

On a Lucknow street a small boy and a woman collecting donations
while at least three men sit in the shadows
of the vehicle cabin. 

Sahara Estate

The Sahara Shahr (estate) in Gomtinagar, Lucknow
 that bustled with
activity is all but dead since the arrest of
the Sahara Shree Subrata Roy

The estate is on the left of this flyover

A building on the estate remains incomplete
following municipal corporation intervention  

Not a soul can be seen within the compound

The watchtowers today remain unmanned 

Naini Tal June 2015

Faye Shepherd McFarland at the Tibetan market

On the way down

Oak tree at Raj Bhawan, NT

Raj Bhawan, NT

From the Boat Club

Work on the River Gomti, Lucknow

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Cleaning of the River Gomti, Lucknow

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 Nishatganj Bridge, Lucknow

Riverside temples 

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From the bridge

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