A Crow-pheasent, Dehigaslanda, Sri Lanka

The Crow-pheasent is a constant presence all over Sri Lanka. They come to our garden and pick up and eat all the slugs and snails. They also keep a watch on birds nests and pick up the chicks of the small birds just before they leave the nest and make a hearty meal of them. Tradition has it that you hear their cry before the onset of rain. I took this picture in a paddy field in Gampaha.

'The rose's scent ...'

'Fairest things have fleetiest ends, their scent survives them close,
But the rose's scent is bitterness, to him that loved a rose'.

Picture taken in my home garden, Avissawella.

'Aedanda' to reach a paddy field, Gampaha, Sri Lanka.

    

 Paddy fields have to be kept constantly drenched in water during growth. There are a lot of water carrying channels crisscrossing these fields. There are improvised contraptions called 'Aedanda's by which people walk across the water channels in the paddy fields. I took these two pictures in Gampaha, Sri Lanka.

'Blind as a bat'

I found this bat between two 230V AC lines in front of my house at Avissawella. Obviously its radar had become defective in old age, or was it a youngster trying a daredevil act?

'Jambu' fruits, Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

November is the season for 'Jambu' fruits. It is also called the 'rose-apple'. The old chronicles of Sri Lanka written in 'Pali', refer to India as 'Jambu-dweepa' presumably because of the abundance of these trees in India of those times. I took this picture in our garden in Avissawella. Squirrels, parakeets and various insects have a field day, eating these fruits. Children love the juicy, fluffy center of these fruits and end up with a sore-throat by overindulgence.