Pine logs from a plantation near Beragala, Sri Lanka.

Pinus trees were planted on a l;arge area close to the Badulla Highway from Belihul oya. These logs are harvested and transported to Colombo. You see the felled trunks by the roadside on this picture.

Waterbirds, Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

Inside the fenced off area of the Sithawaka Free Trade Zone at Avissawella is a pond, where swamp birds come to feed and build their nests, uninterrupted by humans. I took this picture there. You can see egrets, stilts, bitterns  lapwings, whistling ducks etc. Try and spot some of them in the two pictures.

Offering to 'Sani Bhagawan'

I took this picture on the perimeter road of 'Saman Dewale', Rathnapura, Sri Lanka. The crow is said to be the 'vaahana' of 'Sani Bhagawan' in the Hindu Pantheon of Gods. When 'Sani' or 'Senasuru' is said to be 'Neechcha' - inauspicious, in the horoscope of an individual at a period in his life all sorts of calamities could occur to him, according to the astrologers. They advice propitation of 'Sani' by offering food to his 'Vaahana' the crow. This is such an offering of balls of milk rice served on seventeen leaves left to eaten by the crows.

Sri Lanka Grey Hornbill, Kosgama, Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

I took this picture in heavy vegetation close to a house at Kosgama, Sri Lanka.

Seasons Greetings

'I'd like to see the world for once,
All standing hand in hand,
And hear them echo through the hills
For peace throughout the land'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlR0KElxxVg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a8F28WVXlk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGt7JLuSQcM


We wish you a Merry Christmas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOe1RVuDJDk&feature=related

That's not enough - I want some more....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM31sVP8NMA

Please click on each of the web-links above and keep your loudspeakers on.