Red vented Bulbul couple.

Whispering 'sweet nothings' to its mate while perched on a TV antenna.

Away in a manger

Another beautiful Christmas song composed in the 1950s

Two versions of 'Away in a manger'. Click on each of the links below separately.

Away in a manger – Celtic woman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOJb6uOF05Q&feature=related

Karaoke version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y91yNsdrE4&feature=related

A favourite Christmas song.

Little Drummer Boy - James Pierpont. publ.1857

 Click on the underlined web-address at the bottom. The words are as follows:-

Come they told me pa rum pum pum pum

A new born King to see, pa rum pum pum pum

Our finest gifts we bring  pa rum pum pum pum

That’s fit for to give our King  pa rum pum pum pum

rum pum pum pum rum pum pum pum

So to honor Him pa rum pum pum pum,

When we come.

Little Jesus pa rum pum pum pum

I am a poor boy too,pa rum pum pum pum

I have no gift to bring pa rum pum pum pum

That's fit to give our King pa rum pum pum pum

rum pum pum pum rum pum pum pum

Shall I play for you!  pa rum pum pum

On my drum.

Mary nodded pa rum pum pum pum

The ox and lamb kept time pa rum pum pum pum

I played my drum for Him pa rum pum pum

I played my best for Him pa rum pum pum pum

rum pum pum pum rum pum pum pum

Then He smiled at me pa rum pum pum pum

Me and my drum.

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

A Christmas card

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Remember it's the season to be merry and  joyful.  
Click on web site below to see your Christmas card.  It's Jacquie Lawson's newest card for 2011. Don't forget to turn on your "speakers".     

Click on this link:    http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=2007134554829&source=jl999

Another flower in our garden

Flower in our garden, Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

A variety of carnation?

Another rose

Another rose in our garden at Avissawella, Sri Lanka. Is it shedding a tear?

The beauty of leaves.

 Two pictures of leaves in our garden at Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

A blooming rose-bud

I took this picture in our garden at Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

A crow sucking honey from a large flower.

I took this picture at Nawalapitiya, Sri Lanka.

Beauty and the beast

A beautiful rose-bud being eaten up by an arthropod - Scene in my garden.

A rose-bud.

A rose-bud with all its potential is a very lovely thing to look and contemplate on. I took this picture in our garden.

The beauty of a 'jam fruit tree'.

The many interlacing branches of this tree form a lovely pattern. These are not random arrangements. These could be explained as formed from small units called 'fractals' made according to the instructions of the genetic code of each species. Plenty of birds visit this tree. I took this picture at Nawalapitiya.

Learning to live together

Someone once made a remark 'Children are little savages. They need to be civilized'. Getting children to 'learn to live together' is one of the most important parts of a child's education. I took this picture of apparent harmony among children.

When Grandpa is away ...

I left my grandson in the beleif that he will be safe in the pram. This is what I saw when I returned. NEVER UNDERESTIMATE your grandsons abilities to get into trouble.

A farmers implements in Sri Lanka.

Toy fans, Saman Dewale, Rathnapura, Sri Lanka.

This seller of toy fans exhibiting a lot of colour caught my attention at the 'Saman Dewale', Rathnapura, Sri Lanka. He had a rollicking business.

'Katina pinkama', Napawala, Sri Lanka.

 The 'Katina Pinkama' is a festival where the Buddhist priests come out of their retreat designated for rainy days. It is celebrated in Sri Lanka in wherever Buddhist priests are resident. A white cloth is cut according to certain prescribed rules. The cloth is then stitched and is subsequently dyed in a trough using natural dyes. The first picture shows the marking and cutting of the white cloth. The second picture shows the trough used for the dyeing of the cloth after stitching. I took these pictures at an 'Aranya' - forest monastery, in Napawala, Sri Lanka.

Children playing in two boxes.

The value which children place on toys depends on the enjoyment they get out of them. Two empty cardboard boxes seem to thrill these two boys.

Lotus in our garden.

 

I took this picture of a lotus in our garden after a heavy shower.

Image of Lord Buddha at the premises of the Government hospital at Amithirigala.,

Hornet tasting a peeled banana fruit.

A peeled banana fruit in our garden attracts a lot of birds like the red-vented bulbul, the brown-headed barbet and the Sri Lanka bush warbler. I spotted this hornet who has been troubling my bee-hive tasting the banana fruit. You can also spot a fly and red and black ants on the picture I took.

Flower in our garden, Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

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.

Buffalos used in the ploughing of a paddy field, Eheliyagoda, Sri Lanka.

Buffaloes were the traditional way of ploughing paddy fields in South Asia. They churn up the muddy ground and make it ideal for sowing the paddy. Tractors have replaced this in quite a few areas now but we still see this in the villages in present day Sri Lanka.

Mushrooms in our garden.

I saw these mushrooms come out of the soil one morning. No one eats these as some of them are poisonous.

Chameleon, Malwala, Sri Lanka.

The Chameleon is a beautiful lizard found amid jungle vegetation in Sri Lanka. It changes colour  as you look at it. This is supposed to be a trick it uses to camouflage itself. I saw this chameleon close to the Malwala bridge at Rathnapura, Sri Lanka.

Some more multicoloured roses.

Roses from Thailand.

 I saw these multicolored rose plants for sale at the Viharamaha Dewi Park in Colombo. The going price was Rs.2000/- each plant. The vendor at the stall told me that the plants were imported from Thailand.

Flowers in our garden, Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

Joking bridesmaids.

Bridesmaids at a wedding sharing a joke. I took this picture at my nephews wedding in Colombo, a few days back.

Sunset on Wellawaththe, Sri Lanka.

I took this picture of a sunset at Wellawaththe, Sri Lanka in 2009.

Flowers in my garden, Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

'The embrace', Haththakucci, Sri Lanka.

'Haththakucci' is an ancient monastery complex close to Anuradhapura. It is a collection of large stones situated next to a water reservoir. A group of monks had made this their abode here and there are abandoned cave like dwellings. It is situated on an arid plain where there is a breeze which is a welcome relief. I saw this tree growing on a rock. Its roots seem to embrace the rock and go down to the soil to receive sustenance. It was a sight for contemplation.

'Umbrella tree' , Pesalai, Sri Lanka.

Mannar is famous for the 'umbrella trees which dot the arid soil with high degree of salinity. I took this picture in 2004.

Galvihare, Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka

The figure in the standing posture, next to the figure of Lord Buddha lying down, has some unusual features. The first of these is the fact that the arms are held crossed across the chest, which is unusual for an image of Lord Buddha. The second feature is the fact that there seems to be a sense of profound sadness, on the face of the standing image. These have made people speculate that this is a representation of Ananda, the chief disciple of Lord Buddha. These belong to the 12th Century AD. In the orient, the creator of the sculpture remained anonymous.

Monkeys on the rampage, Hingurala, Sri Lanka.

Monkeys are a regular menace to the households in Sri Lanka. They pluck the young coconut fruits and throw them on the ground. Mango, rambuttan etc get their attention. They sneak into the kitchen and carry away food items. If provoked they can attack people. This happens where villages border jungle land. I took this picture of monkeys just outside a house in Hingurala.

Summer house, Hakgala Gardens, Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka.

 

"The Gardens (27ha) were established in 1860 as an experimental Cinchona plantation from which the anti-malarial drug quinine is derived. Subsequently the gardens were used for experiments in acclimatizing temperate-zone plants to life in tropics."
 It is situated on the winding road descending from Nuwara Eliya to Welimada. There are various sections for roses, ferns, a beautiful rock garden, a place for orchids etc. In addition there are tall trees which emerge out of the perennial mists surrounding the garden.
The multicolored Summer house stands out on a green lawn with the distant hills as a background.
The best time to visit the garden is in April-May of the year when the flowers are in bloom.  

The Bambarabotuwa valley, Wewalwaththe, Rathnapura, Sri Lanka.

 

A view of the Bambarabotuwa valley from the Alupola - Balakotunna road. You can see the Wewalwaththe - Balangoda road passing close to a waterfall. The waterfall is not visible from the Wewalwaththe - Balangoda road. The winding road below is a mud track.

Aukana Buddha statue, Sri Lanka.

 

The Aukana Buddha statue, situated close to the beautiful Kalawewa lake. is 12 metres high and is said to be now the tallest old Buddha statue in the world, after the destruction of the Bamiyan statue in Afghanistan. It is 'carved in the round' and is carved in the rare 'Asisa Mudra' - the posture of blessing. This statue was sculpted in the 12th Century AD.There is a story about this statue that a master and pupil had started to carve statues of the Buddha a few miles apart from each other, racing to finish his creation first. On finishing the statue first by the Master Artisan at Aukana, a gong was sounded. This sound was heard by the pupil, who was constructing the second statue at Sassaruwewa. The latter feeling ashamed at his defeat in the contest, had climbed to the top of his nearly completed statue, and jumped down killing himself. The name Aukana according to some was given because the early rays of the rising sun hit the top of the statue - ('Awwa' : Sunlight, 'Kanna' : Eating - S) and it looked as though the statue was eating up the first rays of the rising sun. There were a lot of similarities between the Bamiyan statue and that at Aukana.

The first is a photograph taken in 1938, the second was taken by me in the 1990s