Post 2.

This is one of my tree friends in my front yard, (which was my cathedral this morning).
This morning, on it I saw 3 barbets, a pair of tree pies, a pair of racket-tail drongos




and an energetic woodpecker!

Post 1

The rains have abated for the last couple of days and the weather is beautiful.
Now, I don't know whether it's because there is no rain or some other reason, but our Asian palm civets seem to be in a fighting mood. So, for the last couple of nights, our evenings have been punctuated by the sounds of creatures [hopefully its just the civets and not supernatural beings :-)] thundering across our ceilings, after which there are the sounds of violent jumps onto nearby trees and the sounds of angry screeching, the sound of which is a cross between a cat fight and a human screech! When I turn on the lights outside, there is dead silence. Wonder whether they are fighting over the fruits of my rambutan tree.

There's a break in the monsoon although in our Malayalam(Kerala) calendar, this is the month when the monsoon is supposed to be the strongest. The day the month began--17th of July--it poured. So this break was unexpected. So I got to go for a walk.
The evening was warm, as there had been no rain the whole day today. The fireflies were out, especially in the dark of the rubber trees and in the tree over the jasmine creeper. The stars lay hidden behind the clouds. I heard, from a distance, the sound of the Ramayanam being read [this is the month when the Ramayanam is read everyday]. A gentle zephyr played with the leaves way overhead. As always, I love my night walks and the night.
Just now, I sit at my desk and I can hear the hoot of an owl, the crickets chirping and the frog chorus. I feel truly blessed.

First night walk, July

Today there is a break in the monsoons. It didn't rain the whole day and not now in the night either. So I was able to take the first longish night walk this month.
It was beautiful out. The sky was full of stars. There were only a few scattered clouds. I walked out and saw, high up in the southern sky, the constellation of Scorpio. I wished I knew the names of more constellations. The air was balmy, with a just a light, caressing breeze.
The darkness of the trees were lit up by fireflies. I saw the silhouettes of the large fruit bats flying overhead. The frogs serenaded me. I heard the screeches of the Palm civet. There were the occasional sounds of crickets.
A peaceful night in my green oasis.