I was outside in the afternoon, hanging up clothes and I heard a sound of an animal trying to be quiet.  I looked up and saw, on a coconut palm near me, a monitor lizard creeping slowly and apparently clumsily, up.  But quiet though it was, my dog heard the sound and came running, barking away.  The next minute the lizard had gone up the tree so fast, it was unbelievable!  I never knew, 1) that monitor lizards climbed trees and 2) that they could move so fast.

Mellow

I love the wonders of nature and the joy and serenity they bring.  Watching a large butterfly flutter by, my favourite birds, the magpie robins, chirping to each other.  Walking in the night with fireflies everywhere and a waxing moon, almost full.  A beautiful full moon,.the wonder of watching Venus and Jupiter almost aligned and then one passing the other by.  Watching a monitor lizard sunning itself on a log, a mongoose jumping over a wall, a huge fruit bat settle on a wild jack tree;  listening to a frog chorus, backed by a cricket orchestra--all these make me mellow.

Monsoon clouds

I had posted on my Life on a Hill blog, that the monsoons seemed rather unenthusiastic this year.  But after that I got some proper monsoony shots.  Here is one of them--monsoon clouds behind teak trees in bloom.

A picture

This is a wild creeper growing on a tree.  It was much more common I feel, when I used to visit Kerala as a child.  But it has been seen around here after a long while.  Isn't it pretty?  The white you see is not a flower but the bracts just near the flower.  Long ago my mother told me this is called
Amma karathathu, makal vellithathu, makaldey makal sundari kotha in Malayalam, which means ' the mother is dark, the daughter is fair and the daughter's daughter is a beauty!  The mother is the dark green leaf, the daughter the white bract and the little orange flower (which can't be seen from afar) is the daughter's daughter!  

It is 9.30 am.  I was sitting out on my verandah when I saw a pale coloured bird fly into the divi-divi tree near me and two crows coming after it.  Minutes later a tree pie flew there too.    When I looked carefully, I realised the pale bird was a female Indian cuckoo--the koel.  So naturally the crows were chasing it.  But I couldn't quite see what the tree pie had to do there.  Soon the tree pie flew off screaming.  A little later the koel flew off and the crows sat there very triumphantly.

Strange sight

Today, I was in a car, near Cochin/Kochi, passing over a bridge, when I saw the strangest sight; in the air I could see a big bird--looked like a hawk, but may have been only a crow, and a much smaller bird flying very close to each other.  At first I thought the bigger bird was intent on catching the smaller bird.  But then, as I watched, it looked almost as though the smaller bird was trying to take a ride on the bigger bird's back or else just plain harassing that bigger bird, or chasing it.  Now there is a small black bird, with a swallow like tail, which attacks crow.  But I couldn't see any evidence of a tail like that.  Wish I could have watched longer to know what was going on..........

I am back home, where it never snows and temperatures are always (in Centigrade)between the 20s and about 32, which means small animals and birds can always hang out.  So, pre noon, I hear a knock knock and know for sure it's a woodpecker.  I rush out to see if I can spy it.  My rushing scares of a small bird who I notice only from the corner of my eye (and hence could not identify).  In a tree across from where I stand, I see first one and then a second tree pie, in their sandalwood and white plumage.  An oh-so elegant racket-tailed drongo sits lower down, his feathers glossy black that it's almost midnight blue--much glossier than I remember--his beautiful tail quivering.  Ah the bird life.  It's nice to be back.