Fruit, spikes, stumps and frills

When in Kandy we visited the Royal Botanical Garden. It is just under 150 acres and so we failed to navigate much of it with the little legged ones along. What we did see however was simply stunning and quite trippy. Familiar plants were swollen gigantically to cartoon-sized proportions. Unfamiliar plants sprouted fruit, spikes, thorns, flowers, frills, huge leaves, teethed leaves, weird roots, microphones, buds, bad haircuts and stumps.

House crows and palm squirrels

There are two creatures that you cannot avoid in Colombo: the house crow and the palm squirrel. The crows are pretty hard to love as, despite being a fine glossy blue-black with slate grey parts, they are opportunistic in the extreme, little scared of humans and their beaks are thick enough and tough enough looking that you wouldn't want to chance a jab - especially when at face height, on a fence for example. The squirrel is half the size, has endearing Chip 'N' Dale stripes and a full tail and is altogether more timid. They emit a cheeping sound that I constantly mistook for a bird at first. At least neither one suffers from the rattiness that so often afflicts urban animals, like the urban squirrels and foxes of the UK for example.

Guest blog of Anu

We visited Kandy last weekend, as Mummo & Heikki are visiting. It is situated in the hill country, and the train ride there is spectacular. Kandy is an old kingdom with a lake in the middle of the town. On a walk around the lake Duncan was teaching me photography, or rather let me shoot away with his camera, and here are the results. I have always wanted to learn photography, but gave up immediately when the Rule of Third  on composition was on the agenda - as somehow the rules seemed to kill the spontaneity and cause frustration. But I guess such rules are inherent for the pros anyway. After we returned back to our hotel, there was a procession going on, celebrating the full moon. 

Superficial

Anu's mum brought my new figure 8 ankle strap ("as worn by Andy Murray") and I was puppy eager to test drive it with my now unsprained ankle. I left Anu, the kids and grandparents at Bayleaf, an Italian near our house, turned up early at the cricket grounds we play frisbee at and hopped out the taxi, stepping through the broken wall at the edge of the pitch.
I vaguely thought I'd scratched myself and, glancing down, I was amazed to see a 5-6 cm gash yawn on my left leg's upper calf. I looked again. It was still there, still yawning.
So I pinched it back together and hopped back in a tuk tuk (almost the one that dropped me off) to return to Lanka Hospital's A&E. I told them I needed stitches and a dull eyed doctor had a look at my wound. "A little one" he said and took me to a 'mini theatre" (not as cute as it sounds) and gave me five or six stitches (I was staring at the ceiling so my count is vague).

Lizards

Here are some lizards I've seen over the last few days, minus the anemic house geckos that I am still struggling to appreciate - they seem so boneless and wormy. This selection is more of the crispy fried scaly shrunken dinosaur end of the spectrum, maybe excepting the long-legged, froggy lizard that skitted through the woodland floor.

Mummo & Heikki

Anu's mum and Heikki arrived last night - as CHOGM has the city centre all locked up we've brought them straight to Mt. Lavinia's beach hut.

Legends of the tuk tuk: #7

Breakfast visual echo

The view from the balcony at 6 a.m. yesterday morning. Odd how the cloud line seems to mimic the skyline.

Legends of the tuk tuk: #6

Legends of the tuk tuk: #5b

Normally, the legend reads that Che WANT YOU TO REBEL but the tuk tuk I was just behind had a new and slightly ominous twist:
CHE GUEVARA WANT TO MEET WITH YOU

Legends of the tuk tuk #5: Che vs Bob

Maybe one in ten tuk tuks features either one or the other of these icons:

I can't say that I feel too rebellious taking a rebel music ride to the kindergarten or a revolutionary tuk tuk trip to the supermarket, but I try.

Mirissa

Last weekend we went to the whale watching capital, Mirissa, for a couple of days. (But, before you ask, didn't go on a whale watching trip as the season only starts from next month.) It is a nice, quiet and clean beach compared to Unawatuna, and the beachside less built up. Our hotel was located on a windy little spit, with a small coconut grove garden that afforded views of the crescent bays either side. The hotel was rather basic but did feature a wonderful sculpture of a monk bearing the ginger Christ child sat upon an open Bible, all sealed within a plastic bag like a goldfish at a fair.

Legends of the tuk tuk: No. 4

Cash Deposit 70

From the balcony

White-throated kingfisher

... and foxheads stalk this land.

6 days later

... the sun is setting.

The joys of football

Three days bed rest, two weeks before I play sport again, three to six months before the swelling has gone down and a lifetime of having a weak ankle. That was fourty-five minutes well spent.