February 20

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

This is a piece of our view in Kandy from the roof where we have breakfast.  Usually, the little sketches are done really quickly but I spent the entire morning on this one. It started out as the usual plan for a quarter sheet but I was enjoying it so much I just kept going on it. As some of you know, I haven’t been feeling well the past few days. I am back on prednisone and antibiotics for my lungs. Jim has been heading out exploring and I have been painting and resting
And oh yes, I am still enjoying the cold Lion beer.

The other absolutely wonderful thing is that we get several fly-bys a day. At six a.m. the giant bats head from the lake which is to our right up into the jungle on our left for the day. These bats are huge and thankfully herbivores.  An hour after the bats we get huge flocks of large white Ibis leaving the lake which is where they spend the night in trees. They travel the six kms twice a day, returning at five p.m. often accompanied by crows.  Last night was the full moon and so it was a public holiday, Poya, for Buddhists, a day of fasting, and praying. The first full moon of every month is Poya, nothing open and no beer.
( unless of course you are at the Majestic Guest House!)

February 16, 2019

Another fabulous breakfast at our home stay. Today we had stringers, ( a sort of fine extruded rice noodle) both savoury and sweet, with a light potato curry and a nippier coconut chutney. Of course we also had the delicious bananas, watermelon and pineapple. Then our host, Tharanga , took us in his tuk tuk up a very rough winding narrow mountain road for a couple of hours through a tea plantation to a place at the top called Lipton’s seat. Whenever we met a bus or a truck or a car, we would have to back to a slightly wider area where we could safely pass. The fog rolled in, the rain at times pelted down, all in all it was glorious. One photo is of Jim with Mr. Lipton. Afterwards Tharanga dropped us off for a tea tasting.  This tea making is very serious business. I have never loved black tea but there is hope that I will before this trip is over.

February 15, 2019

Last couple of days in Ella have been great! This was supposed to be a quiet mountain village. It is beautiful but it is filled with tourists. We did have another fabulous breakfast at our home stay; water buffalo curd and sweet palm syrup, dhal ( a delicious curried lentil) and a spicy lime and coconut dish with rice pancakes, plus the usual banana and fresh pineapple and some sort of sweet bun.  Afterwards Jim and I hiked to a tea factory and got a great tour. Hiking anywhere in this heat is not easy for me. Even though it wasn’t quite noon when we got back to town we stopped for lion beer. I never drink beer at home but I love beer when travelling in a hot country. It’s safe to drink and it is cold!

Enroute to Sri Lanks

Mirissa, Sri Lanka

Arrived at Marissa,

A beach town in the jungle on the south coast

Of Sri Lanka.

We booked a car to bring us 

The three hours from Colombo

Hoping to do this easily.

As always,  we were shuffled 

To places that gave the driver a cut. 

After the first turtle hatchery,

We said no to the many tsunami museums,

Fish for lunch,

And all of the other stops

Except for the Fort the Galle

Which Jim wanted to see.

Yesterday, we had no power

Or air conditioning,

Which also meant no food shops open.

We did have a glorious short swim.

The rose sand suspended in the white froth

In a cerulean sea crashed around us.

Then Jim was upended.

After I made sure he was alive but battered

I followed suit.

It scared us both and we proceeded out of the water

To drink beer and watch the bare buttocks

 That are everywhere.

Today we were up at 5:15 to catch a tuk tuk

In the dark,

To the wharf.

Along with a couple of thousand other tourists

We caught one of the twenty tour boats

Out to see a Blue Whale.

The trip was very rough

Eventually, I realized that

Perhaps sitting on a jarring, rolling, heaving and pitching

Upper boat deck 

Is for hardier or younger folk than me.

With my muscular dystrophy,

Just getting up off the deck was a challenge.

With assistance, I made it down to a chair on the main deck.

After barfing over the side,

I felt well enough to eat breakfast

And I continued to enjoy all of the sightings of Blue whales.

So far, with the exception of the monkeys and the magnolias

We haven’t found the real Sri Lanka

But we are on the search for it.

February 13, 2019

We just arrived in Ella. The tuk tuk ride was a lovely few hours. At the very end it was so steep, Jim and I had to get out and walk and the tuk tuk made a run at the slope.

I saw a sign in English  and it said Fitness and Spare Parts which struck me as exactly what I need.

February 14, 2019

Trees and snakes.

For years, my favourite tree was always the white pine with its curving trunk and branches with cluster of needles held out like offerings.  Then I came to walk by a particular English Oak in Portaupique. This tree holds all of its canopy on large twisted branches that head one way and then suddenly reverse or loop around. In the spring, the new leaves are an orange glow before they mature to green. It is in winter that I admire this tree the most when the canopy is not obscured by leaves.

Years ago, I learned from my neighbour, Darrell Fletcher, who died at couple of years ago at ninety, that his grandfather planted this tree from a seedling he found when he was cutting salt hay in our marsh.  We still have English oaks along side the marsh but the biggest and loveliest is the one Darrell’s grandfather planted.

When we were on safari in Yala National Park, there were some huge trees similar to our English Oak. After asking a guide what they were called, he replied: “We call those trees.” I now suspect from my google searching that these trees are Ceylon Oaks or Kushan Trees.

And now for the snake. Roadside there are storm sewers covered somewhat by big cement paving stones.because there are no sidewalks, Jim and I often end up walking on these sewers. Yesterday I saw a big snake about a foot straight up from a hole in the tile. As I approached, he disappeared!