From Pyrenees to Pennines

Indian Friday: The Wildlife Day

I rather enjoyed re-visiting India via my blog the other week. So I went and dug out the diary I faithfully kept. The events it describes have never yet seen the light of day. For the first ten days I was with the group of people my ex-brother-in-law had put together, to explore aspects of rural Indian life, focussing on small producers working in traditional and organic ways. We had no internet access during that period.

I’ve decided to share my diary with you. This will take several Fridays. I’m pleased that I kept such a detailed record of a piece of personal history, and of a country I’d never visited. I wonder how dated this account would seem to the current traveller?

The Wildlife Day

Friday 16th November

What a wildlife day so far! Rat snake at breakfast, pond heron in the trees in the rainforest, and a rufous-bellied eagle (rare). Lots and lots of different frogs – not bright coloured but fun to see anyway. L and I had had fun shining our torches to see those on lily pads very late yesterday. Immense spiders safely attached to their webs.

Look for the ratsnake slithering along the edge of the pond

Sandy took us on a rainforest walk this morning. He began by the river, virtually a guided meditation, to help us tune in with the natural sounds, particularly by the water. It was wonderful throughout to hear the forest sounds – the water, the trees, the monkeys (macaques and …..) whom we couldn’t see.

Some strange plants – the strangler fig lands half-way up its host as a seed, and grows down and up, enveloping and feeding from the host trunk. Eventually the host dies, leaving a tracery of woven branches – which is the fig. Several of us tried to climb up with Sandy’s help: I was one who failed.

Leeches hugely enjoyed our being there. They seemed to feast on those who hated them most, while pretty much ignoring those like me, who didn’t care. The poor bitten victims were pretty bloodied by the end. Still, I copped for the biting ants instead.

I’m currently on the water tower enjoying the hordes of dragonfly overhead.

Later. But then I came down. Supi had organised another walk. Down to the water tanks (where we saw two water snakes) and the red rice fields. They grow old varieties which are slow growing but more nutritious.

Then it was on to the village: no village green around a church (though there was a church) but houses, on the whole well strung out from each other, with crops and land between. During the late 1940s(?) the Keralan Government freed all landowners to sell their land cheaply and all citizens were entitled to 7.5 acres per person (or 15 acres per family). At first everyone worked the land in a diverse way, growing varied crops for their own use, then selling the surplus. Now there is more of a monoculture, with families taking whatever subsidy is on offer to plant the latest crop – till it all goes pear-shaped. A few years back, tea was getting Rs 20+ on the open market: now it’s only Rs 3. And so on. So we saw tea, coffee, rubber, bitter gourd, banana – various things – all grown as monocultures, and the consequence is that families, without the rich variety of crops, are less well-nourished. 90% literacy means people are fleeing the land too. Young people choose to work in, for example, call centres rather than continue in the family farm.

Later, M and I offered to help cook. We chopped onions, tomatoes, okra, and rolled out chapattis, but other than that didn’t feel too useful or learn massive amounts. But it was fun.

Later still, M, C and I were taken for a moonlight walk by Lorenzo: rather fast for C’s and my taste, but listening to all our frogs, and stargazing was fun. Late bed and …. (to be continued in my next….)

A Monochrome Look Back at Lockdown

Browsing through my photos of five years ago, it was soon clear that they were all local views. Scenes taken during my solo Covid Lockdown wanderings exploring every local path that I knew, and some that I didn’t. We’re limited by having a river near our house, with no local bridge. So instead of having a whole circle of walks at our disposal, it’s only a semi-circle. That didn’t stop me discovering woodland I hadn’t explored, hitherto uninvestigated quarries and farmland, secret tracks near the river. I didn’t always take my camera, because I preferred being ‘in the moment’ as I tried to identify birdsong, enjoying clouds, grasses, emerging blossoms and flowers.

And just one from our village, where families got busy confecting scarecrows celebrating all the keyworkers who kept on working while we all stayed at home.

For Leanne’s Monochrome Madness.

A Bench for One

Today, for Jude’s Bench Challenge, I am cheating. This seat is only for one person (and not for anybody who cares about crushing flowers as they sit down either). But it’s a highly seasonal seat, so I present it as a Bench for One, and wish all of you a very Happy Easter.

Spotted at our recent walk near East Witton.

Indian Friday: Off to Gurukula

Off to Gurukula

Thursday 15th November

Well, it’s only 6.20, and as usual I haven’t slept much. But the compensation is to hear for the last time the dawn song of the Whistling Thrush. Just the one bird, who at early dawn sounds just like some very contented man, hands in pockets, ambling down the street, whistling carelessly and happily without bothering to keep to any particular kind of tune. We sometimes hear it briefly in the evening too.

The thrush doesn’t start singing at the very beginning of this recording, so just hang on a few seconds!

8.05. We’ve had much of a day already – setting off in the minibus (late as usual) after affectionate goodbyes to Sujata and Ann and the staff such as Harish. Check the bald tyre on the spare! Stop off at Madekeri to photocopy our documents for the Kerala police, comfort break and so on, then … ever onwards. The roads were terrible and the scenery and towns were what we had come to expect and enjoy though we did seem to be descending. Finally, the Kerala border and frontier posts and all that goes with that, and a flurry of communist flags. Not too long before we stopped again for petrol, comfort breaks and chai. By the way, the scenery changed immediately we got through the border to forests of bamboo. We were straight into a National Park, briefly better roads and apparently a slightly better standard of living.

The road up to Gurukula was … worrying. Finding it was one thing. Ascending the single-track with sharp descent one side (my side …) another. The forest however was so lush. Once we arrived in this place – a Botanical Sanctuary – undeveloped for tourism in the way that, say Kew, has been, we were immediately welcomed to lunch (by now 2.30 ish) – 2 veg. curries, homemade yoghourt and poppadoms, twice cooked rice in the Keralan style, followed by yoghourt with wild honey. All v. democratic, so do your own washing up, and then down to inspect the simple accommodation.

A tour of part of the sanctuary in the afternoon (‘Please pee in the garden to nourish the plants’), then tea at 5.30: hunks of watermelon, local oranges, homemade savouries and sweetmeats, and meet everyone.

Then Supi took us up the water tower … one of the most magical experiences of my life. We watched the sun set over the Western Ghats, and the moon rise as the sky darkened and the stars emerged. Silence fell as the night sky intensified. It was wonderful simply to be there. Mullahs from two distant mosques did their Call to Prayer, admittedly using a microphone, but it still provided atmosphere. Others saw shooting stars, though I didn’t … it didn’t matter: I was still enveloped in enchantment.

Meal, as always, was wonderful- mountains of fluffy paneer curry, sourdough chapattis, red rice, dhal, veg. curries (two sorts). Then fill in forms for the Keralan police, and so to bed, if not to sleep …

Burgeoning Blooms at Beningbrough

Beningbrough Hall is one of our local stately homes. An English Baroque masterpiece, its real delight lies in strolling round its gardens. Let’s do that now, for Dawn‘s turn as host of Leanne’s Monochrome Madness.

There are tulips …

…. and magnolias …

… and apple and pear blossom …

…. and so much else besides. But I’m keeping it simple today. I may take you back there another day.

Back in the Valley Gardens

A fortnight ago, I took you to Harrogate’s Valley Gardens to view a few benches. This week, I found myself there again, sharing its delights with a friend from London. One of the benches I featured last time was vacant when we passed it, so I had a bit of fun with the shadows playing over the area.

For Jude’s Bench Challenge.

From Marfield to Masham

Sunday afternoon. Sunny, warm, breezy. Just the time for a bike ride (‘im Indoors) or a solo walk (me). Marfield Wetlands suited us both as a starting point, though we went our separate ways after that. These reclaimed gravel pits, scattered with ponds, just by the River Ure are at their busiest in the autumn and winter months as a stopping off point for migrating water birds. Less variety here just now. But blue skies, blue waters greeted me: plenty of geese – Greylag, Canada and Barnacle, the odd cormorant and swan, and beyond, oystercatchers hectoring me from above, and more tuneful skylarks.

A walk along a brookside, then farmland with drystone walls.

Here are young cattle; sheep with their now-skittish lambs.

Primroses, celandines, willow catkins dusted with yellow pollen, blackthorn blossom.

Turn right through a field of cows, and reach the river banks, high above the river itself at first.

Right again, through pastureland with characterful trees, woodland, always with the river, sometimes still, sometimes chattering and clattering its way over its stony pathway.

Touch into the edge of Masham, then more fields with open views and here I am. back at Marland Wetlands again. Only four miles, but enough to send me home refreshed and content.

For Ann-Christine (Leya)’s Lens-Artists Challenge #343 – Seen on my Last Outing

And Jo’s Monday Walk.

Indian Friday: Last Day at the Rainforest Retreat

Last Day at the Rainforest Retreat

Wednesday 14th November

Dhosas with potato curry and scrambled egg Indian style (i.e. spicy) for breakfast. Then off with Ravi and Nak for the Ridge Walk. This involved serious climbing through the rainforest till we rose above it to the hilltops with pasture, bracken and smaller foliage plats. Wonderfully bright acid green paddy fields below – such a contrast with the darker green of the plantation trees. One or two cattle here too. More of the same, passing a few settlements on the way down……

….. Later, M, C, L I had a few jobs to do in town so we had a lift in. We enjoyed pootling around. I left an answerphone message for Malcolm and spent Rs60 on a hat (about 54 pence). We bought chocolates for Sujata and A (Cadbury’s, made in Poona and unavailable in England) and waited and waited for our photos to be downloaded.

It was dark by now, and we started to worry we wouldn’t be back for 8.00 and our farewell dinner, but M made friends with someone in a shop who took my letter which I’d found no postbox for, and got us an auto-rickshaw. Well! Health and Safety need not apply. 4 of us plus luggage somehow squeezed in with L on M’s knee and all of us bulging out all over. We admired the artificial flowers decorating the driver’s dashboard while M negotiated the price (Rs 150 – £1.35 – for a 10 km. ride) and off we hurtled, through puddles and over potholes (easier perhaps in a rick, with its smaller wheelbase) only grinding to a halt once.

Home just in time to make the journey up the hill to S&A’s house where we sat round a bonfire with A’s blues music in the background, eating dish after dish of all kinds of curry. Ludwig was there too. Home by 10.30, looking at a sky fuller by far of stars than we can ever manage in light-polluted Europe.

Photographing the Photographers

Let’s have a bit of fun this week. Let’s spy on the photographers we spot, and take snaps of them as they do what photographers have to do. The featured photo was taken last summer near Bamburgh. These people with their cameras and all the tackle were actually twitchers, in pursuit of some bird that had fetched up there – I can’t remember what.

Here’s another image from there, and then another, also from Northumberland: the Baltic in Gateshead, where one eager visitor was taking shots of the bridges on the Tyne.

Or there’s that photographer’s paradise, Whitby Goth Weekend.

Or sometimes a TV photographer turns up. Much more impressive.

Or even what passes for film crew, spotted in Brick Lane.

But we’ll end where we began, with shots of photographers being snapped. A friend and I enjoyed playing around with this once-upon-a-time camera shop in Newcastle, and if you look very hard, you’ll see me in the second image, looking for that perfect shot.

For Leanne’s Monochrome Madness.

A Village Bench

Out walking in Wensleydale the other day, we came upon this bench in East Witton. I thought it important to catalogue it, front and back, for Jude’s Bench Challenge.