And where else in the world would you turn a corner on your evening walk to find yourself face to face with the local temple elephant, ambling home with his evening rations curled in his trunk.

I followed him home, observing his manner of moving, for in India, the greatest compliment you can pay to a woman is that she has the graceful walk of an elephant.

Or at least at one time that was said, not sure if it still holds true with western culture and values steadily encroaching and overtaking the ancient ways.

Where else in the world can you almost step on a totally relaxed, blissed-out peacock, sunbathing on my garden path in the glory of the noonday sun?

Yes, he is used to me feeding him popcorn from my verandah steps, but all the same, I was stunned at this show of total confidence!

Xmas in India

India celebrates ALL holidays-Eid was last Thursday for Moslems, yesterday everything was closed for Christmas(except churches and temples). Christmas is celebrated with lights and a gorgeous array of overcolored and overdesigned paper stars that hang over lightbulbs and are really quite pretty once lit.

And noise, alot of noise. Extra attention to the sense of hearing strikes me as the true celebration of xmas here. There has been 24 hours of drumming and fireworks from local churches and sounds like temples as well. Although last I checked, this is not a holiday for Hindus even though many are celebrating anyway with gifts and cakes.

Chikungunya moving north

Is chikungunya heading to France?

This is scary- chikungunya found in a small area of Italy because it's become warm enough for the nasty tiger mosquito to flourish-and we won't know if it is capable of resuscitation next summer-when new victims manifest symptoms.

Fall in the Tropics

There are three seasons in the tropics, monsoon, hot season and fall. It has always seemed incongruous to me, how could there be fall in such a hot green jungle?

Fall is my absolute favorite time of year in a temperate climate-when it goes from cooler to cold, and blue to gray, and that end of a summer melancholy feeling settles in. And I love it.

Here in the tropics, the grey skies are replaced by bright springy blue with puffy clouds and a cool refreshing breeze, even if it is 80 degrees. Leaves pile up in the yard offering good ground cover to the family of mongoose shyly running through. And I pile the moisturizer on in a vain attempt to combat the lack of humidity that usually makes my life so miserable-when it creeps into my bones and covers anything lying around too long with a thin mist of green mold.

Fall - my favorite time of year.

Magical Karthika

Karthika (aka Diwali or the Festival of Lights) was over a week ago - Nov 24th, but just getting around to transferring my photos. I have never managed to capture the magic of seeing all of these sparkling oil-lamp lights, and this year has been no exception. Sorry!