The Mango Tree in Bloom

Few people outside of Sri Lanka know how beautiful the tree looks in bloom, and though we hope that an abundance of flowers gives us an abundance of fruit, we are supposed to cut off many of the flowers to keep only a few left from which the fruit will come, as otherwise having too many flowers may even reduce the size of the fruit or even produce small bunches that will fall off prior to maturity! Lets see in a few months, whether I will even get one fruit from this tree, as this tree has yet to produce fruit despite flowering, and being about 4 years since planting.

Thinking time grows in importance as our busy lives seem to put it on the back burner

It is only when I come here to Ratmale can I really relax and think about a lot of things. This gives me ideas on how to change the world we live in and ideas for my incessant blogging.

I don't know if it was this late burst of monthly visits have allowed me to write over 250 pages of blog posts in the past 4 months on all manner of subject.

Dawn overlooking the Ratmale Tank (Lake)

 The sights are at dawn when I walked up the steps to take these photos of the lake full to the brim as late as February 7th 2016 where there is only one more month at most for harvesting.

This means that even with NO rainfall for the rest of the year the village paddy field will be cultivate for the second time of the season in May 2016, and the villagers will look forward to a bountiful harvest yet again.

The problem is the price of paddy, as the Govt. stores are already full, and will they take this paddy at the guaranteed prices.

I somehow doubt it and the price of paddy is coming in for a fall, and the traders and millers will profit exceedingly from this, whilst the farmers, who are the growers, and the consumers who are the eaters of the rice will both suffer, one from insufficient price and the other from too high a price!!

The light peeping through the clouds in the morning, and the sun would not come out even later!

Painting at the Art Fair on Nelum Pokuna 31st January 2016

Shyami and Krishen - Siblings

Siblings - Arthur and Felix

Ratmale – Ideal climate for Roses – Time we grew it seriously

Frankly I was most surprised that roses grow so well and unlike in Nuwera Eliya that has a climate that is constantly wet, the Roses I have seen growing there have this mildew and is more susceptible to disease.

With the dry heat of the day, in the hot sun, and the cool nights giving the right amount of chill, rose plants seem to thrive, with hardly any care in the world. As the photo shows, just one of my rose bushes, that the caretaker has grown, and I have asked him to plant them everywhere, as I particularly like this shade of pink, and the fragrance is fabulous if not a touch too delicate to a good sniffing nose, which mine is not!

I remember reading about Ispahan in Iran which was famous for its roses, and I actually grew a rose in California called Ispahan which was stunning and once a year gave me a riot of color that completely covered the plant, with no green in sight, and moreover gave a fragrance that was utterly intoxicating.

I even have a rose bush growing inside the house and it does not even get the direct sunlight, I always felt the roses needed. When I left yesterday there were three buds ready to open in about a week, and I don’t know when the plant actually had water.

Then I began to look at other homes in the area and only then did I discover my astonishment that roses are more popular and more common than anthuriams, a traditional favorite to be grown easily in Sri Lanka in most homes, and home gardens,

In fact I have an anthuriam house on the farm in Godagama, and I must bring some pots to Ratmale, but I don’t have confidence in them being kept in the shade and watered frequently.

Observations, observations and as the photos show some types of flowers that were omnipresent last time are hardly detectable this time.

I don’t spend sufficient time in this area to organize a proper planting and maintenance schedule which could see a huge improvement to the exterior attractiveness of the place.

Now what with the elephant traipsing in once a week, and picking on the banana plants around the house, will they just trample the rose bushes or leave them be, with a careful skirt in the dark. They say elephants don’t like rose bushes because they don’t like the thorns! Is that true or a myth?