Taking Stocks-My contribution to Biodiversity

Taking Stocks-My contribution to Biodiversity

After about decade we seem to have April Thunder Storms coming on the dot.

It was 31^st we had the first thunder storm and two days ago we had a massive blast over our house almost shaking the roof.

Thank god I was not up admiring my eco-system on the roof top mini-garden.

I would have been either dead or deaf.

My weather barometer is our dog.

He get frightened well before the thunder storm hit our neighbourhood.

Hide under my bed.

I in fact took the cloths put out for drying and sat on the computer, just to pen down Tiny Tot Theory of ex-president.

The thunder hit our telephone and I could not post my last email.

It by passed our electric circuit and hit the telephone post first and burned the wire / circuit at three or four places.

It was a massive one.

The Telecoms guys were very nice and prompt unlike the 'Chinthanaya Time' and did a thorough job but they are sent out with minimum hardware.

I just returned home with our daily fresh milk, just in time, and provided them all what they needed except wires.

I thanked the guys profusely and told that I could live without the Telephone and Internet for few days BUT they should not risk their life with impending thunder storms..

Minutes later I was on the web before the evening thunder storms.

Mind you I do want to post this as a separate blog!

My warnings are

1. Please no fire crackers, we have enough pollution in this city including noise (next prime minister campaign to b precise, we have to make a new series based on BBC, NO,NO, Prime Minister, Please do not come again, We had enough of YOU!).

2. It frightens my dog and your dog too.

Mind you many dogs die during this month (family goes on a holiday, poor servant eats the dog's food, thunder storm, and fire crackers and simply negligence).

To this add petty thieves poisoning them for meat in the corner hotel masquerading as chicken.

3. Beware lightening

4. Do not answer the telephone when there is thunder storm, it will busy your ear drum.

5. Switch off all the computers, I lost five during the last three years (I was not worried, I was pruning my 10 set computer network to two and now with my wife's one busted month age due to drop in voltage- to cut down on the 'Electricity Bill'.

The the rain that comes with the thunder storms is a blessing for me.

I was expecting it to come after mid May.

My water plants were dying including an amazon plant with a beautiful white flower.

I just resurrected it and put it in a bigger container with Guppy fish for company.

I have three or four (one never bloomed for the last ten years- the first one I started with which has a yellow flower most likely an imported variety).

Te most expensive one inside the house virtually dead (my wife changed the container without telling me. Leaves wilted away leaving behind a tiny yam). For the last three months it spouted out few leaves and they get entangled by the algae and die before the stem was long enough for the leaf to float free.

With my perseverance and insistence on clearing the algae manually (no chemicals please), it has now three tiny leaves and I cleared the space for the fourth one yesterday.

The second of the lillie was trapped with a big water plant with a beautiful tiny purple bunch of flowers (I let it grow till it was time to uproot and save my lillie).

I did uproot two of them and found a suitable containers and they are flowering again after my forceful overthrow from the residential setting on the roof top.

Plant (Flower) watching!

I daily count the number of flowers after caring for the plants and then do a survey of the insect life (more about it later).

The insect numbers vary depending on the number of flowers.

This is why I am NOW totally against offering flowers on the altar or on temple platform as a godly gift or a godly bribe to incite blessing from unseen Devas (if there are any left in this country).

I usually three flowers.

I get excited when there are five.

That is my gold standard.

If it is below five I take it as a failure of my gardening attempt.

So I persevere.

The other day I counted ten.

That was well past my gold post or gold standard.

Mind you it is a warning or a sign of weather changing for good.

I think it was a blessing this time after ten or more years of smile-less faces in this country, whether south, north of in the mid country.

I think this is a good year to make good choices for biodiversity if not political for me.

Most of them were water plants but there were five terrestrial plants and one a weedy vine.

If I counted the teeny weeny water plats it would have been almost 15.

To me it was a colossal achievement.

Now the insects!

After 15 years I noticed a single bee, must have traveled a long distance to venture into my domain.

The tiny black bee is below our Electricity meter.

Colony is big and healthy.

Butterflies were three in number, brown, yellow, and tiny black and white.

Dragon flies were mostly two, the regular blue visitor and a yellow brown one and possibly a brown one which I have missed.

Plenty of tiny and big spiders and today I noticed a exotic one.

Where the hell he had come from.

A single tiny multipede in our bathroom.

A brown Katussa and a lizard as predators but not a single chameleon this time.

Many birds droppings including in our veranda.

So the eco-system is thriving after 15 years of endurance.

But if I take three months of leave and come home all will be dead since this was all a Single Man Made (SMM for short) environment.

My desire is for it to be Multiple Man Made (3M for short) endeavour.

That is my Political Theory for the Mother Nature and this Planet but not a can of Baygon spray which I hate.

We do not have a single environment (green) party but one minor party (not in the blue camp but is trying to piggyback on it-one is a monk, the other is co-defender up with arms since a stupid astrologer-that is what the national papers won't say- has predicted that he would become a next president after the current Maithree term is torpedoed) is hijacking this theory for its leader to come in to power.

So much for the constitutional changes that would be torpedoed.

Reader, especially foreign one, should excuse me for insinuating subtle political buzz.

In any case it good for them to know the bottom line if they decide to come for a holiday.

But please avoid our April New Year, since for about a month and after that election campaign will be hot on the foot of a traveler.

My exotic Dragon plant and Vanilla Plant are yet to bloom.