I'll tell you why...

... at least I'll try...

This post is inspired by two recent posts by Cerno - about Planters. I've become nostalgic about what I still see as some of the happiest times of my life and what set me on a career built around tea.

DILMAH has a lovely site dedicated to Ceylon Tea for those who may like to explore the lore themselves

I joined the ranks just a few months past my 21st, posted to this beautiful estate up in Maskeliya. The closest town was Upcot, where the road from Maskeliya town virtually ended, becoming estate roads and foot paths.

That first day I was driven up win my parents in a double cab loaded to spill level with all the things a young man needed to start off in life - seven shirts, five pairs of shorts, socks and undies, rain coat and umbrella, three tea chests full of books, a carton full of cassettes, a small 3 in 1 boom box, a dart board and a 1500 piece jig saw puzzle and off course, the first of my "Appu's' Michael.

My 'Bungalow' was perched upon a hill, over looking a valley - four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a master bed which could sleep four at a pinch, a wooden boarded dining room, a living room with a fire place and a kitchen that was almost 30m away from the dining room.

I met Mr A, the SD I was taking over from, who in turn was going on to another property that very day. A quick hello and we were about to embark on a 100yr old practice, "Handing Over/ Taking Over"

What happened next was to happen in the space of 120 minutes

I was given a copy of the bungalow inventory and showed various pieces of furniture, carpets, curtains, a fridge and oven, all of which I was expected to become responsible from this point onward.

Next I was perched on the back of his (and soon to be mine) motor bike - a 89 Sri Honda CD 200 which I was to ride for the next four years and taken to the first of two of the 'Divisions" that were now my responsibility - tea fields, plant nurseries, building, accommodation for the workers, tools, a school, a dispensary, a coorporative shop - 89ha of tea, 250 workers and 8 staff members.

With the second division included I was now, at the age of 21 responsible for the productivity of 160ha, 480 workers, 14 staff members, responsible for keeping peace, dispensing justice attending to their welfare, paying them, planning and implementing work, checking on worker out turns and productivity, harvesting the crop and what not.

This day was also the day I met 'Brownie' for the first time. We had brought with us a loaf of bread from the Royal Bakery in Wella. While I was 'taking over' and squalling my signature on umpteen numbers of paper, my mom was setting up house for me and in the process left the bread on a windowsill. Suddenly, this medium sized bolt of brown lightning streaked across the kitchen, grabbed the loaf and vanished. A stray, she had apparently just given birth to some pups and was obviously hungry. She was to join my household within a week, pet to me, companion to my 'first' dog a year later, to move with me from Maskeliya to Bandarawella where she eventually died, sadly missed, still remembered...

More to come...

The bird in my life

This is actually inspired by Harumi who's posts on her Bulbul's I've been following.

Her tale has been a fascinating one and I'm saddened by what I've read today... which kind of prompted me to write about the bird in my life.



I noticed her first last year, when I moved in she was already there, and in those early days of adjusting to a new country, she was one of the few pleasures I looked forward to each evening



Seeing her back again this year was a pleasant surprise and I looked forward to re acquainting myself with her again.

Her chosen spot is actually quite safe, its at the edge of the veranda, in a bush thats growing up against a pillar.This year though I am a little concerned because the tree seems to be wilting, I'm hoping its just a natural cycle and not that the tree is dying. Even if is, if it lasts long enough for the eggs to hatch and the birds to fly,its good enough.



I sensed something wrong about two weeks ago, the tree does seem to be tilting, confirmed by the fact that when it rains now, water from the roof edge drips directly on to the pigeon in its nest.

That was soon solved with a rope fastened around the tree and the pillar.

Two eggs we have, and if what the books say is correct I can expect them to hatch sometime next week... fingers crossed

Btw, the last pic has nothing to do with her, thats just some other bird!

Inflation

Wife:

What is inflation?

Husband:

Earlier you used to be 36-24-36. Now you are 42-46-48. So Now you have more of everything.Yet your value has become less.

This is inflation darling

In the shadows of the dark

In the cold of the night

I feel Death coming

I feel his presence

In the tingling of my hands

I feel his touch

In the beating of my heart

I see him there

In the shadows of the dark

I don’t fear death

I have lived my life

I fear for the living

I fear for ones left behind

I fear for those I love

Lizzie

Nothing special, but I liked the colors

Help!

OK, why does my blog and its layout look so scrunched up?

If anyone can figure it out and let me know what I need to do to make it 'fill' the screen I would be so grateful - I've tried everything I know and all I've managed is to make it look worse

So, HELP!!!!

Three recent clips

The first, the sound of rain




-------------------------------------------------------------------

The second, a dance competition



-------------------------------------------------------------------

And the third, more dancing



Africa, the sounds, the music, the dance and its people!

Wither too the law of the land?

A Police Spokesman has gone on record saying "Police were not duty-bound to place the protection of a criminal over that of the general public"

I'm not the most knowledgeable of people but I'm pretty sure that Police Men are duty bound to ensure the safety of all of us - its the courts that are tasked with deciding who is a criminal or not and deciding the punishment, not the Police.

Now I'm all for an eye for an eye in cases where it was the intention of the perpetrator to carry out the crime - stories of little children kidnapped and killed make my stomach churn and I imagine bringing down terrible punishments on those animals - I can do that, I'm just a commoner, but for a uniformed policeman to do so just shows what little the enforcers of our laws actually know about the law.

Mr Police Spokesman, FYI, until such time the constitution is written, (which may happen sooner than we like) or the world decides to take a break and suspend Human Rights, you are duty bound to protect all of us!

One second in all that time

12:34:56 on 07-08-09

I was there along with 6,776,993,152 other people who shared that second with me.

Abraham Lincoln

Image from gallery moeding net


Abraham Lincoln the 16th President of the United States, held office during that country's greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War.

Not only did he successfully steer his nation through those times, preserving the Union, he also brought an end to slavery. Elected as president as an outspoken opponent of the expansion of slavery in the United States he introduced measures that abolished slavery, issued his Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and promoted the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

Lincoln closely supervised the victorious war effort, especially the selection of top generals, including Ulysses S. Grant. Historians have concluded that he handled the factions of the Republican Party well, bringing leaders of each faction into his cabinet and forcing them to cooperate. Lincoln successfully defused the Trent affair, a war scare with Britain, in 1861. Under his leadership, the Union took control of the border slave states at the start of the war. Additionally, he managed his own reelection in the 1864 presidential election.

A humble man, he is regarded as one of America's greatest Presidents, usually seen as a human being personifying the values of honesty, integrity, respect for individual and minority rights, and human freedom in general.

Given the manner of things in Sri Lanka, I thought it pertinent to post a few of his quotes this morning

- With Malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds.

- You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

- Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

- I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lords side.

- America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.

- As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.

- Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.

- Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

- Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.

- How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.

- I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.

- I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.

- If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.

- It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.

- Knavery and flattery are blood relations.

- No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.

- Public opinion in this country is everything.

- The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.

- The people themselves, and not their servants, can safely reverse their own deliberate decisions.

- The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.

- These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people.

- This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.

- To stand in silence when they should be protesting makes cowards out of men.

- We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.

- What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.

- When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion.

- You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence.

- You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.