11 January 2026

Happiness is Meeting Friends

Our human turned a corner, something moved in front, immediately stopped and looked.
Monkeys were in front on the path a few feet away. They, too, stopped and looked.
Then someone approaching from behind said, "Good Morning!" Our human turned and saw a hiker acquaintance. He asked, "What are you doing?" I replied,"Snapping photos".
Those monkeys scampered!
Isn't that rear end view cute?
That hiker walked on.
Perhaps the monkeys recognised our human and then came down from the upper branches.
Our human was delighted to be able to capture this wonderful moment and had to refrain from hugging it. It looked at our human in such a cute coquettish position with seemingly cross-eyes.
Actually they are not cross-eyed but the markings made it look such.
They are so cute and friendly.
These are dusky leaf monkey (Trachypithecus obscurus), also dknown as the spectacled langur or the spectacled leaf monkey, a species of primate in the family Cercopithecidae.

04 January 2026

When It Rains

Our country's monsoon is not over yet and forecasters say it will continue.
There were days when our human, eager looking forward to the walk, changed to walking gear with a packed haversack, stepped outside, and it started raining!
Outside, our human stood looking at the falling rain for at least half an hour hoping that it was just a passing shower. When it did not stop for over an hour, our human gave up and went inside like a 'tortoise retracting into its shell'!
The very next fine weather morning, the walk was different. It was slower and cautious.
The fallen tree trunk fell on the path and broke on impact.
Muddy slopes and rain-filled holes.

28 December 2025

Beauty of Old Vines

(Continue from the previous post.)
This is how it looks after years of growing together. The wrap-around vine cuts into the trunk.
Our human wanted to place either the hiking pole or haversack against the tree for comparison but could not go near it as it is off the path and on a slope.
This is one of the biggest vine covered with moss that is off the path.
PS: Could not blog earlier from house electrical power trips due to lightnings and continuous thunderstorms.

14 December 2025

Vine Riot

Walking down the familiar path daily with one fine day when a scene suddenly caught your eye and you wondered how is it that you did not realise its beauty earlier.
A riot of vines in its raw beauty!
A young vine coiling round an older one which will eventually dig and carve into the older one as time goes by.

07 December 2025

Walking with Spiny Turtle

Our human could not walk daily (or blog) due to the monsoon season and can only walk on fair mornings.
Two days ago, our human chanced upon this Spiny Turtle on the path.
On closer scrutiny, it was not "Holey Shell". Though it has a small indentation on its shell; it was on a different spot.
With no hikers in sight, our human slowly used the shoes to guide it to the undergrowth beside the path (our human was absolutely thrilled and grinned widely when it climbed up the shoe); and then covered spiny turtle with fallen leaves for camouflage.