Decorations for a temple festival, Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

Road decorations for a festival at the 'Mariamman Temple', Kudagama road, Avissawella.

'King coconut' and 'Kurumba', Sri Lanka.

'King Coconut', 'Ran Thambili - S, 'Sevvilani' - T, loaded onto a 'Tata Dimo Batta' to take to the market.

Young coconut, 'Thambili' - S, 'Kurumbai' - T

The King-coconut has a lovely golden color. A similar skin color is taken as the epitome of beauty in a damsel among the Sinhalese of Sri Lanka. ' Ran-Ethana', 'Ran tikiri sinaa' are among the many epithets using this similarity. Even after the advent of Pepsi and Cola the drink from a King-coconut is still favoured in Sri Lanka. The picture below shows an unripe coconut. This is known as 'Kurumba'. The drink from this is also tasty but not as popular as the drink from the king-coconut.

Golden Bug attacking a flower

The symmetry of a flower

The concept of 'fractals' - basic building blocks of a uniform size - explains symmetry in everyday organic things that we see. An appreciation of this in nature needs an aesthetic sense.

'Kadapul Mal' before blooming.

The 'Kadapul-mal' is a flower which blooms rarely. The bud hangs down arising from its thick leaf. It blooms after sunset and emits a fragrant scent. I took this picture in our garden at Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

Black-pepper from Sri Lanka.

The creeper and berries

The plucked berries left to dry in the sun till it shrivels up and turns black.

Black Pepper, 'Gammiris' - 'Gamey+Miris' to differentiate from 'Cochi Miris' brought from Cochin, Goa, India introduced by the Portuguese. It is called 'Milahu' in Tamil.. Pepper was a valuable export from Sri Lanka for more than 2000 years. It is recorded as being exported from the port of Komari on the eastern coast of Sri Lanka by the ancient Greeks.

Bullock and hand drawn carts

Two carts one drawn by a bullock and the other by a man on display, Avissawella, Sri Lanka.