AN EVENTFUL MORNING
LT COL NOEL ELLIS
20/IX/2021
A night with very heavy rains was what we had in store. Like Elephants and Hippos it poured. Birds and flowers bore the maximum brunt.
The pitter-patter of the rain on the leaves sung such a beautiful lullaby that it was when one finishes his walk that one got up. Generally, one would rush, but not today and I almost fell asleep again. The sun wasn’t going to appear the whole day. It was time for the morning walk.
As I walked, a unique double caramel coloured hibiscus was blooming. I remembered having sown its cutting. To identify it was now very difficult as they all have got mixed up.
To doubly ensure that this one stays as part of our collection, I decided to snip a branch for the obvious. For which I returned to get a cutter. The mobile network has been down since the last two days, but I still decided to pick up the mobile. Just in case there was a fleeting opportunity to click something.
Oreo by now was waiting for me. A quick pat and I moved on for the cutting to be taken. As I walked down the garage ramp, Oreo started to growl. I tried to look in the direction he was looking, especially in the far distance where all these strays congregate. There was nothing but his growling continued. He is really scared of those vagabonds.
Two steps forward and I froze in my tracks. There was a baby snake just about ten feet from me for which Oreo was warning me. I thanked him and now that my photographing toy was in my hand, I thought of filming this early morning encounter.
Moment the snake heard my footsteps, it vanished. Bush by bush I peeped but in vain. Well, Oreo deserved a special hug and I continued my walk. I spotted this wriggler on the edge of the rain water drain again and the snake posed for me. One shot and it realised danger was lurking and jumped into the drain. It wriggled fast till it met the main drain in which the water flow was quite fast. The force of water took it with it and disappeared once more.
The other day one had collected a very long snake skin. Their eggs must have hatched and these babies are now finding their way. Though they are non-poisonous, a snake is a snake and has to be treated that way. No point taking a chance.
We sat again in the lawn for the ritualistic morning cup of tea watching the sunbirds and munias. With our cups in hand, we also walked across the road to admire the blooms. A very old hibiscus with a small elongated flower had bloomed across. This year it was laden with flowers. Reminded me of my childhood. The pathway leading home had this bush on either side, in Sainik School Kapurthala. We would pull out the flowers from their base and suck the nectar from its bottom and blew air in it as if playing a musical instrument. Now one understands why the Sunbirds target the flower's base.
The mobile network was still eluding us. Breakfast was next on the agenda. Moment we finished; my wife started peeping out of the small window from where we watch our favourite mango tree on which our pepper vine has been trained. ‘Snake’ she said quite loudly.
Both of us watched it move around like a serpent does. Now it was trying to climb up the mango tree using the grip it must be getting from the pepper creeper. It started climbing entwined and entangled around the mango tree. It was the same species as one had encountered in the morning but this one was much bigger, almost four times the size of the one bumped into this morning.
Its forked tongue kept twitching as it made its way up. Hope it doesn’t jump into our balcony and then to the bedroom. With a stick in hand, I rushed up. Ruffled the leaves and vine and tried to ward him off from the mango tree. That is when I spotted that our pepper vine is now in full fruiting mode. Pepper pods ranging between six to nine inches are hanging fully loaded with those small fiery roundels which we shall collect before we leave. My attention got distracted from the snake.
Suddenly the network made the mobile buzz like a zombie. Another distraction from what I was supposed to shoo away. In all this, the cutting which had to be planted also got neglected and would now be done in the evening. The rains again started lashing down.
What an eventful morning it was! Agree? I wonder!!!!!!!!
JAI HIND
© NOEL ELLIS
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