July 7,

Happy Birthday to our Niece… many blessings to you today!!

Today was a chill day. We had breakfast of a big, heaping platter of veggie noodles, bananas, and curd and honey. We put a noticeable dent in the noodles (by no means did we or could we eat it all!), had a banana each and our curd dish. Then we sat on our balcony and just… well, enjoyed nature. Watched as the clouds rolled in for their seemingly daily appearance, and then a light rain. We saw the squirrel run his route and so many birds, including a woodpecker, and a Sri Lankan Grey Hornbill. Seeing the hornbill was pretty neat. We also heard a dog “talking” and carrying on for quite a while. It reminded me of Jeff's Smokey dog. So often it seemed that dog could talk! 

Our host left for much of the late morning and early afternoon. It made for a very quiet time in the house that is already quiet (he is quieter than a mouse). Anyway, the rain stopped. I cut Jeff's hair with a new trimmer he had bought. It turned out okay- this trimmer is different than he'd back home. It will be a learning curve.

Jeff and I decided to go for a walk (after we ate another banana). On our walk about, we went on the uphill of our, tiny road (one that Google maps doesn't show existing). We had been on this road in CB. I had forgotten how steep it was. At a 'Y', we took the way we hadn't been. It was some dirt then cement and some more dirt, all the while skirting up the mountain through a tea plantation. We went up quite a ways. The view back into the valley opened to a lake. Jeff had just looked it up when a local coming down toward us, proudly stated, “Lake Victoria!” We nodded, and I said something and she said something in Sinhalese. So we parted, unable to communicate anymore, us going on up, her going on down. The weather is cool, brisk in the shade, but warms right up in the sun. We came up to a kind of ridge, one side being the tea plantation, and the other side even steeper down, but was hard to really tell due to having a very tall pine grove. The wind rustling through the pines was nice to listen to. We even walked a little off road in the pines. But came back to the road/path.

Also on the road/path we came across a “road crew.” They were hand pouring cement for a link up of cement sections here in the middle. But it is not at the first of the path that is dirt, just here in the middle. Questions?? Anyway, we were allowed to go past on the small shoulder. On around and a bit more up we found even better vista views, overlooking the tea shrubs. The road curved more around the mountain and we came to a road block. A huge tree has taken over the road. Here we turned around and trekked back down. We did follow a different branch down and ended on the outskirts of the main road of Panwila.

We went back toward our place, stopping at a shop we went to the other day and bought three little bags of crackers:  a BBQ chicken, puffed one; a masala chicken biscuit one, and cheese biscuit one.  At our place we sat on the balcony and ate our lunch snack. The crackers were all very different, but it was just fuel at this point. Just as we finished eating the rain started again, and turned into a blowing downpour, enough we had to go inside. 

I started this blog. Jeff read. Then I was able to talk with my mom… Technology can be a blessing, especially for this! 

Then we had our supper. Pradeep made us a Fish curry and Pittu, which is a rice flour and coconut rolled into a log. We also had Dahl. As always, it was great! He also gave us a set yogurt for dessert. Then we watched some You tube, then watched our church service back home. Great day in Sri Lanka!