The rain has taken off for a couple of days leaving the sun in charge. This means the clothes can dry in peace on the lines outside. Nothing like sun dried sheets to sleep on. There is something special about the way cotton bedspreads feel after they have been in the sun all day. I simply love it.

On the day I change sheets, I run my hands on the fresh sun-dried sheet, enjoying its cotton texture. Ahh, I love this crispness, I sigh contentedly. It is only on the first day that you are able to really enjoy the crispness. The second and/or subsequent days are not the same at all. The L&M raises his eyebrows on hearing me. Crisp? A dosa can be crisp, he retorts, but a sheet?

It is not just the clothes that the sun is drying. It is busy drying up the moss as well. Nope, you don’t proliferate, not on my watch, the sun seems to declare. The lucky ones in the shade, in spaces where the sun’s rays cannot reach, don’t take any notice. They know the sun cannot do any harm to them. Not yet anyway, because the rain will be back, in a day, two or at the most three.

The sun also gives me an opportunity to take a look at the garden. What has the L&M been up to? After all it is his forte. The flowers look pretty. Butterflies, the ubiquitous Chocolate Pansy among them, are flitting merrily around. I fish out the phone from my pocket and start clicking.

A Narrow-banded Bluebottle (Graphium teredon) is resting on the balsam with its wings open. It is sure to disappear if I run upstairs to get my camera. The phone will have to do for now. Stretching my hands as close as I dare, I take a few pictures and then start recording a video.

Mosquitoes grab the golden opportunity to drink deep from my amply exposed arms as I try to stand as motionless as possible. Not content with being tiny insect dracula, some of them, aspiring artists of the mosquito world no less, start singing in my ears. There is only so much you can sacrifice for the cause of art/photography and I draw the line at singing mosquitoes. I withdraw in a huff, much bitten, but not shy. With one swipe of my now free hand I send two of the aspiring artists to an early grave.

Never mind the itching and scratching that followed. What mattered was that I had got what I wanted! 😉

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© Shail Mohan 2020