woke up this morning a lil late. sleep has been erratic these last couple weeks. found a brutal full frontal red ants attack on the kitchen bin and all over the kitchen rug. we hadn't even thrown mango peels in there, but he had cooked fish last evening, I know the ants here to be non vegetarian, they love fish oil. just last week I was nostalgic about the ants; this year has been different, they were so far very few and very late in the season, and out of the wall opposite their usual annual.

spent the next couple hours or so cleaning up. washing the ants down, wiping every surface. he took the rug and trash out and away. I mopped the kitchen floor and walls, and then plugged any holes in the walls with the tile fixer pour cement thing.

had that can't live here feeling for the umpteenth time. called mom who is unwell. and finally sat down for breakfast at 11:30. 

and then noticed the usual late morning flameback woodpecker visit on the peepul outside the guestroom window, which is my summer breakfast reading spot. the red headed golden backed guy traipsed flauntingly up and down the tree for a long time. I put aside reading about Margaret Mead's childhood, gasped and smiled and tried unsuccessfully to click it yet again. and then a lil female sunbird swung on a wire just out the window a while.

such is the balance in life in the Aravallis, the pain and pleasure, the awe and angst of living in human houses at the edge of the jungle.