DARGAR GANESH FORT RANTHAMBORE

Dargar Danesh has an open courtyard and several beautiful gates to enter the building.

The most beautiful gate was mobbed by people wanting their picture taken, I gave up and photographed strangers to get a whole picture of it.

Each gate is decorative and beautiful. Where else would you see anything like it?

Ellen took my picture in this gate.

And I took her picture in another gate.

A bit of detail shows what I believe is the Hindu  God Ganesh.

Around each gate are beautiful, carved marble panels.

.

Here’s Hugo and Kris. They finally got their chance in front of the “peacock” gate, as we began referring to it. It was a crush of people in front of them; I couldn’t get a frontal picture.

I waited long enough for a close up of the peacock gate.

The courtyard is rented out for weddings and other celebrations. An old ex-royal lives here. These men were carrying food to his apartment on the far side of the courtyard. Not long after, I saw him leave in his Rolls Royce.
But on to the hunt. These are the canters, open seating with roll bars.
The first thing we spotted was a monkey of a different color. It never faced us and I never saw another of that color anywhere.

Here a protective mother.

A newborn has little hair.

The road got a bit rough. If you meet another vehicle, someone has to pull over or back up. It was early morning and we were all bundled up against the cold with blankets provided.

Near a lake, a crocodile slumbered on the opposite bank. And, we did see tiger tracks. They eat about every 3 days.

Tigers favorite food the rangers call tiger orderves.

Peacocks are plentiful in the wild. The peacock is the national bird of India.

I don’t remember bird names in my country very well. I usually have to look them up.

Deer are plentiful. If I remember correctly, both males and females of this breed grow horns.

Beautiful colors.

A wild boar.

Another type of deer roams the park. It is called a blue bull. I was never able to catch a photo of one. And we were unable to see a tiger but we have another hunt to try again tomorrow.
Our palace tomorrow.

MISSING BIRDS

Posted 6/21/2011 9:00 AM PDT

One of the nice things about living on the road in parks is that birds are a constant. Treed areas, bushes, grass attracts them. Yesterday, Laurie and I walked the dogs in the early cool of the day and came upon a small park and the cheerful tune of birds. I’d forgotten how much I miss that in this harsh climate. I read the local paper and people love their town, but I find it a great place for a short visit only at this time of year.  The pool is wonderful, but it doesn’t make up for the inability to enjoy the wide open spaces and wildlife. Unless you count scorpions and lizards as wildlife.

This peacock lives in Yuma, AZ. It gets pretty hot there, too.

This beauty lives near a lake in Massachusetts. Seven year old grandson Austin described to me a bird he saw that looked like a turkey but with blue and green and pink feathers.

Even a common gull is an elegant bird. This one lives on Marthas Vineyard.

Springtime in Hershey, PA.

A Texas owl on a fence post.

Louisiana Pelicans.

Burrowing owls from Davis, CA.

And a little songbird from Vineyard Haven.
Made me feel cooler just cruising through some bird photos.

MORE RUMMAGING THROUGH THE PAST YEAR

My house burned down to the ground while I was at school in 1947. The bus driver drove up to the still smoking coals of what had been a two room log cabin in Hardwood, Michigan, looked at it from his driver's seat, than drove back to the bus stop at a cross road, about a half mile in the direction we had just come. He dropped myself and my siblings off on the road, and drove away. Neighbors Bernice Cousineau and Patsy Robinson were also dropped at that stop and I flew down the road to Cousineau's, bravely ignoring their bull, which terrified me, waiting for no one. My siblings opted for Robinson's house. It was a traumatic time and we soon removed a couple days later to Massey's place, a tiny two room shack with a chicken coup my dad turned into a bedroom. From there, he sold our land and got a job in the city of Escanaba and I never saw my childhood friends, Bernice and Patsy again. However, after several years of trying to find me, out of the blue several months ago, I received a call from Patsy Robinson Whitfield. She and Bernice were determined to track me down and finally succeeded. What joy and happiness that call gave me. We will meet again in September of 2009. What they conveyed to me is that the event was traumatic to them as well, for they had a friend and it was as though I had disappeared, as I truly did, and they always wondered what ever happened to me and my family. Interestingly, I had never considered the perspective of my young friends. I imagine there was a bond to this event that kept them considering after 60 plus years. And I, too, thought many times of them. Our friendship can pick up where it left off, those many years and miles ago.

On the ramblin front, Jim and I biked on the canal now that the weather is clement and we spot these peacocks along the road periodically. Beautiful, aren't they?