Isabel Has Been Drawing Too

Barn Owls Outside our Windows

photo and drawing by Clio

     I was the one that saw the owls first. I saw owls in a tree outside my parents' window.   The owls that we've seen are barn owls.  The first time I saw them I thought they were grass owls but later I found out that the owls couldn't be grass owls, because grass owls nest in tall grass, and these owls live in the side of a building.  There are six owls.  There are three owlets and three grownups.  Yesterday I saw four in a tree: one owlet and three grownups.  
                                                    by Clio

  Besides becoming avid owl spotters,  what else have we been up to?  We went on  a fabulous five day trip with Eric Worby, wife Gul Rukh and daughter Sharoda.  We made a nice circuit starting from Chennai, to Mahabalipuram, to Pondicherry, to Traquebar, to Thanjavur, back to Pondicherry and home to Chennai.  We saw, we ate, we traveled.  It was great fun to have old friends to share the adventure with.  Sharoda, at age 17, is the girl of every parent's dream.  She lovingly and patiently shared her interests in drawing, writing and books with the similarly interested Isabel.  Isabel was in heaven and is still recovering from their departure. 

   If Barney were writing this, he'd give you wonderful historical facts and impressions about the ancient and fantastic sites we saw.  I offer images:    

   http://www.world-heritage-tour.org/asia/south-asia/india/chola-temples/thanjavur/brithisvara-s-temple-nandi-s-pavilion/spere-quicktime.html

  The above link gives you a 360 degree video of one of the temples we visited.  At this temple, a group of school girls were smitten with Isabel and after many false starts, approached her and took her by the hands to escort her around.  

  My photos from the trip can be seen on my Picasa site.  The easiest way to get there is to click on a  slide show.  If you enter the slide show at the end of the cycle, you may miss some photos so select "view all" to get the thumbnails.  Then,  once you are in Picasa, enter the slide show mode because the colors are richer and more true --it may take a bit for them to load but once they are loaded, you can cycle through easily.  Also, once you are in Picasa, you can access any of the photos by selecting  "My Photos" directly to the left of any album title.

Catherine

P.S.  Noah will be here in a few days and we will be traveling for the the better part of his month long stay.  We will be out of Internet contact for much of that time.  We are looking forward to a quiet, simple Christmas in the mountains.