There they sit, the two children of the hills of Namdapha:

She is, obviously, spinning stories for the younger one….what gossamer thoughts of far away princes, dragons and wonders is she weaving, that the little boy sits rapt next to her, gazing into the far distance, lost in what his childish imagination shows him?

Children live in fantasy, and to them, stories are part of the fabric of life. I felt lucky to be able to watch these two in their world, even if just briefly…sitting there in the sunlit meadow, free (for a while, at least) of the cares of household chores or school, being…just children…,

All these OTHER photographs from Assam and Arunachal mean…that I have not finished uploading the pics of the birds and the mammals (OK, I admit they are quite lousy, but I am going to post them here as usual!)

And meanwhile, I am off to Thattekkad today, with (in alphabetical order) , , and Sandeep ...so even more birds (hopefully) to add to the list... I am sure that in the next Bangalore Bird Race, (on Jan 17th) I am going to start identifying birds endemic to Assam, Arunachal, and Kerala!

When I come back from Kerala, it’s a trip to B R Hills in Karnataka….I am laying up a store of wildlife memories for the long short, cold days ahead when I am back to GD-care in St.Louis, at the end of the month!