Today’s posting is not really of travels unless one accepts that, as Eliot put it

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, remembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning

So, today being the wedding anniversary of my grandparents who built this house, and of my parents who lived here all their wedded life, I thought I would look at Lakmahal, or rather at its trees and flowers. The first picture is of my parents many years ago – with a Christmas tree in the dining room – and the next is a picture of the house that just show the ehala tree on the right. The next four are of the front garden and the pink acacia, now gone, and the large white temple flower tree that is still there and flourishing.

The rest are of my little side garden and the balcony above. The kohomba tree planted two years ago near which Toby sat is now much taller, as can be seen in the picture next to the old ehala tree there and a drooping blossom. The last four pictures are this morning, when the Kandyan dancer orchid on the ehala tree blossomed after ages, and the flowers on the balcony, also planted two years ago, now flourish. The lotus pond in the garden is a wonderful focus for the eyes as I sit up there of a morning.