Notices by Harshad Sharma (harshad@mastodon.sharma.io), page 4

Saw an Indian Gaur on the way from town today, excuse the potato quality photo, was taken with phone and cropped heavily.

It's rare to see them in the day, this one was a lone male happily grazing away. A family in car stopped nearby and I called them over to have a look, the gaur noticed us talking, gave this nice pose looking at us, then quietly vanished behind trees.

#Kodaikanal #wildlife

I wish I was carrying my big lens and camera, but there's only so much space in my backpack, and I'm already carrying a bunch of electronics for recording the bike rides 😆

And there's a raincoat, tire inflater pump, water bottle, extra bag and elastic ties for hauling groceries. And a roll of masking tape (useful to secure recording cables to the bike's frame) and more.

I need to buy a tank bag soon.

For comparison, this is what I got without cropping the image 😅

And in not so wild life, here is Kiki, a little unwell with upset tummy, not happy with me giving her medicines, even if they're preceded and followed by treats.

#pets #cats

A wild butterfly flutters by!

#Kodaikanal

Eating out at Altaf's café after two years! It used to be a yearly thing before I moved here from Bangalore 😂

#Kodaikanal

It's only a 6 km detour from town for some nice mediterranian food, and as a bonus you get to meet chill hippies.

Visited the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory Museum for their open day. I was hoping to see the dome and telescopes but that's still out of bounds for visitors 😅

Several schools had participated in the science exhibition, but photography within the museum is prohibited so 🤷♂️

Nostalgia for all the little science projects I made in my school days, was grinning with happiness seeing the creativity of the kids :D

#Kodaikanal

The Kodaikanal Solar Observatory is known for the discovery of Evershed Effect, by John Evershed who also served as the director of the institute.

A good reminder of efforts put in by scientists to understand sun spots for over a century at this observatory while we observe the increased activity in 2024.

https://youtu.be/Jq_jptFn9zA

Exploring routes around Kodaikanal town, last time I drove down this path was when I was scouting for land in 2019! It seems many people have had the same idea since then - so many new houses, resorts and several buildings are under construction. Only bummer is that there used to be a lot more trees around here.

First photo from a spot that still has greenery > concrete 😅 second from my action camera showing what I'm talking about.

Now on way back home. Poombarai and the setting sun.

Pando cat is still a bit distant (was sick as a kitten, hates me for feeding him awful medicines) but we've been making progress.

#pets #cats

Pando is also in this cuddle puddle*, which is a great leap of faith from avoiding being in the same room with me 😅

* live, it's late night and cold

#pets #cats

@HauntedOwlbear I've managed to move just enough away from "civilization" to always have bad internet 😆

As for the tractors, they have large loudspeakers mounted on roof, pointed away from the driver, blasting away to glory.

Uhh, 2 of 3 GB of new video uploaded in ~30 minutes (fast!), only for the upload/network to reset and start again 😔

And neighbour has called tractor on his farm, of course the tractor guy has to blast his loudspeaker the whole time 🤦♂️

Upload failed second time around the same mark, I'll stick to uploading 640x480 videos from now on 😆😂

My great grandfather from paternal side was chief priest in a massive temple in Mathura. One great grandfather from maternal side gave up his societal position and proxy-begged for food for leprosy patients who had been outcast from a town (and founded Leprosy Mission of India). Another great grandfather was collector of a large town and drove a Plymouth car, in pre-independence India.

Me? I have cats.

#enshittificaton

Corollary: don't let dead people pressure you about how to live your life 😬

Mist: Wanna hang out?
Me: Umm…
Mist: I'mma hang right here until you come out…

It's been three hours.

#Kodaikanal #weather

Greeting my young coffee plants while I have a cuppa and walk around the garden in the morning.

This one is about to shoot past my height!

#gardening #coffee