From The Travel Book

 

In Ella I visited the Nine Arch Bridge, an incredibly scenic viaduct bridge through which the train passes. It is thought to be one of the best examples of colonial-era railway construction. The construction of the bridge was thought to have been done by P.K. Appuhami, a Ceylonese builder, in consultation with British engineers. There are many interesting stories surrounding P.K. Appuhamy and the bridge. According to one story when construction work commenced the Great War (World War I) began, and the British reallocated the steel from this site to the battlefront. When the work came to a standstill the locals built the bridge with stone bricks and cement, but without using any steel. Using steel or not, this bridge looks rock solid and though countless trains have passed through it every day for over a century works flawlessly.

But the tiresome train journey from Colombo had demotivated me from returning home by train again, so I wondered what I could do. Then I had one of the best ideas I had ever had while traveling: I would go mountain hopping by bus. So I traveled from Ella to Bandarawela and found that it took only about 45 minutes. After walking around in Bandarawela, I took the bus to Welimada and from there I took the bus to Nuwara Eliya. It was unbelievable how flexible and fast buses are compared to trains and the scenery was incredible. From there I went to Peradeniya.

The Royal Botanical Gardens in Peradeniya is located near the Mahaweli River and is renowned for its collection of orchids. There were 4000 different species of plants here but I could only identify a dozen or so trees which was disappointing. Oh their name boards were displayed but for me they were meaningless. What I wanted was a deeper understanding. Though I was no good at it or maybe for this very reason, science has always fascinated me. I have an almost superstitious reverence for it. How in heavens did they send a rocket to Jupiter that revolved around the giant planet gaining enormous speed using the planet's own gravitational pull and was flung in a different direction to the furthest distances of space to study Neptune before leaving the solar system forever without even an astronaut aboard?

Getting back to trees, I’ve always been confused about the different types of plants. I knew vaguely a group called flowering plants, and a group that doesn’t flower like pines. But where do things like ferns and mosses fit in? Are algae plants? Without knowing these I’ve lived happily enough, but in the Peradeniya Botanical Gardens, they took a certain intriguing importance. So I decided to find out.

All plants can be divided into two groups: Vascular Plants and Non-vascular Plants. Non-vascular plants do not have true roots, leaves or stems. Their name stems from the fact that they do not contain water or nutrient-conducting vascular tissues like the xylem and phloem. Simple plants like Algae and Mosses fall into this category.

Vascular plants on the other hand could be a spore producer like Ferns or a seed producer, like most trees you see around you. Seed producers can be further divided into flowering plants (Angiosperms) and non-flowering plants (Gymnosperms). Cycads and conifers like pines and spruce are Gymnosperms. They together with ferns dominated the world during the age of the dinosaurs. There are only about 700 Gymnosperm species in existence today, but 250,000 species of Angiosperm. About130 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous, flowering plants appeared suddenly and in great diversity. From the little I know about these things it seems odd. But then we only have to see man's own progress to understand how. About 5300 years ago, people with primitive stone tools were stumbling confused upon the Earth. A few thousand years later they were on the moon. It seems this sort of thing happens all the time in the natural world.

A World Without Beetles

 

When I was a kid this village was filled with fireflies. Now there were hardly any. Actually, there seem to be much less insects now than there were a few decades ago. In just half a lifetime a lot seems to have changed. Maybe it was my imagination, so in one of my foolish ventures, I decided to find out more about insects.

Insects seem to be as different from human beings as it is possible to be. To begin with, they don’t have a heart, lungs, blood as we know it, a skeleton, or much of anything else. They are clearly built very differently. They have a tough exoskeleton and six legs and this seems to be their most prominent feature. They were the first creatures to fly. You don’t have to be an expert to realize that they took a very different evolutionary line very early on. But what they are is they are essential to all life on earth. They are the food for birds and fish, every terrestrial and freshwater ecosystem relies on them. Oddly out of the millions of different varieties of insects, only about a few hundred have taken to the sea. (The sea is dominated by other kinds of arthropods like crustaceans.) Even plants rely on insects for pollination. It seems that they are declining at an unprecedented rate that some scientists call the global Insect Apocalypse. But there are so many varieties of them that scientists don’t know exactly by how much. Some scientists estimate that they are disappearing at the rate of 2% per year. That is a lot in 20 years.

To begin with, bees are in peril, and so are another order of insects, butterflies and moths (order Lepidoptera), and beetles (Coleoptera), and freshwater insects like dragonflies and damselflies. Loss of habitat, insecticides, climate change, and pollution are thought to be the reasons. It is believed that if insects go so will their predators like many kinds of birds and fish and other animals further up the food chain. Many years ago a writer named George Orwell wrote, "By retaining one's childhood love of such things as trees, fishes, butterflies, and toads, one makes a peaceful and decent future a little more probable." A world without butterflies, dragonflies, beetles and many birds, fish and toads would be a sad world indeed.

Michael Faraday

 

Michael Faraday (1791-1867) was an English physicist and chemist. Faraday’s discovery of electromagnetic induction led to his invention of the electric motor and electric generator. His inventions laid the basis for much of the technology of the 20th century. In 1821 he had used a magnet and a wire containing an electric current to produce mechanical motion, thereby creating an electric motor. Ten years later Faraday reversed the process: using magnetism to produce an electric current, he invented the dynamo, or generator.

Faraday formulated the basic laws of electrolysis during his early work in chemistry. Ion, anode cathode and electrode are some of the chemical terms he introduced. In 1825 he became the first to liquefy gases under pressure. In 1845 he discovered the Faraday Effect of magnetism on polarized light. His later days were spent in formulating a general electromagnetic field theory, later completed by James Clerk Maxwell. The farad is named for him.

The son of a blacksmith in Newington, Surrey, Faraday received little formal schooling. He became interested in science while apprenticed to a London bookbinder. In 1813 he got a job as laboratory assistant to Sir Humphry Davy at the Royal Institution in London. Faraday became director of the laboratory in 1825 and professor of chemistry in 1833. He scorned wealth and worldly honors, refusing knighthood and the presidency of the Royal Society. While other men made money from his discoveries Faraday devoted himself exclusively to scientific research.

Frans Hals

Frans Hals (1580-1666) was a Dutch Painter. One of the masters of the 17th century, he is known for his brilliant single and group portraits. Hals excelled in portraying people in a happy mood. His paintings reflect the robust vitality of the prosperous Dutch middle class.

“The Laughing Cavalier” and “Balthasar Coymans” show his use of broad quick brush strokes to catch a momentary gesture and a fleeting expression. The naturalness and gaiety of “Banquets of the officers of Cloveniers-Doelen in Haarlem” are characteristic of much of his work. Hals used bright and vigorous colors in his early works. As he grew older he used more subdued and silvery tones. Many critics consider “Regents of the Old Men’s Home”, painted a few years before he died, to be his greatest work. Hals was born in Antwerp, but moved with his parents to Haarlem when still a child. Although Hals was a popular painter, he often had difficulty making a living. In his later years he was given a small pension by the City of Haarlem.

Oil Pastel

 

I drew this using oil pastel. Maybe the title of the drawing could be " Industrial Pollution of the Air, Land and Water". To the right of the road the water is black and green maybe indicating it has been polluted by the factories on the background. The water could be of a lake or maybe even the sea. Similarly to the left of the road the land seems polluted. The smoke from the factory chimneys could indicate air pollution.

Water Colour Painting

 

The Stars may not shine as brightly

 

The stars may not shine as brightly

And the moon may wander around

But time for you

Has not stopped

For I see you walking

On the beaches of my poems

Alone in an Island

Sailing on ships that have long stopped sailing

But if after reading this

Some other business intrudes

And my words are left to collect the dust

Let time not pass

Without a kind thought of your friend

RJX