Sahyadrica

...exploring nature in winter. Another year comes to an end. It was a year of exploring different places, discovering new creatures and new life, and gaining knowledge based on the memories and the experiences built over a few years. It was a long year, and I began learning many more things that I seemed to overlook in the past. And the curiosity started ever increasing as I looked in the dry thickets during autumn, when everything was slowing, distant and well hidden from sight. Snow on bare branches It is winter now, about time to bid farewell to 2009. The year had been warm and the snow far too less. The ground would have been covered in a foot of snow around this time they say, and when I look out through the window, there isn’t much snow at all. There, through the window I did see flakes of snow lingering in the air. The air itself was thin and fair, and the weather old and cold. The trees were bare and except the conifers, only flecks of little grass were green. The landsc...

“Will you walk into my parlour?" said the Spider to the Fly, 'Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy; The way into my parlour is up a winding stair, And I've a many curious things to shew when you are there." – Mary Howitt 1821 Moult of a Pisaurid Spider Introduction Spider is the most dangerous eight legged creature that walks the face of the earth. Who does not know what a spider is capable of? Naught one, but the most ignorant. It can hang from the ceiling, fall in your soup, and creep on your bed and under the blanket. It can crawl on your skin and tickle you all the way, or hide in your closet, well hidden during the day. Spider has long fangs and is a venomous bugger; it is aggressive and will readily attack you, if it, you bother. It is everywhere and nowhere, for often you cannot see it, yet it watches you, for it has six eyes – every eye staring right at you. What made a spider so special, so dangerously beautiful? It has six ey...