I took this photo last week in the Kathmandu Valley, near the village of Palubari, in Nepal.  The monsoon season has just ended in Nepal, so the colors of the vegetation are especially vibrant right now.  And the people of Nepal are always vibrant, both in their personalities and their dress.

Palubari took its name for the ginger that was once grown here, but this area in the eastern end of the Kathmandu Valley is fertile enough to grow rice, maize (corn), wheat, potatoes and many other vegetable crops.

The corn crops have been harvested already, the cobs and kernels drying in the sun along the roads that run through the valley.

Now the rice crop must be brought in.  All the harvesting is done by hand (you can see the scythe in the hand of the woman in the first picture).  It is hard, labor intensive work and it must all be done before the major festivals next month of Dashain and Tihar.

This post is a response to the Weekly Photo Challenge: Saturated.