Finally up

There are some jobs that take an effort to get done that seems to be out of all proportion to the simplicity of the job. Putting up the posters about rubbish seems to be one of them.

First we had to get the posters printed on plastic in Pondy as they don't do it anywhere in Auroville. That always takes a day or two and several phone calls. Then we decided to nail them up, but there were no nails and when Rajan went to the shop in Koot Road it was closed. So he had to find out when it was opening and make another journey there.

Finally, however, the posters are up. After all that effort I hope that all the volunteers read and act on the information about how to separate their rubbish. Given past experience I am not too hopeful but..... 

On the line

Today I came across all these mosquito nets piled up on the washing line.

I thought they were an interesting mix of colours, shapes and textures.

From the phone

Its been a very quiet day today when I have only spoken to very few people, two of them being Emma and Sam on Skype. This has given me the time to sort out how to transfer pictures from my new phone to my computer using bluetooth.

I am very pleased as this means that when I see something in Buddha Garden that would make a good picture I can take it on my phone. Rather than having to run back for my camera.

The picture is of neem blossom which I took with my phone when I first got it. Although it looks very beautiful, the blossom plays havoc with my sinuses and makes me sneeze. So I am pleased that it has almost finished now.

Surveying the land

Today the Government land surveyor came to try and sort out the boundary dispute with the next door neighbour to Buddha Garden. There were a large number of people involved including a big group from Auroville as well as various family members of the neighbour.

Unfortunately the surveying couldn't be done because the neighbour raised questions of access to his land that couldn't be resolved on the spot. He wants access through Auroville land but this has to go through proper channels and will take some time. The surveyor will only do the surveying when there is agreement between everyone involved.

After hanging around for a long time waiting for everyone to arrive and starting very late it was very frustrating that nothing could be resolved.

Watering

Today I managed to get to my computer early so that I could catch up on a lot of office type jobs that needed doing. One of them was to write a promised article for the land purchase website to help raise money for purchasing land in the green belt. I also sorted out a range of photos about tree planting and tree care and the above photo was one that I found.

I think it is a lovely picture of everyone giving the tree seedlings water. It looks like a sacred ritual which in many ways is what it is.

Organizing the rubbish

Since our rubbish hasn't been collected for some time it has pushed us to be a lot more organized about how we handle it. Today we re- labelled the bins and tomorrow I will talk to the volunteers about how they have to separate their rubbish. I have made some posters to remind them and Rajan is going to get them printed on Saturday when they will hopefully also get put up near the bins.

It feels very good to have done this.

Beautiful light

It seemed very appropriate that as today is Mother Earth day we did a lot of work in Jalabhoomi mulching and otherwise protecting trees. It wasn't something planned, but I'm glad it happened.

There was a beautiful light this morning and this is a picture I took in the nursery of some pumpkin seedlings. Unfortunately I haven't managed to capture the sparkling of the drops of water on their leaves. I love the feeling of new growth that the picture expresses, though, which seems to be appropriate for Buddha Garden right now.

Its all wrong for the time of year as in the heat things don't grow as well as usual. So maybe these seedlings are a symbol of other things starting to grow in the garden.