Green

After the rain and then the sun everything is gloriously green in the garden.  In the past I have often tried to take photos of all the different shades of green and have never had good results.  The photos don't do justice to the colours.

Today I used my software to modify the photo and am very pleased with the results.  I think the picture gives a good expression of the shades of green in the garden at the moment and the energy I feel from it.

Flowers with love

Today was a picking day so Pierre took our not very large amount of produce to Foodlink at Solar Kitchen.  He came back with this very small sprig of flowers which had the most beautiful strong smell.  Apparently there are several really large bushes of this plant at the Solar Kitchen and fills the air there with its wonderful perfume.

It seemed to express so much love - giving off this beautiful smell unconditionally for anyone to enjoy.

I wish I could picture the smell....

Disappointed

I felt really disappointed when the third volunteer told me she was leaving this evening.  In the last week or so we have had three women come - all of whom had contacted me beforehand  - who have stayed two nights and then gone on to somewhere else.  All of them have complained of it being too lonely and that they don't feel safe.  But of course, if no one stays around there will never be anyone here!!!! They don't seem to want to create something here, but perhaps that is too much to expect them to do.

I tried to do a drawing of what happened today but just didn't have the energy, I think because it is the end of a busy day - vegetable group meeting and yoga -  and I feel tired.  All I could manage were the grey clouds that seem to be drifting around here at the moment.

What surprised me, however, was the green that I wanted to put in the clouds.  So perhaps out of these experiences something new and hopefully positive will grow.......

New red shoots

After a very heavy shower over the weekend I finally had enough time to go and look at the new pond.  I thought it would be much more full and I wanted to see what the new terrace looked like.  It was very disappointing as the pond looks as if the bottom is only just covered with water and the terrace looks horribly muddy and soggy.  It looks very uninviting and not ready to have anything planted there yet.

I felt the whole place had been turned upside down and now needed a bit of time just to settle.  I did not think that any of it made a very good picture.

On the way to the pond I say these new cashew leaves and shoots which look so fresh and gorgeous.  Presumably it is the rain that has brought them out in this beautiful colour which I know will change very quickly and be gone in a day or two.

Funny how I set out to get one picture but came back with something quite different that I saw at just the right moment.

A complete blank

Today I have a complete blank as far as images are concerned.  I have tried doodling for some time but nothing seems to be crystalising.

I have had a lovely day seeing friends and getting my new tablet computer.  And I have also managed to do quite a lot of writing.  Maybe that has taken all my creative energy.  Or maybe it uses another part of my brain and so blanks out the image part.

Suzu

This is another one of my characters which took much longer to do than the other two.  There was a certain precision about her - her eyes and hair in particular - which I took a long time to get right.

Interestingly this gave me more time to think about what she was like and how I will write about her.  I have the feeling that once I have written a bit more about her I may need to do another image.

Whirlwind comes to earth

I had such difficulties yesterday trying to create a picture of how the recent whirlwind of activity has become quiet and sinking into the earth.  

Today I just suddenly had this flash of what the image should look like and then I created the above picture.  Which pretty much expresses what I wanted to express.  The way the energy of the whirlwind breaks up and then sinks spirally into the earth.  

I see it as some sort of renewal.  Which interestingly is what we are doing in yoga just at the moment - restorative asanas.

Quietly coming to earth

Today I had a strong sense that the whirlwind of the last few days was gradually losing its force and slowly coming to earth.  It was as if a great spiral was settling into the earth, although unfortunately I couldn't do a picture of it that did justice to the image I had in my head.

This was the nearest I could come.  It shows the strands of the colour settling into the earth, but I couldn't find the right image of the spiral.

The new pond

This is the water catchment pond which is now finished.  There is rather a lot of mud around and we have been advised not to walk on the bunds until they have dried out a bit.  The terrace off the to the side looks good but it is exceptionally muddy having been churned up by the JCB when the earth was spread out.  We will watch how the water goes in the monsoon and then probably plant it next year.

We finished the new orchard today as well and it feels as if it has been a very intense few days.

Now we have to think of a name for it.  I expect Pierre will have some ideas.

Working in water

After very heavy and prolonged rain yesterday everything was very wet and muddy this morning.  I didn't expect to see the JCB come today as I expected that it would be too muddy.  

It did come, as the picture shows, and very surprisingly was able to work in the half finished pond.  According to Kireet  - who said he had never been able to do this before - it was because under the soil is hard packed gravel which makes a very good base for the JCB.  This explains why this area suffers so badly from flooding as the water cannot percolate through the gravel.

More great work was done and it should be finished tomorrow provided it doesn't rain tonight.

Pond after rain

I was woken up in the early hours of this morning because of a very intense rain storm.  This is what the new, unfortunately unfinished, pond looked like.  The water in the part of the pond that is finished looked really beautiful and of course after the rain it felt clean and cool.

I was surprised at how the water seems to have been running as there is a big puddle in front of where we have piled up the earth to make a terrace.  From what has happened in previous years I would have thought that water from that area should drain into the pond.  I will have to see if Kireet has got an explanation for what has happened.

I expect we will have to wait a few days before we can start work again, as it is probably too soft and muddy for the JCB to work.  I, however, extremely pleased that we are having this work done now.

Lovely evening

Had a lovely evening out with Karl.  I think my social life is starting to look better!

At the centre of a whirlwind

It started with Kireet turning up early to start digging the water catchment pond at the back of Buddha Garden.  I was very surprised because although we have sorted out the financial details I thought he would want to wait until there is more rain, but apparently the soil is fine for digging.  Pierre and I had to run down and lay out markers to show where we wanted the pond and terrace and during the day I have been up and down discussing various aspects of the digging activity.

Because of that, immediately after work finished I had to go and sort out the money we need to pay for it.  This meant going to Financial Services and having various conversations with people about how to get a donation into our account.

I was also surprised to see two people turn up to finish digging the holes and eventually plant the fruit trees on the new land.  They have done the holes and quite a bit of clearing work, but Vivek wants to crack on with the composting and planting.  While I was expecting that we would finish this with volunteers next week.  It has rained in other parts of Tamil Nadu where he has been working and he wants to get all the planting done before it rains here.

With all this going on it has felt as if I have been at the centre of whirlwind.  Particularly as although these are all projects in which I have been involved, suddenly they have their own very strong energy for completion.

Incubating

I had a very clear dream last night, although when I say 'clear' I mean that there were a lot of clear images, not that the meaning was clear.  This took me a bit of time to work out.

The dream was saying that I am incubating something, which could be a range of things from my book, pictures or something in Buddha Garden or even, I suppose, something else of which I am not aware right now.  I am working on a lot of things at the moment which require me to work steadily, a bit at a time, although in most cases it is difficult to see what the final result will be.  Or whether the result will be anything more than the collection of things that I am doing day by day.

I think when the time comes there will be a strong energy which will show me what needs to be done.  In the meantime I must carry on doing what I am doing while hold what is incubating in my heart very closely.  

This is what I wanted to express in the picture.

Another step

After writing about Bhoomi Vayu yesterday I wanted to celebrate another small step in developing it which we managed to do this morning.

We managed to put compost in and fill quite a lot of the holes that had been dug.  In fact I was surprised at the number we managed to do.  If we carry on at this speed we will be finished by the end of the week so that we can then finish planting the fruit trees.

Bhoomi Vayu

This is the new area of land where we are planting an orchard.  Despite the fact that we have had several students working on it and some paid workers it seems to be going very slowly.  

It reminds me very much of my writing which I plod on with, a little each day.  Which perhaps means that we have to take similar action to develop this land.  If we have some spare capacity tomorrow we can put compost in holes and get  ready for planting.

We need to do a little every day.

Art

Art is another person I am writing about at the moment.  Once again it is a picture that just came.

Writing the story is interesting as I have got to the point where it seems that an actual narrative is arising.  But it is very slow and I am lucky if I can manage 500 words a day.  Sometimes it seems too slow to carry on, but I find if I plug away over time something does seem to come through.  Its the only way I can do it at the moment and perhaps the worst thing is not knowing whether it will ever develop into anything worthwhile which for me means something that other people might want to read.....

I don't seem to have huge amounts of energy for it.  I don't feel there is a story there that I absolutely have to tell because it is important.  I don't seem to have that driving energy to do it yet every day it seems important to work on it a little bit more.  To reveal a little bit more of the story.

For what? I don't know but at the moment it seems more for the satisfaction of completing it rather than that I have anything significant to say that anyone else would want to hear.

Meliana

I've got back to doing some writing every day and this morning I was writing about Meliana.  I think it was why when I started drawing this image just appeared.

I hope it will help my writing to have a picture of her in my mind's eye.

Feeling a deep satisfaction

This evening I realise that I am feeling a deep sense of satisfaction.  I also realize that this is because I wrote a proposal for a new project and I really enjoy doing that.  Weaving all the threads together into a whole which is something to be developed and then hopefully manifest in the real world is very satisfying and this is what I tried to express in the picture.

I get a lot of joy out of running Buddha Garden, but I think the thing enjoy most is putting something in the real world where once there was nothing.  Vivek thinks I should stay in Buddha Garden because I am still needed here, but I wonder if it is time to move on to something else.........

Chickens are out!

We had some new chickens delivered yesterday and today a lot of them managed to get out of the pen!  They are quite small and managed to get through holes made in the rusting metal fencing around the bottom part of the pen.  The first time we looked for where they might have got out we all thought it must be through the cotton netting that covers the roof and the top half of the pen.  We did find two or three holes but this isn't where they had been getting out.  The larger chickens that we have had for some time now don't seem very interested in getting out and in any case are too large to go through the holes in the pen.

The new chickens were very nervous and skittish because of the move and then being chased around made them even worse.  There were several break outs and it took a long time to get them all back in again.  Rajan has mended the holes but I think we are going to have to have the whole pen renewed. I don't think this is going to be cheap, but we will have to do it. 

Out for a meal

Went out for a lovely meal tonight with Noemie and Vivek at a very nice boutique type place in Pondy.  I took my camera expecting to take a picture and then I forgot.  All I could manage was the logo which I got from a postcard that came with the bill.

Having another social occasion has really helped me feel a lot more joyful about what I am doing.

Relaxing spiral

I feel that something that was spiraled up tight inside me is starting to relax.  I think it is because I went out to lunch with Amy today.  She is the FAMC administrator and does a lot of the work for them that I do in the Farm group.  

She pointed out to me, however, that as she is not a member of the FAMC she doesn't get so emotionally involved with issues and doesn't worry about outcomes.  I think that is probably the key.  As a member of the Farm group I do worry about outcomes because I care about what happens.  In the end, however, the outcome is not under my control.  All I can do is help the group function as well as possible so that good decisions can be made.  

Unfortunately this means that if I am not careful I get a double whammy with having to write about difficult issues both before and after meetings and sometimes to present them to the community.  It is difficult not to get over involved.

Maybe I need more social activities like today's lunch with Amy that really raised my spirits.

Wrong response

I made very heavy weather of the Farm group meeting this morning.  I am doing a lot of the admin work and having to write a lot of the stuff, first for the agenda and then for the notes, I think I get a double dose of any negativity going around.  

I must find a better response to all of this.  It affects me physically and I noticed I was very irritated during a lot of the meeting which wasn't very helpful for anyone.  There has to be a better way.

Wild card

'

This is a picture of a card I found in Buddha Garden this morning - the Joker or 'wild card' in the ordinary pack of cards.  'The Fool' in the Tarot pack.

I feel it is saying that there is going to be unexpected things happening in Buddha Garden. Various things are developing - like the possibility of building a new house for an Aurovilian - which I feel are starting to happen although at the moment is about ideas in everyone's head rather than practical events.  I think the card is saying that there are other things cooking up as well.

Which makes me feel both anxious and excited and hoping that I will be able to cope.

Love the sun

Didn't wake up this morning until it was light and then jumped out of bed because I thought I was late for work - then I remember it was Sunday!  Ah well, time to go back to bed except that I was all bright and bushy tailed by then.

Have had a busy day but been very aware of the sun.  Its a bright disc in a blue sky just like the picture.  Which I enjoyed doing because I was using some new techniques with my software.

Love my bike

I rode my bike today which was the first time for over a week - since I started being ill.  

The sun was shining and the sky was blue and I just loved the feeling of riding my lovely bike.  In fact I could feel that I had a silly grin on my face the whole time because it felt sooooooo good.

I am daft as a brush obviously.

Antidote

Have been making heavy weather of things these last two days.  I seem to have been dwelling on many things that are wrong in Auroville and it has been making me feel somewhat depressed.  I think its the low energy that comes sometimes after having been ill, although I continue to feel better each day.

Then today someone from the International School sent me a picture of the team that made one of the more creative madalas in the exercise I gave them when they came to Buddha Garden.  It reminded me of quite a lot of what is right with my situation here and for that I am very grateful.  Going to my first yoga class after a week or more off also helped a lot.

More warm thoughts

This is my second attempt at expressing the image I had of Julian of Norwich. Despite the fact that it is much less like what I imagined it nevertheless seems to express more of what I experienced.  I think its because of the warm and earthy colours.  I would be much happier to have this picture up in my room.

I am feeling a lot better today.

Warm thoughts

Its times like this I wish I had a better technical ability to draw and paint.

The night before last I had a very strong image of Julian of Norwich (a female English mystic who lived in the place where I was born in the twelfth century) and a heart warming message.  Which I feel I have really taken to heart.

It has been so difficult trying to do the drawing which is nothing like the image I had in my head, but more like an ikon.  However its a start and I might try something more.

It was a very powerful experience and I want to create something that really expresses the message.  Something I can put up in my room.