Green

I took this picture near the Town Hall as I was on the way to a meeting there.  I loved all the different colours of green looking so beautiful in the sunshine.

Agitation now and then

Today used to be Peter's birthday and I used to love sharing my birthday with him.  We used to have a joint birthday celebration with a cake that had our combined ages on it.  I felt really close to him today, especially when Emma sent me a card thanking me for the veggie box - my year round Christmas present.

Basically I have felt light and smooth today although I had to go to two meetings.  One was particularly agitating as it was so badly organised and members will not keep to the subject.  One person was very tired, the other ill and one was late so it felt that everyone was out of sorts.  

David looked particularly ill and he irritates me how he just doesn't seem to be in the same universe most of the time.  Then I get bad about feeling irritated as he really doesn't look very well but obviously wants to keep on going as if he is OK.  

Design

I have been playing around with my new toy (my yoga tablet) and trying to find a new wallpaper for it.  I took this picture of my quilt which I thought would make a nice back ground.  It is a nice design but far too busy as a background for all my apps which I can hardly see as the design itself is so busy.

So I took a picture of the wood grain on my desk.

And that works much better.

Which I suppose shows that the thing you like the best is not necessarily the best for purpose.

I have been having very strong feelings today about how I need to change things around in my room so that I have enough space for painting.  I haven't got time to do it now but will hopefully have time this weekend.  I am very surprised as I haven't painted anything for over a year.  But maybe now is the time to start again.

My birthday

It is my birthday and I was hoping that I would be able to go to the Ashram to meditate, but it was not to be.  A group wanted to come and look around Buddha Garden  and with Vivek being away there was no one else to do it.  Even so, it felt like a special day when I was grateful for all that I am being given.

Emma sent me a lovely card with kisses from Sam and Pierre bought me a lovely scented candle which I lit at the time that Auntie Dorothy's funeral was taking place.  I also got an email from Pieter and Michael to say that they are coming to Chennai and will take me out for a birthday meal.  That was a big surprise and I am really looking forward to seeing them.

I have started to want to change my room around so that I have more space to paint.

Beauty manifesting

We had a very exciting delivery today which included the bits for finishing off the new notice board as well as a stand for the pipes and a special sieve for Pierre.  The picture is of the men who finished off the notice board with a little cover.  I love the shadows made by the sun as they were doing it.  We have got to paint the stand and the sieve but hopefully we can complete that before Vivek comes back.

First thing this morning someone from Sunlit Future turned up to look at our solar system.  They found that the problem was in a bulb holder which kept shorting out the system.  Rajan had taped over the switch but this hadn't stopped someone from putting the switch down and causing the problem.  Which shows that if we don't want volunteers to do something we have to disable whatever it is so they simply can't do it!  It seems that the batteries are in very good condition and not too empty so I am very relieved about that.

This afternoon I went into Pondy and managed to sort out my new tablet.  Somehow the person in the repair place that I was sent to managed to get the card out of the slot and put in the proper sim card, although it did mean that the back now looks a bit scuffed.  It is a bad design though as even he found it difficult to get the card properly into the slot.  I hope it won't be too difficult to change the cards when I go to the UK.  Or maybe I won't need to bother as internet is much more available there.

So both the things that caused me so much grief yesterday seem to have been resolved.  It is really nice sitting here in the light typing this and knowing that the lights probably won't go off.

Lots of curved balls coming my way

Today has been one thing after another and I feel I have been pummeled by curved balls coming out of the blue and colliding with me!

First of all the electricity went off really early yesterday evening and wouldn't go on this morning.  I phoned up Rajan but it was clear he didn't want to come in even although he said he would do so.  He told me yesterday that he was going to a special sports function in the village as today is Republic day in India and I felt a bit guilty even just phoning him.  I spent the morning fiddling with the electricity and managed to get part of the system going which at least allowed internet for volunteers and me to work in the office.  I still didn't have electricity because there was a breaker switch that wouldn't work which was connected to my house.  By some miracle Pierre got it going this afternoon although he had tried and failed this morning.  I think a lot of the problems stem from the fact that we are very full with volunteers, all of whom want to charge up their electronic devices which uses a lot of electricity.  So the batteries get very low.

The other dreadful thing I did was that when I did eventually get to play with my new tablet I poked the wrong card into the sim space and cannot get it out.  Looking at it online it seems this is a problem for quite a few people.  I phoned up the shop where I got it and he said to bring it in tomorrow when there will be someone in the shop who can mend it.  Oh I do hope so!!!  It will be dreadful if I have ruined it.  If only I had been a bit more careful!  But I wasn't and now I will just have to live with the consequences.  

So today has been dealing with problems one after another and mostly things that I didn't see coming.  I feel exhausted with it all.  I am trying to do everything while it is light today (like doing my hair and having a shower) just in case the electricity goes off again tonight..... its not very restful and now there is a busy week ahead.

My new toy

Finally I have got it - my new yoga 8 tablet and I am very pleased with it.  Despite what the reviews say the screen seems better definition than my Asus.  And I have found a volunteer who wants the Asus so that is all sorted as well.

Pity I didn't really get a chance to play with it as the electricity went off really early last night and with it the internet and all the other things I needed to set it all up.  But it looks like it is what I really want and need and will be a pleasure for me to use.

Its my birthday present from myself to myself.  Happy birthday to me (on Tuesday).

Landscaping

Every since Swapnil has been here we have all got a lot more interested in 'landscaping' which includes the stones in Bhoomi Vayu - our new orchard - as well as a new sitting place under the Peepul tree.  I've also taken it to include the work I do to make the place look nice such as grass cutting and - in this case - burying the irrigation pipes underground so they don't snake around by everyone's feet who want to sit on the stones.

With so many volunteers we are able to do quite a bit of this sort of work at the moment and this is a picture to celebrate this.  I wish I could get Rajan to smile for a photograph but it is very difficult!

Intense communication

There are two young volunteers from Germany in Buddha Garden at the moment who I think are having a very intense time with each other.  The woman turned up on her own, only to be joined a few days later by the man who had gone off on his own but then decided he would rather be with her.  I see them spending a lot of time together and often it seems that things are very intense between them.  I don't think it means that they are necessarily finding it easy to be together although it is obvious that when push came to shove they did not want to be apart.

This morning they stood in the garden hugging each other very tightly. They stood very still just as the sun was rising and I thought it would make a lovely picture.

I really enjoyed doing this as I thought it would be a lovely thing to celebrate and remember from my relationship with Shantam Peter.

Clear space!

This is the view that greets you now when you come out of the office.  What was once a mess of plastic pipes and other junk overgrown with long grass is now a beautiful clear space.  All ready for the stand which we are having made to take keep the pipes in order so that we can get at them easily.

This time of year when there are lots of volunteers we can get these sorts of jobs completed which is very satisfying.  The other thing we can do is keep the beds weed free - also very satisfying.

Sunset

We have beautiful sunsets and skies at this time of year but trying to capture them either in pictures or photos is extremely difficult.  I thought if I took a picture through the trees I might be able to see the orb of the sun that was so beautiful.  But as the picture shows - this didn't work and it could be the dawn as much as the sunset.

With a Farm group meeting and the notes to write I have been too busy to create a picture of my experience of this sunset.  

Waves are coming in.....

I went to Nia dance and am feeling nicely relaxed and that I have released most of the tensions of today.  I don't feel I have the energy to create a picture so I got this one off the web.  It expresses the feelings I had when the music 'waves are coming in' was played at the end of the Nia session.  It was really lovely although in general I felt less comfortable than usual because there were so many people there.

Having to deal with a lot people in Buddha Garden at the moment I don't want to have to deal with too many people in a Nia class.

Birthday begins

Sam's birthday is tomorrow but apparently it started yesterday with unwrapping of this present - a sit upon cycle to be used in the Summer.  I love the way he is so focused on the job and I am sure that by the end of his birthday he will be a very good professional unwrapper of parcels!

There is a party today and then my balloon to him will hopefully arrive tomorrow.  So three days of birthday celebrations.

Iben, a friend of David's came today and we had a very good conversation.  She is going to take care of David's things in India.  I also phoned up Sarah and agreed to send David's papers back very soon.  I have also worked out how to get the necessary money from the ATM to pay back the loan for my ticket and I have just spoken with Rachael about the money for Emma's house.  She can loan Emma enough to make up the 11K that she needs for the mortgage. And according to Martin all I need to do to unlock my PIN number is to get a new one from the bank.

Miraculously everything does seem to be coming together.  

Sorting out the money

I seem to have so many money things to sort out at the moment although the most pressing today was getting the money for my air ticket which had to be paid by Monday.  With my card blocked I didn't think I could get money by then but fortunately I managed to get a loan so it is now booked.  Now 'all' I have to do is get the loan paid off by the end of the week.  At least I can now get money out of ATM machines although its going to take several trips for me to do it because the machines will only give so much at one go.  I don't like the thought of walking around with all that money on me - but at least I can get it.

The other problem is getting some money for Emma and Tom's house since the savings are in a fixed deposit which doesn't mature until December and they need the money now.  I have explained the situation to her and at least I will be able to give her some of the money from my account.  Setting up a loan from the bank may be un-affordable for me as they want me to pay something every month which will make me very short.  I will wait and see if Emma has come up with any ideas.

When I told a friend what had happened she said 'Not so long ago you had the problems with your glasses.'  So maybe I just like solving problems! I feel more positive now than I did this morning, I think because I have been taking practical measures to solve the problems rather than just thinking about them.

Ponggal design

I was walking by the Town Hall today and came across several really colourful and elaborate Ponggal kolams.  So I took a picture and this was the result.

After the meeting I am exhausted as it went on to a quarter to seven - that is three and three quarter hours!!

A slow day

As it is Ponggal, the local harvest festival, today when everything is closed, I have decided that today will be a slow day.  What is really delightful is that it has given me enough time to do a proper picture.  It has been really nice to sit down and take whatever time I like to do the picture rather than feel that I have to rush something down because I am tired and don't have a lot of time.

This morning I was amazed to see this very large bird in the garden which was probably some sort of heron by the look of it.  In many ways it seemed rather an awkward bird especially when it started to fly. But once in the air it was very elegant and had the most beautiful white wings.  This was in contrast to when it was sitting in the garden when it looked like a rather ungainly nondescript brown bird.

I felt that the bird had a message for me - something about not getting too bogged down in the details of life as I feel at the moment.  There are money problems that need to be sorted, the most difficult of which is to answer the question - what do I really need??

I am beginning to think that I would like to go back to painting and drawing, maybe developing some of my digital pictures in this medium.  If so, this is one of the pictures I would like to develop.

The grass grows by itself

The Great Ponggal shutdown starts tomorrow but here I am mid afternoon of the day before and I am already bored!  Tomorrow just about everything that can shut down in Auroville will be shut down including all the community food places.  I should enjoy the quiet (except it won't be that quiet with music everywhere) but I fear it will just be a long boring day with only the chores to do.

It reminded me of something that Osho used to say about 'the grass growing by itself'.  That we could sit and watch the grass grow and marvel that we didn't have to do anything to make it grow.  So this is a picture of me watching the grass grow - something I do only when there is absolutely nothing else to do!!  In the midst of all this busyness I am amazed that I am not happier to have a day off - maybe because a day off at this time of year often means a lot of extra work the day after.

In fact it would be a good time to make a start on the new book.........or even revue all my pictures of the last year to see what they have to say to me......

New way of growing lettuces

We tried a new way of growing lettuces today.  Instead of cutting lettuce when it is ready we are picking the leaves and then planting small lettuces between the larger plants.  Depending on how the larger lettuce grow we will pick once or twice more and by the time we do this for the last time the small lettuces will have grown to large lettuces which we will cut in the same way.  

Vivek thinks this will save water as well as providing a more continuous supply of lettuce.  He was worried that by clearing the bed once the lettuce grows and then spending a long time waiting for the plants of the next lot to grow we were wasting water.  

Because we will have many more plants on the soil we will have to water the plants with liquid fertilizer which we made using compost and chicken dung.

My camera stopped working today so I will have to use my tablet, which is a bit bulky, to take photos.  The lens won't open when I switch on my camera and I fear it is the sort of thing that probably cannot be repaired.  I will have to see.

New hairdo!

At last I managed to find time to go and get a new hair do to go with my new glasses!  

I was most amused to find that this 'new' hairdo is one of several 'new' things that I have pictured since the beginning of the 'new' year.

New book

Had a really nice experience today of having the idea for a new book just come to me.  No fuss or worry - the ideas just plopped into my head.  

This is the picture I have created to anchor the ideas.

As always I am amazed and so grateful when this happens.  It is like the universe gives me a present.  And at the busiest time of the year as well when my brains are on fire with the thousand and one things that need seeing to.  At such a stressful time it is difficult to know when I will find the time to write although I have found in the past that when a book needs to be written, the time to do it somehow becomes available.

Another landscape

Today I went and helped with a sale of stock from a defunct  jewelry and stones business.  It wasn't too bad and we made quite a bit of money, but its a job I could have done without this time of year.

I was idly standing by one of the display cabinets in which were a quantity of pyramids made with various semi precious stones.  It looked like another country and it occurred to me that there are a lot of 'other landscapes' if we look for them.  I took pictures of wood just outside the shop - starting with a pile of wood and then taking close up pictures of the tree bark which was the 'other landscape'.  Unfortunately the pictures I took of the pyramids were all out of focus but I did take this picture of some crystals which again creates 'another landscape.' 

I feel there is a lot to explore in that idea, but whether I will have the time this time of year I don't know.....

I have been feeling pretty frazzled today, I think because with doing the selling this morning a lot of things have been put on hold.  I have a HUGE amount of work in my email inbox for one thing.  I also couldn't use my card in Financial services and that required a phone call to the bank who said they had unblocked it.  But then, they said that last time.  I have also had the usual succession of people wanting to come and stay here when we are already full up and all the usual niggles that are around at this time of year. 

I know that I just have to be patient but I am finding that very difficult.

My new look!

I went and got my new glasses today and this is what they look like.  They are very different to wear because I am more aware of the thicker frames which, being plastic, won't rust.  They feel very different from my old glasses but I guess I will get used to them.

I also had a bit of a problem trying to buy something with my card.  Like a silly idiot I forgot the new pin number so it wouldn't work.  I hope that doesn't put a block on it for future use.

It made me think though about what I really need in the case of computers, tablets etc.  I think the fact that I had difficulty in buying what was an impulse purchase showed that I need to spend a bit of time deciding what I really need.

No internet again!

For some reason my internet has stopped working.  Is the atmospheric conditions?  Is it because we haven't paid the bill on time?  I strongly suspect the latter but Rajan says that 'we paid three months last time' and that we are still within the three month period.

What is really annoying is that all the lights on the wifi system and the router on.  And blinking away as if they are working.

But its all a sham because there is no internet.  Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Playing with colours

I really enjoyed creating this picture.  I started with two bright and 'hard' colours and then played around with ways of softening them.  In the process learning some new ways of playing with colour.

I am very glad I gave myself the time to do this as I am feeling quite tired and was thinking that I wouldn't bother to do a picture today.  I am glad that I did.

And there was space

Had a very busy morning that was followed by.... no one turning up for the introductory course!!!! I was amazed although not totally unsurprised as we have had a course going all over the last weekend.  At the beginning of the morning I had also cancelled one of the three things that I had arranged to do this afternoon and that has made my afternoon easier as well.  I had enough energy to do the above picture which I think shows pretty well how I felt.  That there is a enough space around me to mitigate the effects of the rather frantic energy that is around in Buddha Garden at the moment.

It wasn't that I actually spent more time reading.  I went on doing what I normally do (like creating this picture) but with much more ease and relaxation than normal.  

How to save water

Today as is usual on a Sunday I did all the watering.  This included watering the tomatoes on the beds in Bhoomi Vayu that don't yet have irrigation.  The water was very heavy and it took ages, but while I was doing it I realised that this is an excellent way of saving water.

There is no way anyone is going to over-water when water has to be carried to the plants.

A 'found' picture

I created this picture in August which must have been just after I bought my graphics tablet. So it is probably one of the first pictures that I created and I suppose I may well have used this picture before, although I found it in an odd file.  It is called 'trees in the rain' and I really love it and when I found it immediately put it as wallpaper on my computer.

Things are very green in the garden at the moment.  But there is something very special about the green of trees just after the rain, especially when it comes after a very dry spell when everything has gone dried up and yellow.  Somehow this picture expresses that.

A mountain of lettuce

I think Pierre is well on his way to producing the mountain of lettuce he says is demanded within Auroville.

I hope he is right!  

Everywhere I look in Buddha Garden, whether in the nursery (as above) or on beds there is lettuce growing.  

Suddenly there were clouds

I really don't understand myself sometimes.... For the first day of the year its been very quiet and I have done just ordinary things - got a visit from Vivek and Noemie, went to get my lunch and met a few people, did a lot of work on my computer etc.  The sun was shining from time to time and I felt OK.  I didn't feel ecstatic but I didn't feel bad either - things were just flowing.

Suddenly I get this email from someone with whom I have found it difficult to communicate and it is like depression descends and I feel really miserable and grey.  I forget all about the many things I have to be grateful for and all I can think of is what I haven't got.  And it happens in the blink of an eye.

Glad I am going to Nia dance later on which will be a lovely present to myself to start the New Year.

Just for fun I looked at what I wrote at the beginning of last year and found this:



I had forgotten that I was then still living in the place which is now Buddha Garden office.  I am reminded of all the positive changes that have happened in the last year.  How far Buddha Garden has developed and the things I have done like going to the Findhorn conference and seeing Sam.

I am also reminded of how life goes up and down and know that I must try to be balanced whatever happens.  Maybe that should be my motto for this year - going for balance.