Still flowing

Had yet another idea for a title while I was doing yoga yesterday afternoon.  I think this may be IT, but lets see.

The writing has continued to flow although I have felt a bit like Mark Twain going over all the stuff I wrote yesterday.  When asked what writing he had done the previous day Mark Twain is supposed to have said that he spent all morning removing a comma, and all afternoon putting it back.  I know how he feels.

Feel worried about the discussion tomorrow about the new kitchen with Pierre and Sivakala.  Hope that everything and everyone can be kept together.

A new page

I tried to write this morning and felt really stuck. Whatever I wrote felt hackneyed, lifeless and irrelevant.  I felt as if I had hit a wall and there was no one to talk to about it.  When I went to Foodlink to get vegetables I met Jo with whom I had quite a discussion about everything except my book.

When I came back I felt the problem was that I was working with an old structure and mind set which was never going to come out right.  I realised that I needed to make a new start.  So I opened a new file and started right from the beginning again with only a preliminary title.

And the writing flowed……..

The best laid plans....

After reaching some sort of clarity yesterday I have been thrown into disarray today by Pierre who wants to do something completely different.  This includes building a temporary outside kitchen which I really do not want to do.  Having just got rid of the last of the temporary buildings I do not want to put up any more.  It would also mean going backwards as far as hygiene standards are concerned.

I feel I do not have the energy to deal with this, especially as the hot weather has come back with a vengeance.

I amused myself by creating another book cover with yet another title.  I must get on with writing it now!

New title new cover

Have changed the title and created a new cover for the book, but it still doesn’t feel quite right.  I think I have worried at this enough and must now concentrate on the writing.  Hopefully as I do this the title of the book will become apparent.

Have sorted out a schedule for moving and how to get the all the necessary jobs done at the right time.  As a result it all feels a lot more do-able.  It looks like we will do the minimum building work and keep the keet for two more years.  In that time we should be able to sort out the new building and raise a lot of the necessary money.

Went to Pondy with Rajan and bought some things for the new kitchen. It was hot and overcast and the spots of rain felt as if they were being wrung out of the impossibly humid atmosphere.

Agitated

Am feeling rather agitated as there seems to be a lot to sort out.  The Smart net people came around to sort out moving the wifi antenna, I need more electricity plugs in my new room and we have to decide where to put all the office stuff.  All little problems that can be sorted out but it feels as though I have a lot of balls in the air and I have to be careful not to drop any of them.  My agitation is not helped by the fact that we have a blustery breeze and agitating music coming from the village where there is a festival!

I took this picture this morning which is of Pierre’s cashews being spread out in Herbert’s drying yard.  Pierre is working very hard and receiving twice as much cashews as last year.  We had a tranquil conversation about what he is doing and it was so nice to be with him with neither of us feeling on edge. 

Book cover

This is the book cover that I designed this morning.  I find it is growing on me.

Amazing what difference a degree less heat makes.  With cloud and a breeze it has been a bit cooler.

Trying to cool down

This is a picture of me trying to cool down my computer that crashed this afternoon.  Maybe because of the heat.  Everything feels very warm and the computer was no exception.  I will have to try and work more in the mornings and evenings.

Heard from someone today who is hoping to do a similar book to myself about local food with some recipes.  It looks like it is going to be more of an educational project though, so hopefully there will be room for both. I was hoping to do a picture for the front cover today, but somehow it hasn’t happened.  Probably because of the heat…..

Symbol

A day when I have done a lot from grass cutting first thing this morning, ordering a birthday balloon for one of the grandchildren and writing my new book.  Its been a quiet day when I have also been thinking about the other changes that I want to happen in Buddha Garden.

The new cabin continues to grow and is I think a symbol for all the other projects going on in Buddha Garden

Well organised!

After a session of grass cutting first thing in the morning Rajan and I cleared out and organised the store room.  The picture shows how I even labelled everything and drew pictures of the tools so that everyone can see where everything goes.

This really is the triumph of hope over experience as I have done this in the past and it has never worked for very long.  Inevitably I end up having to do all the tidying up and putting things in their correct places.

Suddenly there

This afternoon I went to see how they were getting on with the new building.  I was amazed to see that they had put up the frame.  It felt as if suddenly the space of the house was there, although obviously there is still a lot more building to do.

I feel that my book is coming along the same way.  The framework is there and ‘all’ I have to do is fill out the spaces

Did a lot

This is a picture of the guava orchard that we mulched this morning. Normally this takes us at least two sessions, but today we finished it quite easily in one.  That seemed to set the scene for the rest of the day which I spent doing a lot of different things.

The most productive and nicest experience was when I saw Tim to talk about my new book.  As a result of our conversation I have sorted out the structure of the digital and print material and now have a very good idea about the time line and production costs.  I felt that exciting moment when the project gets an energy of its own.

I have also been wondering again about the title and think that maybe ‘Local Food in Auroville’ may be simpler and better that ‘Seasonally Yours’ which might be difficult for those who don’t have English as a first language, to understand.

Special visitors

We have a Russian couple coming to volunteer in the mornings and this afternoon they came with their children – all four girls.  The oldest one is aged 14 and the three youngest are 6, 4 and 2.  This is a picture of the two youngest playing by the kitchen while their parents worked.

They were totally absorbed in what they were doing and didn’t seem to mind at all that they were not with their parents.  They took the things around them and found ways to amuse themselves.

They were lovely and reminded me very much of Emma and Rachael when they were that age.

Digging started

Digging the foundations of the new cabin started today.  I am so pleased.

I have had ideas about how to use existing space for a new kitchen instead of building a new one.  Is a good idea if it means that we don’t have to spend so much money.

Building beginning?

We seem to have waited for ages for the building of the new cabin to begin.  It was meant to start last week but then got held up with the rain although a few materials did turn up.  Phoned Joseph this morning and he promised work will start tomorrow although Rajan thinks it will be more likely to be Wednesday. 

Things started to look a lot more positive when these three workers turned up this afternoon to make the metal frame for the four pillars of the cabin.  Although the promised sand and bricks haven’t yet arrived…..

Seasonally Yours

This morning I woke up, not only with an idea for a new book in my head, but also a clear idea of what the material will be and how it will be structured.  I haven’t had an idea like this for ages.

The book will be about seasonal produce in Auroville and how to use it.  Initially I will focus on digital content like apps and e-book and maybe a print version eventually.  I am taking back the material that I gave to the Farm group about five years ago but which they never published together with some new material and photographs.  I took over 100 photos today and this is a picture of some very large amaranth plants in the kitchen garden.

I feel so excited and pleased to be writing again.  The book will be called ‘Seasonally Yours – a celebration of seasonal food in Auroville.’

All grey

After yesterday’s blue sky in the afternoon and today a morning sky that looked as if the sun would shine it has turned out to be a very grey day with rain every now and then.

I am finding it very difficult to just be open and wait for things to develop – which is what I think is needed at this time in Buddha Garden.  I find it so hard not to be doing and did a thorough clean of my space with the help of Sumathi as well as some admin work for various people.  I have also had the chance to talk with Pierre now that he has finished the meditation course.  It looks as if things are going well for him. 

Blue sky at last

Last night we had a very noisy thunderstorm with a lot of rain that went on for quite a while.  As a result everything was very soggy this morning with puddles everywhere and the earth very wet.  But at least it had stopped raining by the morning so we were able to work. 

Of course the rain is welcome, especially as it cools everything down during this hot time, although it remains very humid.  I was nevertheless very delighted to see some blue sky and took this picture as a celebration.

Light on my door

We were unable to do the morning work today because of a thunder storm.  It was fierce enough to send water under my door and make a puddle at the entrance.  I’m sure this was made much worse by an overgrown tree which funnelled the water more water onto the door.  A branch got heavily weighed down with water and made my entrance very dark.

Later Rajan and I cut down the branch and suddenly there was light all around my door.  I hope it is a metaphor for there being more light in my life as I feel could do with it right now.  

Soggy

Got very wet this morning as we worked because it was raining. I say ‘rain’, but it was more like there were fine water drops suspended in the air rather than rain falling from the sky on to the ground.  It felt as if it seeped into me and was most uncomfortable, especially when accompanied by waves of high humidity.  Everything felt very soggy

Yet when I took some leaves for mulching it was obvious that the wet was only on the surface as all the leaves underneath were dry. 

I had a lot of problems trying to express the feeling of being hot and damp in the picture.

Excitement

It is only as I sit down to write this that I realise I how excited I am about the new cabin.  Someone came to start the work today (painting a metal frame) and we were asked to measure out and show where we wanted the new cabin to be.  We started measuring over the site of the capsule that it is replacing as can be seen in the above picture.

Then we decided that each cabin would have more space if we put the new one beside the site of the old one.  This picture shows the final place where it will be. They are going to start digging the foundations tomorrow

Yippee!

Fierce rain

Woke up to a very overcast sky and uncomfortably high humidity.  We had been working for less than an hour when we had a very fierce but short thunder storm.  Of course the rain was very welcome and it cleared the air beautifully.

Unfortunately the air clearing didn’t last very long as it is now very humid again.  I wonder if there will be another storm tonight.

Creative juices flowing

I have managed to get a lot of material together today for the new book as well as deciding about the title.  There is still a way to go but I feel I now have enough done to see the story of what happened.  It is from this that I will get ideas about how to weave all the different themes together.  I can feel my creative juices flowing and it feels very good.

I came across this picture of Alexei which I think shows the vulnerability he was feeling when he was first admitted to hospital.

Had a nice lunch out with Jeff today so didn’t have to spend all day on my own staring at a computer screen

Signature

This is a picture of my signature. I took it today so that I use it to fill out an online copy-write form for an anthology of material from Auroville which will include some of my writing.  I barely remember the request for my work which was months ago.  In fact I had forgotten all about it.

As I read what is going to be published, I asked myself ‘did I really write this?’ Amazingly I did which gave me confidence that if I could do it then then I can do it now.  I got a strong feeling that there is more where that came from.  Reading it has inspired me to carry on. 

To work with more energy and focus on the book I am writing about living with Alexei.

My take on the election

Very disappointed with the result of the UK elections.  Despite all the rhetoric no political party seems to be addressing the real problems of the earth.  Which is what I have tried to express in this picture.

The whole campaign was more about creating fear and division to harvest votes rather than solve the present problems of our life together.  It has made me think more deeply about what I am doing here in Buddha Garden.  Does this make any real changes? I like to think it does but it seems such a little thing in the face of what seem to be huge problems that we face.

Praying mantis

Today I was really glad to have the camera on my phone with which I took this picture of a praying mantis that was on one of the plants.  I think they are beautiful insects.

The volunteer who found it seemed to attract various insects to him as we worked.  This included a small green spider.

A quiet day

This picture expresses how I felt rather than what I actually did.

After work I have only had the regular work to do and after that I could do what I wanted.  There were no meetings or external ‘must do’s’ which was very nice.  Although I could have sat and read with my feet up, I didn’t.  But it was nice to know that I could have done should I have wanted to.

I think the essence of a quiet day for me is to feel that I can choose what I want to do.  I love the colour of my rather faded dress in the picture as it expresses how, with the present hot sun, I feel faded all over.

Beautiful colours

The flowers obviously love the hot sun because they are a riot of colour at the moment – bougainvillea, hibiscus and these flowers on the butterfly bush.  I love the intensity of the blue colour.

I am very relieved that I managed to get the cashews to disappear.  I was a bit hard on the two people that Pierre have left to get on with his work, but I wasn’t prepared to have them standing outside as a magnet for anyone to come in and steal them.  I think they managed to put them into the small store room although it must have been quite a trial as there wasn’t too much space left.

I have got a nice bunch of volunteers at the moment.  Mostly local people, three of whom have just left or are at school.

Left behind

Pierre is off to his meditation course today and I am very annoyed to find that he has left behind these bags of cashews.  They are worth about Rs1lak and because there is no room left in the small store room he has just left them in a pile in the area where we sort the vegetables.  I understood that they would be taken to be processed but apparently this won’t happen until he comes back mid May.

I cannot understand how he can be so careless.  We don’t have a watchman all night so anyone can come in and take them.  I suppose it is yet another job for Priya to find somewhere safe for them to go.

I would like to do it in a way that teaches him a lesson!

Getting the right tools

Today I spent a lot of time editing my diaries for the first three months of this year, only to have all my morning’s work lost by a software crash.  Its not the first time its happened and I have tried a variety of other free office type software, none of which works very well.  So I decided to try the dreaded Microsoft again and downloaded their office suite.  Which I have really enjoyed it is easy to use and so far hasn’t frozen or crashed.

This picture is the cover that I made for the first three months of 2015.  I can think of lots of improvements but it’s a start.

Tense

I went to a yoga class today with someone who isn't my normal teacher.  Did Pranayama, which I have never done in this way before, and ended up feeling extremely tense. My back felt as if it was fused together with energy and I felt a lot of spiky energy in my hands.

Will I sleep tonight?  I feel like I sometimes feel when I wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep.  I feel like I should go and ride my bike just to disperse some energy but it is dark.......

Different work

Today is a bank holiday so it was a chance for me to different work as there wasn't the usual work in the garden. Although I still had to do the watering as it is very hot.

The picture shows all my diary papers from which I am getting material for the book about Alexei. I haven't done much work on it recently but today has shown me how much else there is to do. I think I need to get a bit more organised with it and do a little every day.

I can do it with my yoga – doing a little each day - so I should be able to organise something similar for getting on with this book.

Last of the rubbish job!

This is a picture of the waste buckets that we bought and labelled and the posters that are going up in each of the cabins. In the end I only managed to do that in the two places where people are living right now, but its a start. At least everything is ready for when the new cabin is built and the old one refurbished.

I think that for now I have done as much as I can on this job. I can't say it is definitively finished, but that's it for the time being. Next thing is to sort out and re-arrange the large store room.