Creativity in action

Had two school sessions today and at both of them we planted seeds.  At the first one I realized that I had forgotten to bring the labels so the students would know which seeds had been planted where.

I needn’t have worried.  One of them created the above label using pegs and sticky paper.  I love it when students can be so creative.  Why do most of them seem to lose it when they get older??

Soooooo busy

Spent more time grass cutting today in the stone circle which is starting to look very good indeed.  Its amazing how when all the grass is cut the place looks so big.

Managed to put the audio guide onto the SD card in the new player, but it won’t play.  All we seem to be able to get is the radio.  I have given it to Rajan to play with and am very mindful of Vivek’s advice not to get a cheap player.  Although the shop where we bought this one didn’t have anything more expensive.

To Pondy

Went to Pondy this afternoon and bought a lot of things for the school programs.  We also bought a very cheap MP3 player for the Audio Guide.  I hope it works.

The picture is of a very busy road in Pondy that we had to cross twice.  Terrifying even when I had Rajan’s help.

Clearing up

We made a start on clearing up the stone circle today.  What a job! There is wood all over the place and several piles of sticks and other things that have been left for ages so are going to take some time to clear up.  Not to mention a huge amount of very tall grass that has to be cut.

Worked very hard at the grass cutting.

Lost with a puncture

I’ve got tinnitus which might be caused either by too much ear wax or from being so pressurized yesterday. 

Another busy day when I went to Udavi school to start off a new class in the new garden.  It’s a class I had before so they know what to do although two of the girls didn’t want to do very much.  When I left the school I found my bike had a very bad puncture and was completely flat.

So I walked to Aurovelo but they won’t mend punctures.  Walked towards what I thought was the Solar Kitchen and the puncture repair place but got completely lost.  Eventually emerged at the back of Edeyenchavadi but the road looked completely different on foot.  I came back and everything seemed different as I walked along.  

Too busy again

What is it about Sundays? Once again I have found myself working too hard and feeling very pressurized.

Spent a lot of time working on the map for the audio companion for the Farm Tour.  When it was printed out I realized that I had done everything upside down.  Fortunately it wasn’t too difficult to get it all the right way up.

I also spent time writing up stuff for the food growing course and have sent the posters to be printed.  Started to resize the book but it all took much longer than expected.

Feel so tired and a new week starts tomorrow!

At the opticians

Woke up feeling quite frazzled which I suppose is not surprising considering everything that happened yesterday. Felt better after doing all the housework.

The picture shows the people at the opticians trying to find new frames that would fit my lenses.  In the end there was only one frame that fitted and of course that was the expensive one.  I could have had cheaper ones but it would have meant a lot of work making the lenses fit and I was worried they might break.

A lot happening

The picture is of a cabin we are in the process of refurbishing.  I am amazed at how quickly it is coming up but apparently there were four people working on it.  At the same time we are clearing the cashew area and the last undeveloped piece of New Horizon so that the area can be ploughed.

I also went to two schools today.  I was the late for the second one as I got held up at the first one because the City Transport wouldn’t come.  As a result I had to wait for Rajan to come and get me.  Then later in the afternoon we went to Pondy and I had to spend a lot of money buying new frames for my glasses.  The ‘old’ ones (only a few months old bought in the UK) couldn’t be repaired so I had to have frames the fitted the lenses as much as possible.  I tell myself it would have been much worse if I had had to buy lenses as well!

Tired

Worked very hard today at the grass cutting.  The person who was doing it is sick and I can see it won’t get done unless I do it. 

After finishing place looked fabulous.  And it wasn’t just me that said so!

Making a map

Was very excited today to learn how to make a map using a GPS app.  It took a bit of time to get the app working (I hadn’t switched on the GPS on my phone properly), but I loved doing it once it started to work.  Have still got a lot to learn about the best software and spent a lot of time fiddling around with it.

In the end the best I could come up with is the above, but it will be fine as a basis to use in my art software.  This is the map I am doing for the Audio Guide.

Cashew trees

Recently we have been doing a huge cleanup in the cashew area so that we can get it ploughed.  This has included pruning the trees like this one so that they now look very different.

With all the lower branches cut like this it will be much easier to do the picking.  Although I have very mixed feelings about the pruning as I think it would be nicer for the tree if it was left to grow naturally.

Catch up day

As I didn’t get a chance to catch up with everything yesterday I have had to do it today.  And ended up with a bit of a headache.  A lot of people are suddenly coming and we still haven’t refurbished the cabins.

I have had to put someone in this one even although it isn’t quite finished.  Fortunately the volunteer is someone who works for the Alaska wildlife agency and spends from May to September each year out in the wilds counting various sorts of wildlife.  So I presume she will be able to cope here.

Audio companion finished

Have spent all day working very hard to get the audio companion finished.  I am pleased with the result.

I found that I needed to go outside at regular intervals and took the opportunity to go and look at the ponds.  Which are now nicely full.

Work interrupted

Had planned to take a lot of stuff to Transition School today for their vegetable garden.  Couldn’t do so because the approach roads were so bad the van would probably have got stuck.

Will just have to be patient and wait until everything dries up a bit.

Mud

After hours of rain our two approach road are like quagmires of mud with an overloaded lorry stuck on one of them.  This is the other road which is just about passable although it has had a JCB on it churning everything up.

A moment

I was walking around Buddha Garden first thing this morning and this moment presented itself.

It was lovely to see the sun like this after what feels like a long time of grey skies and rain.

Three schools

Was in contact with all three schools on the program today.  During work time our group from Deepanam came and cleared a bed and had a good look at the different weeds.  I then went to Transition where I was delighted to see how much they have done.  They had taken all the grass off the beds and finished taking the rest of the roots out during the session. This afternoon I went to Udavi school with two volunteers and we cut a lot of the grass.

This shows that all the projects are coming on well.

Craft things have arrived

Today the last of my craft things arrived so I am ready to start with paper cutting.  My first tries with scrap paper were more difficult than I anticipated.

I’m obviously going to need a lot of practice.

Students

This is a picture of some of the students from the group I see on Fridays.  Given all the rain I didn’t think there would be very much grown.  But they found all these ladies finger that they gave to the school kitchen.

This week I am determined to get the grass cut.  It is such a jungle and I think the students feel rather overwhelmed by it.  There is another group starting soon and until the grass is cut its difficult to see where they will go.

Depressed

I realise that I am really depressed and have been covering it up by being horrible to myself and not eating properly.  Even after all these years that seems to be my default action when I am unhappy or disturbed.  To eat less.

Have decided that I will try to have proper meals at each mealtime.  Even if I have to spend a bit of money on it because I don’t have the energy to do it myself.  Hopefully that will help my mood and increase my energy so that I can understand what is going on and why I am like this right now.

This is the screen wallpaper I want on the tablet which is going to have the audio companion on it. I have made the image but just cannot fit it onto the tablet screen, even with a special app.  Will have to fiddle around with it more I suppose.

Trying to slow down

Managed to slow down a bit today which is just as well as I had two student sessions yesterday.  This shows the garden in Transition.  I’m really pleased as we managed to get all the beds and paths laid out.  In Udavi we picked a lot of ladies finger but the grass is like a jungle.  I fear that is making the students rather disheartened so will really try and cut it this next week.

Did a lot of cycling around and got a lot of jobs done.  I felt much better after all the physical activity.

Sore finger

Have had this sore finger for several days but cannot understand why.  When I squeezed all the pus out there was no thorn or anything causing the sore.

Being on the third finger of my right hand the symbolism is that it has something to do with the fact that I am not feeling good about myself in relation to other people at the moment.

The results of rain

Having a lot of rain at the moment so everything is wet and sodden.  As a result we get things happening like this papaya tree falling down.  They grow so quickly that they are weak trees and as they also tend to be top heavy with papaya they are at great risk of falling down when the soil is very wet or when there is wind.

We have shored all the other papaya trees up so it doesn’t happen to them.  We have lost most of these papaya as there isn’t a big demand for green papaya. And if they haven’t started to ripen the fruit don’t ripen off the tree.

Cannot understand.......

Woke up and still dizzy and feeling fragile so wasn’t going to work today.  As it has been so wet wasn’t expecting the students, but as it wasn’t raining they came.  Expecting to see me so of course I felt I had to work anyway.  Took things VERY slowly and actually felt better at the end.

Why is it that when I am sick the situation conspires to make me work and I actually feel better?  Or am I just finding a way to beat myself harder?  It’s a mystery to me.

A very soggy day

This is Giri with an amazing corn plant that gave us five ears of corn.  More of them are now giving us three rather than two ears, but five is exceptional. It rained very hard indeed today so everything is very soggy but at least the ponds are filling up. 

Felt very good today and had a lovely yoga class.  Yet just before I went to sleep I got up awkwardly from the bed which started off a really bad vertigo attack.  Despite keeping very still it didn’t go away.  I think not having a kindle doesn’t help as the screen on my tablet is very bright.  It affects my eyes which seems to make the dizziness worse.

Proper rain at last

Had our first proper rain today and it is forecast to rain for the next week at least.  So the monsoon has arrived at last.

Feeling rather weak and trying to pace myself with the work better than yesterday.  Its nice to feel cool rather than hot.

Up and down

I was so pleased when these workers came to finish off the cabin this morning.  We have waited so long I was wondering whether we would ever find anyone willing to finish it off.

Worked far too hard today and ended up feeling very dizzy this evening.  I must not push myself so hard.

Meditation

Yesterday the group from Transition school came to look around the garden.  At the end I got them to find a plant to sit near and see if it had anything to say to them.  The picture is of two of the students doing this exercise.  I fear that they were talking too much to each other to hear what the tree was saying to them.

I finished the grass cutting in New Horizon orchard.  It was a very nice feeling which didn’t last very long when I remembered how much more grass cutting there is to do.