20210928 My hat my hat

 

I have had this hat for years and I LOVE wearing it because it feels as if it is exactly the right size and doesn’t blow off easily if there is a wind.  Which is very important when cycling.  I like that the brim is not too floppy which is important when doing jobs on the farm like weeding where I need to see what I am doing.

As the picture shows the colour has almost disappeared and yet I still go on wearing it.  Except today I tore out a big chunk of the crown as I squeezed under a kumquat tree while cutting grass.  I am thinking about doing an embroidery repair but wonder if the what is now weak material will be able to hold it.

20210927 A basket of veg

 

This is what we are growing and picking right now.  Beautiful and delicious.

20210926 Flood

 

This ragi dosa is what we have as a snack on one morning each week.  We eat them with a vegetable sauce and they are deliciously nutritious.

20210925 Packaging

 

This ragi dosa is what we have as a snack on one morning each week.  We eat them with a vegetable sauce and they are deliciously nutritious.

20210924 Ragi dosa

 

This ragi dosa is what we have as a snack on one morning each week.  We eat them with a vegetable sauce and they are deliciously nutritious.

20210923 Snack time

 

After a good morning’s work there is nothing like a snack, a drink and conversation.

20210922 Morning sun

 

The morning sun continues to delight each morning with different sorts of light and cloud formations.

20210921 New vegetable

 

I can’t remember ever growing any of these ridge gourds before.  I’ve been helping with putting in the climbing frame and sticks.  Then I’ve been encouraging the plants to climb by winding the very long runners them around them.

20210920 Cool morning

 

With more rain around, this morning dawned cool with beautiful clouds.

20210919 Blue curtain

 

I was out walking this morning and saw this beautiful blue curtain of flowers by the Town Hall. 

20210918 Ouch!

 

Finally I get to use the grass cutter and what happens?  A scorpion ant manages to crawl into my grass cutting crocs and sting me between my second and third toe.

Ouch!

I am very cross because it means that my foot will probably be swollen and itchy for at least the next two days.

20210917 Education garden

 

I managed to do about half the grass cutting in the Education Garden which was hard work because its all very overgrown.   I’m very pleased with how it looks.

20210916 Education garden

 

We had a group of primary school students here yesterday.  They inspired me to get on with the Education Garden - what used to be called the Garden of Unseen Helpers.

I used a knife to cut all the growth around the trees we planted las year and to use the weeds to mulch them.

20210915 Sun and spiderwebs

 

I took this picture on my evening walk because I loved the way that the sun shone through the trunks of this peepul tree onto the spiderweb.  The tree is near the temple just outside the gate.

 

20210914 Special

 

Ganesha’s birthday last Friday was a very auspicious day to get married.  This is a picture of Sangita in her beautiful festival sari which she wore last Friday to go with Rajan to FIVE weddings.  They were all in the morning so it was possible to have only a very short visit to each one.

20210913 Garden beautified

 

At last I have had some time to do my garden in these rings.  All the weeds have been taken out and I think they look really good.  Especially now the area gets more sun as the dead leaves have all been taken off the Palmyra trees.

20210912 Peachy

 

I couldn’t resist taking a picture of these bougainvillea flowers because they were a peach colour.  Which is quite unusual.

20210911 Clay Ganesha

 

This is a clay Ganesha made by Magzhiran at school. At the end of the 15 day birthday festival he is supposed to be put in water where he will disappear.  Unfortunately some people are buying plastic Ganeshas instead and throwing them in the water.  Where of course they will stay for the next 1000 years and not become part of the water as the ritual demands.

20210910 Ganesha's birthday

 

Ganesha’s birthday so we had a puja followed by a delicious meal cooked by Sangita.

20210909 Our new community member

 

This little puppy was found in the community last night and Rajan and Sangita have taken him in.  We have no idea where he came from or how he got here. Mazghiran is thrilled and spends quite a lot of time playing with him. He’s called Samara a name made up from the first two letters of Sangita, Mazghiran and Rajan’s names.

20210908 Kumquats

 

We picked a lot of kumquats this morning and they seem to sparkle like jewels in the bright sun.

20210907 Look what I found....

 

Great excitement when this scorpion was found by the store room.  Long discussion about whether they could bite or not.  In fact they can’t as the tail at the back sprays poison rather than injecting it.  Looks like the claws at the front could give quite a nip though.

20210906 This didn't work

 

A week or so ago I put these bags over the sweet corn cobs to keep the birds and animals away from them while they ripened.  As the picture shows – it didn’t work and the wildlife got to the cobs.  Fortunately there are enough cobs left for the person who wants them.

 

20210905 Just muddy

 

After raining for some hours last night I was worried that our entrance path had got impassable again.  Although as the picture shows it was merely muddy.  The rain must have been much lighter than it sounded.

20210904 Friendly help

 

This puppy turned up in Buddha Garden and Rajan and family have taken in.  He’s called Samara and is interested in everything.  Adnan was very patient when the puppy got excited about the earth going into the trays.  Although as the picture shows he did settle down eventually just to watch.

20210903 Rebirth

 This is a new variety of chillies that we grew last year.  After dying down they have now regrown and are starting to put out flowers and green chillies.

20210902 Goodbye cockerels

 

I was so relieved today when someone came to take away two of our cockerels.  We have five altogether and they are all young so the chicken house is in a constant state of ferment. The cockerels constantly fight each other and run after all the hens.  Some of which are getting badly pecked and losing feathers.

Hopefully things will now simmer down a bit in the chicken pen. 

20210901 Corn covers

 

We have had quite a lot of our corn eaten by parrots, squirrels or something else.  I’ve had to put bags over the rest to protect it as one of our customers wants some properly ripe corn.  This will take a while and if we didn’t cover up what was left it would probably all get eaten.

20210831 Eaten

 

Someone has been eating our maize – either parrots or squirrels I think.  Fortunately there are quite a few maize cobs left which I will cover with bags to keep the animals out.

Animal breakfast from our maize now has to stop!

20210830 More weathered wood

 

This is somewhere else on the tree that I pictured yesterday.  Here the effects of various insects are more in evidence.  I love all the different colours.

20210829 Weathered wood

 

On my walk today I went past a fallen tree which had these beautiful patterns of weathered wood.

20210828 After the rain, mud

 

It seemed to rain for most of last night and I was worried that the path would be flooded.  But as the picture shows, the rain couldn’t have been very heavy as although the path was muddy it wasn’t impassable.

20210827 Sun and clouds

 

I love to see the sparkling morning sun on the clouds that look so fresh and clean after the rain.

202100826 Water

 

I love this picture of a reflection in the water of the old well.  It reminds me of an abstract painting.

20210825 Morning sun

 

This is one of a series of pictures I took for the latest video.  I love how the morning sun is so bright these days.  It made the leaves shimmer.

20210824 After the farm work......

 

This is one of our volunteers who is living on the farm and ‘working from home’.  We are now thinking about setting up a work room for other people who want to combine their online work with volunteering in Buddha Garden.

20210823 Mushroom

 

All the rain has brought this huge mushroom to that’s growing just outside my door.

20210822 Green healing

 

I went for a very long walk today and found this beautiful green healing spot along one of the footpaths.  It was lovely to be able to go out really early when it was fresh, cool and quiet.  I was glad to get a long walk today because I was only able to have a short walk yesterday owing to the path being extremely muddy after all the rain on Friday.

I nearly lost my sandals several times the mud was so bad.

20210821 New chicken family

 

We have got a new chicken family of six chicks.  As the picture shows Mummy chicken is very protective of her babies and wouldn’t let me get very close to them.

20210820 Pots

 

I liked the look of these pots near the nursery this morning.  We are going to plant things like roccolla and lettuce and grow them in the nursery.  It will be interesting to see how well/if they grow.

20210819 Close up ladies finger

 

We have recently done a lot of bed preparation and planting.  After just over a week we now have some results from our labours like these ladies finger that are growing very well.

20210819 Corn baby

 

Our first sweet corn crop has struggled and has grown very slowly. After some rain, at last, the plants have some baby cobs which is looking very positive.

20210818 Green and yellow

 

I love the vivid green of moss on this wall.  Its unusual to see it around here as we don’t have enough constant rain throughout the year for much moss to grow.  I don’t know why it grows like that on this wall as it is not near any water.

20210816 Limping rat

 

I was surprised by this rat that crossed my path today.  It was going quickly despite the fact that one of its legs looked as though it had been broken.

It went too quickly for me to catch it!

20210815 Golden road

 

Loved all the yellow flowers on the path seen while I was out walking today.  I felt I was walking on a golden road.

20210814 Oops!

 

We had a tractor come in today with much needed leaves for the compost.  The tractor driver hadn’t been in Buddha Garden before and found himself in a tight spot near the nursery.  To deliver the leaves to near the compost bins he had to turn the vehicle around which was tricky in the tight spot where he had got himself.

While turning round he drove over this paving stone which broke with a sound like a pistol shot.  We did the best we could to put it together again but eventually it will have to replaced.

20210813 New view

 

I am really enjoying this new view now that all the palmyra trees have had their dead leaves cut off.  Until now I have never been able to see the Seed garden from my front door.

20210812 Reminding me

 When I went out for a walk today the people in the next land were taking off all their old keet (local thatch) to replace it.  It reminded me of how when I first came to live here all our roofs were made like this.

Now it is very hard to find people who know how to do this work.  When I first came a keet roof, properly looked after, would last four to five years.  Now we are lucky if it lasts for two to three years.  This is because nowadays the keet isn’t treated properly before it is put up on the roof.  Not being treated means it gets eaten by insects much faster.

 

20210811 palmyra fruit

 These are all old palmyra fruit so no use for eating.  They might cause a problem when the rains come and they all start sprouting.  They have exceedingly strong roots and are very difficult to pull up.  Hopefully we can find someone who can use them in some way.

20210810 Palmyra sticks

 

There are piles of these palmyra sticks lying around all over the place.  As we sort out all the dead leaves that have been cut off the palmyra trees into piles of sticks and piles of leaves.