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.

20210809 Outside the nursery

 

We are doing a lot of planting and replanting so this pile of nursery pots has grown just outside the nursery.  At this time of year the pots are waiting to be emptied, filled with nursery mixture and then planted again.

20210808 Like Christmas

 

We have allowed all these snake gourds to ripen to a vibrant red that reminds me of Christmas.  Problem is we won’t be using these seeds as all the snake gourds from these plants are so bitter they are inedible.

20210807 Morning light

 

Beautiful light coming through newly cleaned palmyra trees first thing in the morning. These trees are just outside my door.

20210806 Bees nest

 

While taking down the dead palmyra leaves yesterday we came across this bees nest/honeycomb.  Although we disturbed the bees they didn’t get aggressive thank goodness.

20210805 The view from my door

 

All the dead leaves from the palmyra trees outside my front door are being cut away.  Already I am seeing more than I have ever seen before from this spot.

20210804 Powerful stuff

 

This morning Mahendran raked up all the stones and other rubbish type material at the bottom of one of the compost bins.  He then sieved it all to make this very powerful pure ‘compost powder’ that I expect we will use in the nursery.

20210803 Yinyang

 

I was walking around the garden when I came across this old type of grass cutter.  It looks to me like a yinyang symbol.

20210802 Morning visitor

 

As I went to unlock the store room door I came across this early morning visitor.

20210801 Surprise duck

 

Was MOST surprised to see this duck which seems to have taken up residence with its family in the nearby temple pond.  They seemed to be quite happy waddling around the temple.

20210731 Stairway to?

 

This stairway to the top of our communal kitchen was delivered today.  We are going to use this area for drying fruit and vegetables and it is also a lovely sitting area in the evenings.

20210730 Suddenly there was lukki

 

We have been harvesting lukki (bottle gourd) for some time but today, suddenly, we had a huge harvest.  Maybe suddenly the conditions are just right for them so they grow really well.

20210729 Wood for the future

 

This is a pile of wood we cut which we put in the bonfire area near the stone circle.  Ready for the many volunteers who will hopefully come in the not too distant future.

20210728 Moving the gate

 

Today we took one of the gates on an epic journey from its original place in the New Horizon garden to the new gate.  With the cement slab it was very difficult as it was very heavy, but together we managed it.

20210727 First four wheeler on the farm

 

I had to take a picture of this four wheel vehicle, the first on the farm since we enlarged the new gate! This vehicle came to take away our rubbish and is the first of many that will come to do jobs like brining in leaves and building work  that need a four wheel vehicle.

20210826 Stunning clouds

 

I saw these clouds on my walk today.  I love the way they look so tossed by the wind although there wasn’t so much breeze on my walk.

20210725 Dancing sun

 

Unfortunately this still picture doesn’t give much idea of how the dappled sunlight danced with the wind.

20210724 Naked neem

 

We had several neem trees cut back yesterday by a crew of special tree cutting people.  As the trees were making too much shadow on some of the vegetable growing beds.  It looks rather drastic but Rajan tells me that the tree will quickly grow back and be a much better shape.

I hope he is correct!

20210723 Guru Poornima

 

It was Guru Purnima today, a celebration of all those who teach,  and so there was a special puja.  This picture is of all the puja items from Ganesha’s altar that had to be washed before the puja started.

20210722 Intense orange

These flowers are very small but have such intense colours like this very intense orange.

 

20210721 Ploughed

 

After the rain the owner of this land decided to plough it, fortunately leaving our path. 

20210720 Many

 

These are very simple flowers that don’t make a show unless they are altogether on a large plant as they are in this photo.

20210719 Drying up

 

The path dried up surprisingly quickly thank goodness.  Now its just a bit muddy.

20210718 After rain

 

This is our new path after rain!  Almost impassable.  Its made much worse by the waste water coming from nearby showers that run straight into this part of the field.

It was like this all day.

20210717 Lemons

 

These are so beautiful to look at and to taste.  We have lots of them coming at the moment.

20210716 Soil of Auroville

 

Went to a meeting in a place where this is like an outside sculpture.  It shows the actual soil of Auroville under the surface.