Hard work!

Today I have been doing the notes for the meeting I went to yesterday.  I feel as if I have been sitting in a little bubble all day and that the world has been passing me by.  The lovely weather, the people coming and everything else going on while I keep my nose to the grindstone.   I feel if I don't get this work done now there isn't a chance that I will have time to do it after Monday.  

Despite this we had a lovely lunch (a special all organic meal which is a fund raiser for our new kitchen) when I was so happy to see Pieter and Michael who are looking very well.  We are all going out together on Thursday.  I had a lovely birthday meal last night with Noemie and Vivek although I was a bit tired after the meeting.

February 8th

A declaration I like

I saw this on Facebook and really, really liked it.  I hope eventually I will do my own version.

Tidy

This morning Rajan and I were able to tidy up all the plastic pipe that has been lying around for so long.  I am really, really pleased with how the pipe stand works.  

The wind turbine returns!

Finally, finally after many months our wind turbine has been returned.  It had to be sent away because one of the parts inside it wasn't working properly so it wasn't making very much electricity.  Lets hope it can be put back up quickly while the wind is still blowing as it only blows for six months of the year.  I think some other gizmo is needed, which costs yet more money, to make it work properly, but lets see.  

I love the way that Pierre has put it up at the bottom of his steps. It looks to me like we should get all the volunteers to come and blow on it to make it go round!

This time last year!

I have been going through all my blog posts as I am going to turn the first 365 of them into a book.  I was amused to see that this is what I did for the same date last year.  In many ways it is just the same now, with a lot of people coming and wanting to talk to me, come to Buddha Garden etc etc.  I happen to feel more calm today than I did last year, but I think it is because this day last year was particularly busy.  We also have fewer volunteers although there is going to be a big change over of people this week.

I am rather enjoying do this and hope that by reviewing all the pictures I will get ideas for my painting.  Which was partly the reason for doing this in the first place although it also makes a very good diary.

The Spider

This morning I spent some time going through a lot of my papers - a continuation of all the clearing up and moving around I did yesterday.  I came across this picture I created in 2003 of the spider that healed my broken heart.  When Shantam died I felt as if someone had plunged a sword into my heart and that it would never heal.  

Some time later I had this very strong image of a little spider - one of many that I saw in Buddha Garden - coming and spinning a web and sewing up my heart.

It did help me feel better and as I looked at the picture this morning I remembered those times and felt very warm towards that spider and all the other spiders that I still see in Buddha Garden.

Moving stuff around

I don't know whether it was because it was Chinese New Year, or listening to Germaine Greer on Woman's Hour talking about her archive (which she has sold for A$3million!) or all the trouble I had with David's papers when he died. Or maybe it was just that I wanted to rearrange my room as in the picture so that I now have space for painting.

This morning and a lot of the afternoon I have been sorting out all my papers which includes all my diaries and pictures.  I had to throw out a huge amount of stuff (mostly non paper) because everything in the trunk where I keep it had got wet and moldy.  This despite the fact that I had wrapped up most of the stuff in plastic.  Originally I thought I would send most of the stuff to Emma, but I think I could actually digitize a lot of it.  Many of the diaries are already digitized and I would only have to scan and photograph the pictures and Rajan said he would help me with that so it wouldn't be too much of a job.

There are a number of diaries from when I was in Kodaikanal that are not in digital format as well as letters that I sent to Shantam and which he sent to me when he was in Africa and later in Kodaikanal.  I just can't bear to look at them and don't want to scan them and neither do I want to give them to someone else to scan as I would hate anyone else to look at and possibly read them.  If I send them to Emma and Rachael I don't want them looked at until after I am gone.  I did come across some nice things I did though, that again aren't in digital format but which somehow concentrate a lot of the writing and painting that I did over the years.

I will sort out what really needs to be sent tomorrow.