Lovely beer

Today was the first Sunday for months that I didn’t have to do the watering because Pierre was here and offered to do it.  My fingers were not as bad as I thought they would be, but I couldn’t do the jobs I had planned to do.  I wanted to do some sign painting but it would have been too dusty and dirty for my fingers.

So I had a very easy morning and then went out to lunch in Pondy with Ashok.  This is the beer I drank – very nice.

Ouch!

Managed to crush the middle fingers of my left hand today while helping Rajan to hang up a rather heavy picture.  He hooked the picture over the nail, but then the nail dropped out.  The picture smashed onto my fingers and crushed them between the picture and desk.

Ouch!  Hope my nail does not drop off.

I think I really must try and get that time off now that the moving is done.  There will always be jobs to do and most of them can wait until I get back.

Building finishing

I was promised the building work would be finished today, but there is still a lot to do.

I was very taken with how much better the Aldebaran star cabin looks now that it has been white washed and has a new front step.  It looks quaint rather than scruffy and run down!

Boat watching

Today my daughter Mary has been swimming a relay across the English Channel with five friends.  She is doing it in memory of Martha, her first child who was still born, and to raise money for SANDS a charity that supports women who have had a still birth.

The picture is of the pilot boat, Anastasia, which they are using.  I have spent all day watching the web page where they continuously update where the boat as got to.  They started at 5.08am from Dover and according to the map they must now, at just after 2.00pm UK time, be in sight of the French coast.

I think it is a beautiful way of paying tribute to Martha and already they have raised over £10,000. I am so proud of her.

Patchwork of Buddha Garden

Have spent a lot of today making notices for all the new places – office and kitchen – as well as information posters for the boards outside the office. 

One of the things I did was this patchwork of pictures which I am going to use on a table in the office with glass on top of it.

Goat gate

This morning we mulched in Jalabhoomi using the old keet from the dormitory roof and built yet more structures around the amla trees to protect them from goats.  In the course of the morning we found two places where, with the help of humans, goats were coming in and out.

This was the largest one.  So many goats have come in and out they have worn away a path!  We have closed it but for how long remains to be seen.

Feels intense

I feel in the middle of an intense vortex of energy.  Rajan is at the hospital so presumably the baby is on its way.  Sivakala had to leave early as after a difficult night her son had a fit at school and had to be taken to the hospital.  Mary is swimming across the Channel with five other friends in aid of SANDS, the still birth support association. Mary and one of her friends is doing the swim in memory of their still born daughters, Martha and Imogen. After all those ideas coming over the weekend I have a huge amount to do sorting out the new book.

To cap it all I have just had a visit from a man with a drill who has put up my water filter system.  Hopefully this is the last of the grit in my home, but who knows.