Pushkar and her Holy Lake

Well I have been here a week, have a house all sorted out...unpacking my new sewing machine today...I have an idea for another body of work.
I have been to the market many times but woke bright and early and realised I had not paid my respects to the Lake yet, so just after the sun rose I was off...
up over the hill to the main bazaar and turn left to walk clockwise around the lake...
little glimpses through doorways and this was the first good view

Pahkar at her best...so green as we were blessed with a good Monsoon this year. In the 5 years I have been coming here this is the first time it has been such a bright colour!

I kind of feel it is a welcoming present to my new home.

Across the Lake [the main part of the village is behind the Ghats [steps down to the water]
Pushkar is only a village, hardly big enough to be called a town, it only has a population of around 20,000 people [+1 Aussie].

Aren't things different, I used to live in a village in Australia, population 3-400 and a population of 20, 000 would be a large town!

Making my way back over the hill to my place I passed many lovely doorsteps, all swept and scrubbed down, clean for the day....

So when I got home thought I should follow there example and sweep my entrance, we have a little ramp, thoughtfully provided in case we should have a motor bike and wish to wheel it inside overnight! [A common practice] Notice my broom, no long handle so it can be a bit hard on the back, but nice and flicky and good to get the sand moving.
Locally made from the pampas grass that grows everywhere about. Industrious small business locals make for themselves to generate an income.

The Pukka Place

"That Pukka Place" will be the name of the gust house we eventually have...until then we are warming up the name at our place.

Accomodation is hard to find in Pushkar, Ramsingh thought he had found us a 3 room flat , which sounded OK but then it was not going to be ready for 2 months [being Indian time - that could suggest quite a while!]

The owner did have an old hotel that was half a building site we could have that if we liked?

Interesting idea, worth a look...it is fantastic [OK, yes it is half a building site bit the space we can have is large and light and airy - all things I was concerned would not be possible in accomodation]
We have the only key and there will be no building whilst we are here...

so we said yes please! It has possibilities, even though it was thick with dust when we arrived it was pretty clean.

We have 2 rooms on the bottom floor and this large central space, a kitchen and an upsatirs room we will use as a bedroom for visitors.

Truely, I feel we were very lucky and the place is rather quirky, the view from the roof is fabulous and we are on the edge of Pushkar so fairly quiet in the night, just the gentle sound of continous chanting from a nearby temple.

As we started to clean, I reaslised we have lovely salmon pink marble floors and green marble kitchen benches.

An amazing feature of our kitchen is a rather large rock in the middle of the floor.

Why you might ask?...I do wonder too,

when I asked if we might move it I was told no it is important it stays right there on the door to the water storage tank underneath.

So either I have a large water tank monster that lives under there and it is to keep him in, or Parveen is afraid I might try and jump in for a swim.

Parveen is a good Rajasthani man and does not swim.

Even when we have been by the beach down South I have not been able to even tempt him close enough to the water to get his feet wet!

I once told him of an Australian tradition of waiting until the middle of the night and you rip all your clothes off and go skinny dipping- he looked terrified.

Even though he is very proper I think it was the idea of water rather than running around naked that was the biggest worry to him.

Actually, I think he thought I was pulling his leg about the naked bit until we were in Vietnam talking to some Swiss travellers who had just spent a night on a boat on Halong Bay...they were sharing with a group of Australians and commented on how funny and nosiy they were AND that in the middle of the night thaey all stripped off and jumped off the boat to swim. Parveen's eyes nearly popped -it was true it was not just a story I was teasing him with. ha ha

India is amazing...some simple things can take forever to happen and other things happen quicker than you can say Jack Robinson[or what ever the expression is]

First day at the house and we head over to Ajmer for some furniture and stuff.

A fridge- what colour would you like- all the same cost so we chose cherry red...I asked how many weeks until delivery and every one looked at me like I was crazy...how long does it take to drive home? Same day delivery...anything in Australia takes for ever! Here is the guy with our little cherry red fridge, TV, mattresses etc, etc literally 2 hours after we got home! As we are only renting the place I did not want to spend to much money on it...even though it seems we have carte blanche to do what ever we wish....

Once we had scrubbed the kitchen down in the morning light I thought it just looked too grotty, so I asked if we could consider giving it a lick of paint?
I went upstairs for a shower and came down to find this gentleman there with a paint chart- what colour did I want? By the evening of our second day at home we had the kitchen painted for a total cost of about $25...trades men the world over take heed!

End of the day good to chill out, Ramsingh and Parveen.

Pushkar [ and most of India]does not have rubbish collection- boy! does that make you start to realise what is going in the bin and then what do you do with it?...but a story for another day..

This is Parveen just straight outside our front door to the right, we can keep a local family of pigs happy with the vegetables scraps at least!

India

Isn't it amazing, what becomes normal?
For 5 years I have been back and forth to India...from the time the plane landed that first trip I have had a sense of it being home. This felt perfectly normal, even though I am Australian, have the best friends and sons you could ask for, had a house and everything back 'home'
Well time has moved on and I am now calling India home, I have a house/studio and will this will be my centre that I keep returning to.
After Morocco recently I do intend to be on the road a lot as well, there is so much of the world I want to see, but this is where you will find my stuff and my heart .
Arriving it felt like India had prepared a welcome for me,
Parveen picked me up at the Airport in Delhi and we headed straight off to Pushkar, where we intend to start our new home.
I knew I was on familar turf when I saw a heard of dairy cows walking down the main highway, not far from Delhi. This is one of the major highways of the counrty connecting Delhi to Mumbai, just up ahead a truck in front of us was just pulling out to take over a camel cart...truely home...ahhh.
The biggest surprise was the colour of the landscape, the monsoon between Delhi and Pushkar was has been goos and everything was bright green, never before have I seen it look so luscious!
Thank you Gods for the good fortune of rain.
Up the market in PUshkar, camel carts for deliveries, the odd painted cow, all as it should be.
First port of call was of course Shakti Project http://www.shakti-streetkids-pushkar.org/ to see our friend Ramsingh and all the children.
Meet the tortoise, he is the newest member of the family...and multi functional some of the littler ones sit on him sometimes, he is an ancient fellow and has a big dint out of his shell but seems contented here and enjoys all the snacks, would you believe he can eat 5 egg tomatoes at a time?

This year is shaping up for a good year with the project, most of last years 35+ kids are still going to school and numbers have increased by 20 children, a significant number of whom are girls. Quite a feat to be getting parents to sign up daughters- good on you Ramsingh.

I will have a new newsletter sorted out soon, so stay tuned, all is going well with the project.

I have such an enormous sense of respect for Ramsingh, he is fabulous with the kids, he is consatntly working to talk other parents into the value of education, he is always hopeful and optimistic and does all this with the smallest amount of money...

Chatting with him and listening to what he does not say I realise he must be under enormous pressure to keep it afloat. He is the type of unsung hero that sholud be put up for a humanitarian award.

I hope I can be of some help to him. Anyone out there who could offer some assistance, please do. It is used frugally and wisely by this man.

Viktor and Rolf

Just one day in London on my way to India, and what a surprise- sunshine!!!
I was there through supposedly the hotest months of summer and needed a raincoat and jumper...and here one day in autumn, I only needed to wear a Tshirt- took me a while to realise it was true so kept wondering why I was sweating in the usual English clobber of shirt and cardigan?!
A blue sky photo to prove it!

My one day was put to good use, catching up with friends we made our way across town [Sunday with some tube lines closed for repairs it was a major planning procedure to get the right connections to get there]

We headed for the Barbican Centre http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?ID=7272, fabulous complex and The Viktor and Rolf Exhibition.

Very interesting Haute Coulture designers...more Fashion designers meets Installation/ Performance artists...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_&_Rolf

Very interesting fellows, stimulating exhibition...

they have managed their image very well to get notice and break into a very competitive field as well as comment on their observations of Fashion...elements in a design, the ephemeral nature of fashion, icons of style, the layers we use to 'cloak' the body....lots of ideas -clever guys

http://www.viktor-rolf.com/index.htm

Working for Groovy Food

My friends run a catering company Groovy Food, http://www.groovyfood.net/
Their food is all organic and terrific.

Good for them word is getting around and so they are often very busy, I arrived at one of those moments, so have had a great few days working with them in the kitchen....
this is the dramatic sky that awaited this morning...and see the company car, it is run on BioGas.
the gas comes from the local tip- all waste in Sweden is recycled- methane from composting plant matter and such powers this new breed of car.
The few things that can't be recycled are burnt and the heat generated is used to heat water in Sweden [ this is something you need, not only for showers but to heat houses- winter is freezing] That water is then piped around the city, if you choose to hook up to it you have endless hot water, produced in a clean way and your bill will always be one third the cost of normal heating.
Great ideas the Swedes have...

Some of our work, pizza rolls and a wheat pilaf.
biol whole wheat grains with cumin seeds...
separatly roast diced carrot, parsnip, fennel, onions and garlic with a few cumin seeds until all caramelised and yummy, scatter with saltanas.
Layer onto a plate and top with a dollop of garlic sauce [strained yoghurt, creme fesh and garlic]Delicious!
Making deliveries- that is Lena in the green top.

Their pet Chinchilla, so soft, cute and naughty, you do spend a lot of time chasing it around the house...so innocent looking

Me - to prove I was in the kitchen- I will need a holiday after the 3 days holiday with my mates!

Westhope College,

Fianl view of the College,
it is quite home like in some ways, yet you also experience a sense of living as it might have been in times gone by.

Sherry before dinner, the staff are so sweet and attentive to what you might like.

Lunch on Sundays, home grown Roast Lamb and all the trimmings followed by a delicious Damson Plum crumble, friut picked from the orchard of course!
Here a some of my lovely students, a very enjoyable bunch,
hard working though, as soon as dinner was over they disapppeared into the studio...and some I thought I would have to turn out at dark as they worked so hard and got into things....
Writing this from Sweden, using Ryan Air http://www.ryanair.com/ I was lucky enough to get a free ticket [only had to pay taxes] which meant I could see my friends in Sweden for less than the cost of the bus ticket to the airport- crazy world but full of opportunities if you let yourself take them up!
They run a catering business [everything ecologically sound and organic]...
am helping cook today...so back down to the kitchen- lunchbreak is finished
pics and recipes later...

Westhope College

12 September, 2008 Back in England, the contrast is so great!They have had the least amount of sunlight ever in the month of August, so fruit and vegetables are not ripening properly, bugs and butterflies are not hatching, bees are staying back home in the hive and not pollinating plants as they should….Our food actually comes from out the in the fields -these weather changes will impact on what is in the supermarket!

Morocco felt home like in a way because the landscape is the type I respond to – many areas are large, flat and empty. I like the dry heat, the bright light, the sense you can walk out and see what is coming…. Being out in the countryside of England is exotic in a way- I feel like I could run into a Hobbit at any moment. I am at Westhope College this weekend deep in the heart of the Shropshire country side. Above is the view from my bedroom window... http://www.westhope.org.uk/ So green, although the trees are just starting to change and golden hues, deep claret red and all shades in between are starting to show. Walking the hedge sided lanes, unseen but close is the plaintive bleating of sheep, honking of geese and an amazing repertoire of tweets from on high…oh for sound-o-rama to share it.The smell is “green”, fresh, full of moisture and life, occasionally you step upon some fallen leaves and get a burst of sweet humus but generally the memory of summer life is still around.

The entrance to the college has this etched on the windows
"Let the handiwork of the hands be their prayer"

My friend Anne has this idea "If their is enough blue in the sky to make a pair of sailor's trousers- it must be a good day"
After the greyness of yesterday I was happy to see enough to make him a mini-skirt!

Then later in the day it came out full sunshine- how glorious it is.
Just here a few weeks and I am becoming quite English- talking about the weather all the time.

Djemma el-Fna

I have really enjoyed Morocco espcially Fez and the Sahara side,
on the east it is a great time, just far more cosmipolitan and the constant attention seeking of men and shop keepers can get a bit much on occasion.
I just had my last dinner in the Djemma el-Fna....now that place I will really miss!
it is hypnotic, all the activity, lots of snake charmers today, music, horse and carts, motor bikes, vendors trying to call you into their stall...
Number 1 is my favourite stall, they are always charming even when you are caught and seated...

Fresh orange juice
everything- even the kitchen sink is wheeled in and set up every night

As the sun sets the fun begins....
Now I am back safely in my cosy Riad, it is only small and Moroccan run, once the sun sets the front door is locked and you ring to be let in.
Kind of like coming home to the parents, feels cosy and safe ....peaceful and quiet too.

Souks of Marrakech

Last day in Morocco- I am exhausted in a satisfied sort of way.
Reasearch, though very interesting is hard work, and I have then spent hours writing notes etc, etc...
I have spent a lot of the last 2 days lost...in a pleasant type of way!
I find the easiest way to find what is out there, is to just walk, then later see if I can find my way back to the bits I liked.

here are some impressions of the wanders- Dyers Souk

jewellery shops
Here the guy is stringing up silk thread along the wall- important to be on the look out for these things so you don't get tangled in it.

He will then twist it into cords which are then made into braids, which then adorn the ladies Djellabahs [they used some other name but I can't remeber it]

Felt makers shop- a lot was pretty course- similar to the stuff I have found in India...same type of sheep as well.

Looks like it would take a lot of elbow grease to get it to felt...guy makes it at the back of his shop. I really do appreciate the ease of my merino for felting
This was a shop I was looking for! I fancied some more of the beautiful silk threads, but the price in the tourist end of the market was outrageous so I declined

I think this is the voodoo medicine souk...in the old slave souk...not to sure I could find this again[ but I think so...was a second hand clothes market going on]

Dyers souk- wool for carpet

Tassles, any size you could imagine from tiny to huge.

Gorgeous contemporary local designers shop.

Entrance to an interesting funduq [ a funduq or Caravanerai- not sure on the spelling-is where merchants used to stop, space down stairs to tie up your donkeys, storerooms to lock up your goods and rooms upsatirs to stay...this one was a treasure tove of antique shops- some interesting textiles, a bead man whose shop was piled high with all types of beads from tout la monde! and next door a younger fellow making some very nice more contemporary necklaces.

this is La Place- the centre of every thing, you keep getting drawn back here for another look, another coffee, another meal...another attempt on the souks.

This is the middle of the day- the area where the kitchens set up tonight is all sectioned off and being scrubbed down...all the kitchens are dismantled each night and taken away only to come back tomorrow. All the food is fresh in front of you- you point at what you want and it is cooked and served...it is all you need.

I keep thinking to try a fancy place to eat but this is where I want to head back to!!

Off to last visit to Djemma el Fna....