hot, hot HOT!!!

 The temperature is dancing around 40'C [112'F] I reckon the weather man knows nothing it is at least 50 or 60!!. We have been having afternoon thunderstorms...here on the edge of the desert that means pressure build up, lots of rumbling, massive wind hence dust blown at sand blasting speed and perhaps a few drops of rain. By the time the few drops of rain reach ground level they are great fat clods of mud.  My washing got caught on the line the other day and I had to rewash, the mud was so well imbedded.
Usually here if you drop the wash on the ground the sand will just shake off when dry, this was dust come mud imbedded in the fabric.
Top picture is my black stone kitchen counter- perfectly clean before I went to bed and like that by morning.
I know it is India and summer , I can mostly cope...the hard part comes with the anxiety over power supply. The govenment said it would improve after the last budget but in the paper today they were saying Rajasthan has a power deficit of about 30%. So our capital Jaipur is going to have one hour power cuts each day to help ease the pressure.
We are lucky to get 8 hours of power for the full day and most of the time it is only medium strength.
Not enough to run our pump....I get up at 5.00am to try the pump then as it seems to be the only time there is sufficent strength....No pump ,little water for us and the locals who depend on us have to walk many extra kilometres for their meagre supplies.
Now to the anxiety over power, when we moved here I wanted to blend in [yeh well I do stand out like sore thumb- another story] so did not want AC....finally I caved and Praveen had one installed within minutes so I could not change my mind. I have to admit it is wonderful.
We are working really hard at the moment and exhausted being able to sleep of a night is great.
The other nights storm meant power out and so we sweatedin a mud puddle of sweat- horrible. the sheets were brown with dust the next morning...
So now there is the anxiety- will the power be on for the AC?

 On the other hand somethings are running full strength and very smoothly.
We have a new order centreing around scarves- and have madly been assemblingfabric, getting the tailors to stitch and getting it out to our ladies....it is coming back now and we were so proud of what we receieved yesterday.

 Everyone has stepped up a notch- it was new work for a number of our groups so a little nervous to see what turned up. Fabulous!
We ahve had a rocky road getting quality and repeatablity but all our training and perserverance seem to be catching on...Ladies could take teh instructions, process them and come back with teh goods.
Such a lovely day. So proud of us all.

 Hiding from the heat, sitting under a fan packing and assembling for work to go out.

Can you see what is going on in this picture? Right on my kitchen bench...they must be the ony things around with aany energy. N owonder there are so many.
whew!!