unexpected visitors and ...

 We have been blessed with unexpected visitors of late....John and Jane from England found us through an ex-student of mine in the UK and dropped in for chai when they were in Pushkar....they tagged along with us on a village visit and then we went out to see our shoes' guy .We really had a lovely time meeting them.
Here they are modeeling some of our jackets- I think John epitamises the conecpt of a dapper English gentleman in the one above. He has a handloom khadi shirt on underneath and one of our stitched Diamond jackets on top- reaaly cool.

 Not to be out done his wife Jane looks just as nice. It is so good to see our clothes on people to get an idea of how they fit, what effect they produce and we are greatful to be able to nab passing people as models and appreciate the oppotunity.

 We had a long awaited finishing party for our staff last Sunday....we just finished a big order for Blackwattle Designs of Canberra Australia and this year our new workshop brought a wonderful quality to the work. It is so great now we have our own workshop- we can control quality, know what is happening with production and so get the results we want. Our guys really derserve the treat of mutton curry and a drink.

 Yoga Mary has swirled into town with a group of beautiful girlies on a yoga retreat. I say girlies because everyone got along so nicely and there was such a good atmosphere when hanging out with everyone it reminded me of my students on school camp....lots of good fun.
In betweeen their yoga we had time to take some of the ladies out for shoes at Om-ji's, everyone printed their own scarves at Nandu's our block print lady and they all came to our place for cooking class and camel meeting. And we played dress ups with Tasty Old Chooks range of clothes- great to see them on people.

 Chapiti king Praveen with our visitors

 Look what was sitting on my desk at work this morning- absoluetly yummy silks, patchworked together and soon to be hand stitched and then assembled into kimonos.

 Here is the sample, I have snatched it and am wearing it before it even gets handstitch....never mind it feels fabulous....production numbers will be 2" longer otherwise about the same. should they have a pocket on them? Useful isn't it? Pukka Desirables will have another lovely item in their range.

 And finally after a lot of fiddling around, me staying hidden so the price does not go up and Praveen having to run this way and that greasing palms we have finally been able to buy our own workshop space and it is FANTASTIC!!. a big yard with lovely neem tree, 4 big rooms and a small kitchen....needs a spot of work but not too much and we will be able to start working from here in a week or so.
Will ease a lot of the problems we have had at the present place with lack of space and difficult neighbours.

 Isn't the gate fabulous- Praveen will be itching to get rid of it I am sure but i hope we can some how use the saw blades in the new gate.

 Big yard, lovely tree to set painting tables under....

Door to my new office.....it will be so nice to have everything in one space....at the moment I carry things from home to workshop daily and one us is always forgetting something and our house is submerged under stuff and, and , and.... a million reasons having everything in one place.
big new beginnings to expand on where we have got ot so far.

yoga Mary and garden fun...

Some long awaited cleaning out of my pictures folder and I came across this sequence of snaps I took of our mateYoga Mary...what a lovely peaceful day it was.

 Just remebering it is soothing....loved the light on the building and sillouete and Pushkar's Holy Lake a very special spot she has access to for her yoga classes.
Mary runs retreats here in Pushkar each year and in Oz and teaches in her home town. Would you believe she used to live just down the road from me in Oz and I never met her...it was only when we were both here in Pushkar our  roads crossed. An amazing coincidence, crazy bird I would call her, an excellent yoga teacher and lots of chatty fun all the time...we look forward to her return here.

Larkspur in our garden, running your hand through them is an amazing experience of immmersing yourself in the colour blue...they are so soft you barely feel them yet blue seems to vibrate around you.

 Our first Hollyhock [ I think that is what it called, anyway] we call it Saladin's hollyhock as we collected the seed from his castle when we were in Syria 2 years ago [good thing about living in India is you can take things home for your garden- so different to Australia and NZ]....I like to dream perhaps the forfathers of this flower were once viewed by Saladin himself,  it is such a rugged landscape for such delicate flowers to be prospering; yet they do....

 and new line from our Ladies...coasters- aren't they cute....of course available in a rainbow of colours.....madly packing, hard to beleive in less than a week I will be with my boys and mates in Oz....so excited and yet homesick for here already as well....strange feeling this is my home, here surroundered by our garden, camel and cow and yet my heart is with people so closely and yet so far away.....

Oh well that is life- full enjoy, as they say here.

Wedding Season

 It is wedding seaon, and the most auspicious days are this week...I have been to a few and avoided many, one of my friends had 4 he HAD to go to the other night and a few others he could have if he had the time....This is a procession passing the front of my place 

 Can you see Baba? he was most perplexed bt the whole thing....if you could only hear it, this was all accompanied by the loudest racket!

 My friend Mary is back in town, so I have used that as an excuse to just hang out for a day or two, sitting up taking in the view at the temple on Chandra Ghat where she does yoga, meeting some of the people she knows in town, a very welcome change from all the rush, rush, rush I seem to be experiencing all the time. Mary comes to Pushkar regularly and we are planning to offer yoga classes at Our Pukka Place when she is here next time, she runs retreats in India and Australia.  Would you believe she used to live just down the road from me in OZ and I meet her in Pushkar!

 WE went to visit a friend of hers Om-ji, he is a painter and musician and is usually to be found in his peaceful garden working....well at the moment it is a hive of activity being the base to cook food for a wedding expecting 10,000 guests! Above one of many bowls of halva, and boy! did it smell yum.

 Ladies chopping 400 kg of potatoes for the meal, below a mountain of lovely almond sweets being made, that is silver leaf being spread on top for decoration

 Some days living in India can drive you to distraction....since we bought our place we have being trying to get the electricity into our name...still working on it, then we could get the phone in our name, and then change the address on our bank accounts....the owners of the hotel we used to run still steal our mail, so many things like bank statements disappear....so difficult to organize yourself when half your mail goes atray!

and because of how things are organized here, we can not easily change the address, blah, blah, blah...some things are so difficult!

Yoga Mary

Another remarkable week, I have just spent the week doing yoga each morning with a woman who comes from just down the road from where I used to live in Australia and I get to know her in Pushkar!
Fabulous person, know aound as Yoga Mary, her nick name kind of reminds me of Typhoon Mary, and like that she is a bundle of energy- but all good fun not destrctive.
We did yoga each morning in the wonderful room she is privaledged to be able to use above the Shiva Tample at Chandra Ghat on Pushkar's Holy Lake.
Beautiful spot....here are a few of the impressions that filled my sesnse each morning, add to it a small candle glowing in the corner, a priest chanting downstairs and the voices of people quietly excited to be on pilgamidge to this Holy site and you begin to get a feel for the moment.

She is a very good teacher, very aware of guiding you safely through the poses, yet down to earth and relaxed to be with, not too serious.

At the moment the lake is empty [slowly refilling after the big clean up] so we took the opportunity to wander across the lake after our last class and past some of the beutiful Dharamshalas[Pilgims Rest Homes] and temples of Pushkar on our last day....I can't wait unitl she returns with her groups next year as I have an invite to participate in her classes.

Nameste for now, yet I know this is a dooropening to the future, not one closeing on a momnet past....