Out and about in Canada

Well here i am...the beautiful land of Canada the little i have seen!
Raja is taking care of the land while i am out..cashews close to a finish!
I hear it is raining, YES! so glad for the trees we planted..what a relief; it took my departure and all those naked rain dances to have it fall..
Here i am in a healing center called www.greatcentralsun.com - and guess what it has a WATSU pool! well, we are working on making it functional, scratching, scrubbing and painting..trying to prepare it for a big event in the world called live H2O!
Feels like home..sleeping in a VolksWagon..lovely :)

Rain drops

  Old man (watchman) calls out hurriedly "come come, we have to put the cashews in the storeroom; bring the sacks.."

  Surprised, i walk out of the house; it is drizzling! Yes.

  Up with the solar lamp we start shoving the cashews in tin containers to bring down the dried cashew into the storeroom - all the while little tickling drops cooling the air (SMILE)

  The monsoon in kerala is predicted for the 26th May (The Hindu says)l what happens is that at times it over spills past the Western Ghats and if we are lucky we get rain.

  It has been hot and stuffy today; seeing the dark clouds advancing is refreshing!

  We were collecting cashew today uptil 12 o'clock. My god it is hot at 11am! bad idea..

  Taking care of 17 acres of land with cashews; i keep telling the workers to do the whole circle everyday but with the elections and absence, pending cashew collecting has made us slow down..

  I am leaving for Canada in a few days; so i figured that if the workers could reassure me that they got their act together (without me helping) before i leave then i can be at peace!

  "pappum" (lets see in tamil)

  will it actually rain? after all the hectic bustling cashew collecting from the roof to the storeroom. ha ha..

The Case for Dogs

“We need a dog,” Raja said. He hasn’t asked for much, and I love dogs, so I agreed whole heartedly.

“But why do you say that now?” I asked.

“There are so many people on the land these days,” he began. They’re here picking cashews. Some have no respect for the living space of this house; they walk right up and use the house tap and hardly glance at Monica or I as we try to explain that there are other places to gather water. They come and go as they please. And they already stole my beloved mirrors.

On this particular day there were many villagers searching for cashews. Raja asked them to please keep clear of the house, but no matter what he said, people kept coming. So he hatched an idea. Perched before the computer, he downloaded an array of recordings with a mischevious smile. They were of dogs barking.

He played them on a loop, the whole time hollering at the speakers, “Down boy! Careful puppy! They’ll leave soon!”

The effect was magical. Slowly all the people within earshot of the house disappeared deeper into the cashew topes.

“And the cows,” I added, thinking of my pup at home who herds basketballs like animals. “We can train a dog to keep the animals away.”

“Of course!”

“And to bark in the middle of the night. I hear so many noises but hardly ever check to see what’s making them. Dogs would chase unwanted visitors—animal or human—out despite the darkness.”

“Of course!”

“And to cuddle. I like to replace people with dogs.”

Raja didn’t respond right away; he just gave me a look of absolute bewilderment. But I was lost in the memory of snuggling up to my beautiful golden retriever.

“Um, Catherine? I don’t think that’s a good idea. I was thinking more a village mutt.”

Eh, a puppy that meets three out of four needs ain’t bad.

~ c.e.michel

Windmill up and shining

  The windmill is back up!

  The tower is straightened; amazing job them folks did after delay and more delay..

  The tail stating Lumière and Auroville (in stickers) is nice, great colors - healing full blast in full rotation from above! (SMILE)

  The land is very different when water is around! Life is here..

  Plenty of lessons learnt during the windmill not functioning..

working with the Source

  Tamara, the healer; playing with the Source, invited people interested to meet her this evening to teach how to connect with the Source, here in Lumière..

  beautiful, to see manifest what you concieve, more then just babies ;) , happening and manifesting for real in reality!

  there were, 10 "students", from all walks of life, open to learn more of the Source. (shivers) beautiful to watch each one and the group dynamics happening..great energy!

  no space exactly to accomodate so many people, we were all piled in the kitchen space :) 

  chickens sleeping in the trees..

  

  

Healing

  Having Tamara and William here is great.

  They came to Auroville for a few days intending to continue their discovery of india; they actually are still here - they are liking it very much.

  We are all staying in the Space of Light (capsule); it is too stuffy in the house. Hot it is these days..

  "..healing Vasantha (amma) and the old man (watchman) is making my stay more worthwile and visiting temples has become secondary..a change of plan and very grateful for this experience" - Tamara.

  Am loving the healing feeling..just what i envision Lumière to be.  A place to play, discover and connect with nature, self-discovery and connect with the outside world.

  The windmill is being healed too ;) hopefully by day after tomorrow it will be pumping water again..we close to dry!

  mmmm, smell of cashew all over, hair dressed with the cashew flowers and fingernails stuffed with cashew juices :)

  

Cashew harvesting

Every morning, we go around the land looking for those ripe cashew fruits..either they have already fallen and are hidden in the leaves or they simply can be plucked; one only does it if they freely and willingly come off..

  Carrying a bucket you fill it up slowly..it can be quite harduous, crawling on your knews to pick that one cashew this far between the braches..red ants crawling along and not to forget the sun!

  When we have collected them all, we seperate the fruit from the nut and use the fruit to make compost..

  Anyone interested? come along :)

  

windmill a crashing down

  Finally, the blades painted and the axel greased, we started to winch the fan up.  Slowly going up, two guys down with ropes pulling the fan away from the tower so as it is free to rise and 2 others up on the top winching away..  Reaching the platform the cable decided to snap!  

Everyone under ran for cover, the fan, weighing 350kg, decided to dig into the tower at half way..

  

Catching into one of the rods, it bent the tower in many places, the ladder is bent like a

 snake and several blades are crooked!

  one guy at the top as the cable snapped, which he was holding

 so the it wind properly into the winch, shooked him and he got unsta

ble - luckily he grabbed the tower and held for his life!

  He banged his head in the rocking of the tower when the fan went into the tower! He is fine..

  Strangely, i had seen him fall and with my visualisation somehow kept him up there or atleast made his fall soft; and kept asking myself how would they do if they had to repair one of the pipes of the tower do they have to remove the whole tower?

  already 2 weeks gone by, water level low..let see what to do next?

  Every drop of water counts!

Windmill painting

  "why don't you paint it from ontop?!" is what most people are suggesting as i would save money..

  i think if it would be brought  down; a better job would be done especially the primer!

  i tried following colors in line with the 2 petals that radiate this direction

 (courage & progress) - figured not matching..atleast the name lumière is good!

  been a week now, we being careful with the wate

r consumption (of course)..

  The soul of the land, our source of water, pumped by alternative energy, yes!

  

fundraising for the forest

http://www.auroville.com/donate_to_auroville.php

this is a link to fundraise for the Auroville forest, this year we are not funded by anyone/group, makes it difficult for all of us to plant this season. 

 thank you for passing this around to your friends! (bow)