The bridge of Coos

Bridge of Coos

Moo-ve over darling over Lake Pichola in Udaipur there is a footbridge , like the Bridge of Sighs, but not, if you know what I mean. For a start it is arched but that’s where all similarity ends, because this footbridge is the favourite lounging relaxation zone for all the cows in Udaipur to congregate and chew the cud. So much so that you are indeed sighing with frustration and annoyance at the fact that you have to warily edge your way through a potential lethal war zone of ugly horns and slavering ravening bulls. Except the funny thing is ,they are strangely not doing all that much roaring and pawing the ground like you would imagine bulls in Europe would do. Why is that ? Even if I had had a red cape and donned matador garb those cows wouldnt have moved a muscle.

Anyway thankyou so much to Chris (our fellow traveller from India) for sending this to us today and reminding me of this place !!

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Will a sheep eat a custard cream ?

This was a very serious suggestion by our vet treating one of our sheep. Apparently custard creams go down very well with or without grass ! I tried this on our pet sheep Barra and she did wolf it down ! and seemed to enjoy it . Another day at the madhouse !

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The Reluctant Beekeeper

beehive in our top wood

Have not been able to find one of my beekeeping gloves today so am immediately in a ‘Mrs Shouty Macshouty’ mood before we start. Have to remind myself I am living the dream.Slope off to the beehive with Paul. It is a gloriously sunny day and the bees are going bonkers toing and froing with legs bulging with yellow pollen like eighteenth century pantaloons. But this is no laughing matter as I suit up into my spaceman like beesuit . I grip the smoker like a woman possessed, a steely grip of determination. I am a big wimp when it comes to getting stung (and I invariably do) and all that old nonense about bee stings, and the health benefits is a load of tosh really. It hurts and you just dont want to be stung.

But in the end I am not ,because they are all too busy to think about being vicious stinging things, they are just so foused on bringing in the beans /pollen .I see the enormous queen scuttling around but we cannot mark her (as we should) because someone has lost the bee marker !! remind myself wit difficulty that we are not in a blame culture !  Paul has also got a huge lump of bee candy in the hive which the lazier coach potato bees are tucking into like demented sweetshop robbers. All is well. A new bit of hive is added to give the bees more room to store honey (it is called a ‘super’ in fact! dont you just love all the new vocabulary!!) and we can beat a hasty retreat. Back from the brink again.

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Awestruck at Austwick

Little Salkeld Mill

and all the “A” words you can think of today…  ! Austwick Hall is the most amazing place to stay for love , lust and luxury .I count myself as one who has just fallen prey to all those passions this week ! in one amazing house and garden.It is simple .. take one astonishing house , fill it with surprising, off the wall, beautiful things and combine it with the best hosts in the world and then stay there and luxuriate. The garden is worth a lot of oohs and ahhs as well .

Austwick's jungle sanctuary

And if Paul doesn’t build me a wonderful thatched garden house like Eric has made for their jungle garden, I will just sulk for eternity .Scrumptious food and such a friendly  atmosphere just makes you want to stay there for ever. And reader , I very nearly did! Little do Eric and Michael realise how close they came to me living like a mad old hermit in the old stone bothy in the wood !

In fact that part of the world just bewilders you with its great opportunities for special experiences. Bring mad about gardens and nature it ticked all our boxes in spades. Little Salkeld Mill near Penrith is a dreamy Mill haven and heaven for biodynamic flour !  Summerdale House with its wonderful little nursery is a definite recommendation as well as Lawkland Hall . Both of these open for the NGS as well.  And having scrambled up the vertiginous slopes and on to the super limestone pavements and partaken of tea in ( the incredibly named) Faizer, I can truly say we have been shaken to the core ! It really is time to  visit Yorkshire and Cumbria !!

bothy in the wood : my new home

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National Garden Scheme , The Tea Party

As participating gardens in the National Garden Scheme, Gardens Open for Charity, you are invited to attend, on an annual basis, a splendid tea party in one of the participating gardens in your particular county. So today saw Paul and I at the marvellous St Marys in Bramber enjoying a most delightful spring garden in a very cold sunshine. If you haven’t been,  St Marys is a total wonder . So go there as soon as you can !

Also we were encouraged to seek out and think of new gardens to open for the scheme … so anyone out there with a garden big or small think on.  It is a brilliant thing to do and raises so much money for its charities .The four main charities supported by the scheme are :

We Are Macmillan .Cancer support,Marie Cure Cancer Care,Help the Hopices and Cross Roads Care

Our Sussex Prairies garden  will open for the Scheme in September this year  saturday 17th and sunday 18th 2011(previously we have opened in July) , so visitors will get a chance to see our garden in its autumnal garb for a change. We will be joined by our enthusiastic native american friends from the Blackfeet Lodge and Spirit of the West who will set up their camp in the garden. Fantastic teepees and authentic tents , buffalo skins, beadwork demonstrations are all on offer. 

As well as the main charities supported by the National Garden Scheme, we will also be donating  money for the Disha hospital and garden in Rajasthan , India. This is a project very close to our hearts  and one with which we feel very honoured to be associated !

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on why our new pigs are like super models

our new pig girls (there is a technical name for girl pigs but who knows what it is ) are back in on the catwalk , well the woods actually, and they mean business !

Why can I liken them to super models ? firstly they are sleek and lean-ish looking ; smooth flanked and with their little hooves seem to teeter around like their namesakes on their Alistair McQueen platforms. Perky ears and bright little eyes searching for the next big break or agency scout. They do have a radar like sixth sense that food is on its way. This is hardly a difficulty as they are on a permanant stag watch in the wood monitoring movement from the back door of the house. Also their hearing is tuned to a enth degree as they can recognise the sound of a sliced carrot in a bucket from 100 yards. I am sure that super models must live at this permanent level of alert in respect of food. How could they not , they must be starving . Permanently. Our pigs are not starving . far from it . but they think they could well be and must by necessity at all opportunities be ready to eat  . As I teeter myself on the precipice of summer , when mulching the garden will begin and I can look forward to losing a couple of pounds (if i am lucky) (there is of course the Cake factor to bear in mind. With an open garden cakes are a daily hazard to negotiate on the rocky road to summer svelteness !) I look to my pigs for inspiration.

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The birdbox is the thing…

Anyone who knows me and our garden must surely know that I am a little bit crazy about bird boxes and it struck me when I was out in the garden today (the last of the prairie burning is finally over … even if i did melt my wonderful orange aigle boots just a tiny bit… better than trousers on fire (2010 incident)… but those Aigle boots are dreamy .. but  when fanatic pyromaniaces are on the loose (Paul!) anything can happen…) … well the bird boxes … I have had a flash of inspiration in that I could offer old and spent boxes a new lease of life in my Birdbox Hospital which will be working for our Indian Disha hospital garden fund raising.

Here’s how it could work… (anyone spotting any terrible flaws in this idea please let me know before it all goes pearshaped !)… I rescue old and unloved bird boxes from certain doom ( the dove cott above is a prime  example of a dove cott needing some love .. seen this weekend in Rottingdean ) and in my bird box ‘hospital’ , return them to a useful life again through handy and accomplished joinery skills and excellent paintwork expertise. The boxes ,now back in the prime of youth and vigour are ready to sally out into life again and be sold  . Any profits will be donated by me back to our Disha hospital garden project in Rajasthan.

So bird boxes unite ! your hospital awaits !!

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India Diaries, Day 15 ,A journey begins just when it ends

another door, another dollar : at the risk of sounding a bit pretentious it seems to be the case that just as our journey together around the marvellous  and tantalising area of Rajasthan ends , a new journey for all of us is only just beginning. And that is the most wonderful thing for us. Not only have we had such a great time with Lottie and Chris , our dear companions, but we have come to get things in perspective a bit and know that we can really help do some good and make a difference to a lot of people who have a very great deal less than we have been lucky enough to have .

The garden at Disha will be an amazing point of contact and enjoyment we hope for a lot of people there, so it is important we get it right. Now we are back ,we are pulling together all those ideas we have amassed en route and working out the nitty gritty details of how we can actually do it . There are infinite possibilities and the challenge is to juggle all the inspiration and practicalities and cook up  some Indian magic.

I hope that those of you who have enjoyed or endured , (or both) , reading this India Diary blog and have enjoyed reading of our experiences will help us with this project. In fact I know you will ,because if you come to India and help us plant the garden you cannot help but be touched and charmed by the sheer zaniness of it and the heart touching stories and experiences that come out of it on every side.

Be afraid , be very afraid : We will be writing more about this project on this blog and on our website as it rolls forward. Make a diffrence , it is Time to live your days as tigers !!

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India Diaries, Day 14 , It all makes sense

the puppet show

The Raven Charitable Trust aims to provide reguar childrens clinics and implement vaccination programmes in local communities and provide an understanding of the importance of good health for existing and future generations.

We are hoping to make a start on at least trying to raise awareness of the value of health care on this day and to show a little bit of what goes on in this new hospital in this rural location. It will the first of many ice breaking events in this community and certainly will be the sort of thing with which  the gap year programme will be getting involved when it gets off the ground later on . 

How the garden can help as a venue for other camps and events is clearly demonstrated as we sit down with the children armed with colouring books and crayons to start to do some drawing with them. It is a bit mad at first as we grapple with our lack of hindi .. but with the wonderful intervention of all the hindi speaking helpers who have come along to assist , we manage to communicate. In a way it is not difficult as the children are like sponges for attention and input and are desperate to get to grips with our nursery rhymes and silly little songs, like the inimitable ‘Wheels on the bus’ . You are immediately struck by actually how little they all have in comparison to us and how just interacting on a very basic level and doing some silly things with them can spark so much learning even on the most basic of levels.

Paul’s brilliant idea of making the paper fortune teller games is a real hit and making them with the children and trying to explain the principles is a bit of a riot ! Even the teachers want to learn about making them. One of the most useful helpers on the day was the driver from the Oberoi hotel. He was there with Corinne, the managers wife who was also an amazing help. This sergeant majorly but kindly man, came dressed in his hotel uniform, blue coat and trousers with a line of brass buttons from right hip to left shoulder. He looked like something from the 9th Hussars in1820! Paul  tried out the “fortune tellers” on him, with translations for the kids. When the first attempt names him “Camel Breath,” he was fleetingly angry before the hoots and laughs of the children restored him to his usual good humour!! Much to Pauls relief,as he was about 6’2″ with a handle bar moustache!

Meanwhile Dr Deepak manages to file everyone through the clinic and carries out a simple health check on all the children. It is a good start for the project and gives us a big learning opportunity. 

On a garden level we need shade big time ,and areas where you can sit in small workable groups or even bigger groups. There is a puppet show organised which will build into its programme some basic health care messages. We need quite a big space for that so all the children can sit and watch comfortably.  And later on having our own puppets designed specifically for the hospital messages would be a good idea.

The visit finished up at around 2pm. Corinne invited us to the Oberoi for lunch. The contrast between the opulent luxury of this amazing hotel, within a few hundred metres of children with one set of clothes to their name, really brought home the contrasts and problems of India. If we can put our minds to trying to redistribute this is in some small way, it could be the start of great things.

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India Diaries, Day 13, Riding for Rajasthan , a dream is born

Knocking on a Heavenly Tent door : its very early at the tented camp and the camp boys have brewed up some masala chai to wake us up and see us on our way. Sunrise is up and at it again and the birds add their voice to the un hushed shouts of the chai boys. There are other guests at the camp and I bet they have been rudely awoken. Susan , if you are reading this , sorry if we woke you up ! Prakash is amazingly chipper and ready for the road back to Udaipur. A long journey ahead across country to the main (death) highway. Deer skulk along the roadside and the vultures plus rabid looking dogs work assiduously at that carcass along the way.

Pop up Poppy Fields : sultry white fields stretch tantalisingly in all directions. It is poppy heaven ,starkly and virginly lovely.They go on for miles.And are strangely calming as we once again brave the horrors of the indian highways. I wonder how long you or I could cling onto the back of an overloaded tuk tuk with fingernails of steel and fighting considerable wind resistance and the ad hoc swerves of the erratic drivers.

The wurzels ride again: it is at a truck stop where we catch up with the combine harvester crew. Smiling and jovial the sihks are affable enough and bemusedly let Lottie up on to their monster combine  machine. And so the germ of an idea , a crazy one, is planted in our four minds.How about if we did the same trip with the combine harvester from the Punjab to Gujarat to raise funds for Disha hospital and garden –! The combines travel down the 1400 miles over the course of 7 odd days always at this time of year to gather the harvest down in the far south and then they trundle all the way back again after 45 days of working on the harvest. Now this type of trip is guaranteed to take in some adventures en route , particularly with Lottie and I at the helm ( we are trying to promote womens health and participation in health issues after all ….. ) and both Chris and Paul seem thoroughly keen tooand immediately begin planning logistics and support vehicles and all things practical .I am thinking more about what sort of outfits to wear, what factor suncreams and toilet stops ! This could be a huge successful sponsorship possibility . The journey continues back to Udaipur with great and gleeful plottings, speculations and ideas from all sides.And the soundtrack to hopefully our film of the trip has to be the Wurzels combine harvester anthem!!!

Kankara we are home again: back at the Kankawa havelli in Udaipur we really feel we have come home again to our haven of peace and tranquility. Paul and I have a even more lovely room (if that is possible !) at the top of the havelli overlooking the lake. And we are soon up on the terrace tucking into a hearty lunch/breakfast special shared with the ever present cheeky chipmunks.I also come up with ideas for the Disha birdboxes which could be fun and that we could sell alongside our new birdboxes at sussex prairies this year.

India Flower/Plant books the search goes on : we do a trawl of the local bookshops again and find nothing very useful …we already have the tree and shrub book which is good …. eventually decide we will go and do a blitz visit to Kew on our return to Uk. It is difficult to identify plants here. They seem to have a variety of names or are unrecognisable to us … so it is a bit of a lottery. But I think we have all the material we need in the form of photos and ideas scribbled in our notebook so it is with very much excitement that we know we will be returning to Disha on the morrow to suss out any last minute design criteria.

Walkabout with (Chris) Walker : we head out into town, skirting hordes of unruly cows and trying not to get gored like Chris did in Bassi. There is a bridge full of cows which people negotiate with care for reasons of cow poo and twitching murderous looking horns. We come across a beautiful little walkway along the ghats just stuffed with temples and the like, haphazardly piled one on top of the other. It is strangely quiet down there but it is hot and we make tracks for the pineapple juice stall. Whatever you do, do not look at the juice machine or fruit cutting knife when you partake of juice at a wee stall like this…. I hope we are getting immune to germs there… The juice is very good and the stall holder most jovial.

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