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Papoose November 2008
My second life, in Nepal, is becoming more settled.
Now that I have my own transport
I feel I'm a little more independent as I
can quickly go out and run some small errands
instead of having to ask others.
The bike is only 125CC and so is easy to handle.
The trick of Nepali traffic is to go slow,
unexpected interference with your trajectory
is to be expected at all times, people come from
left, right, behind, the side and in front of you.
If you go slow there's plenty of time to react.
The most exciting part of my work at the moment is
the development of the dye workshop.
Our first aim is to hand dye a range of garments (CLOAK and Little CLOAK)
and wool for knitting,
both using natural and synthetic dyes.
I was out one day to shop for something with Rabin,
when we passed a temple. Outside the temple
a group of women was selling marigold flowers and chains
as offerings.
STOP!
I want to buy some flowers for dyeing.
We ended up buying 12 big bags full.
Here's my catch!
Drying in the new building.
A thick carpet of flowers, it was quite tempting to roll around
in them, but they'd stain my clothes badly..........
Marigolds are amazing flowers that contain very strong
colour and lots of it. You can get at least 3 dye lots from one lot of flowers.
Depending on the mordant used the colours range from really bright yellow
to a mustard greeny colour.
Marigold dye efforts in the background.
These girls are winding wool balls for me.
I want to leave you with a rare clear view of the mountains surrounding us.
This photo was taken as the sun went down on my last night.
A bit dark but you get the idea!
Nepal has become my second home and I enjoy every minute
I spend there. Our aim is to create more
time in our life to be there and to balance that
with our Australian life. Both countries offer
very different life experiences and opportunities
and we count ourselves lucky to be
able to experience it all.