Boudha

Boudha! It is indisputable that spending the last 14 months in America has totally spoiled me.

Arriving in kathmandu yesterday, you would think I'd never been here before with the way I was overwhelmed...

From the airport, we trudged with our packs out to the street, where we finally got a taxi and then proceeded to immediately get stuck in a crazy traffic jam, breathing in kathmandu's polluted air. And then, then the monsoon rains began, sheets of water pouring down and the car became fogged and the driver had to keep repeatedly wiping the window with newspapers.

And then, boudha. Throngs of people circumambulating the stupa. Lepers and disfigured people, mangy dogs and blind singing beggars. A pant-less baby pooping in the gutter. Butter lamps and incense and the smell of sewage. Overwhelming!

Today we're a bit more well rested and things didn't seem quite so crazy. Now, we're about to hop in a taxi up to the green rice paddies of pharping...

Well, we made it through the dreaded 14 hr flight from Chicago-passing the time watching a movie filled with "bad informations" (as the Khyentse yangsi says you need to not fill your head with), and the oh-so-sweet Kung Fu panda 2, listening to Sigur ros and dozens of Indian babies alternately screaming and cooing on their parent's laps. K and I took turns sleeping on the floor. Exiting the plane into the Delhi airport, I would have known I was in India even with my eyes closed from the scent of spices mixed with BO that immediately washed over me. It doesn't sound good, but last nice it smelled quite nice to me. However, today, India is a bit of a shock to the system, having just spent 14 months in the god realms of the avenues of salt lake and park city!

I had forgotten the intensity of the heat here, the flies, the garbage, the ceaselessly honking horns, the smell of burning plastic, the stray dogs skulking around your legs in the streets, the small children in their white school uniforms-wearing backpacks more than half their size. But onwards we go...me and my nausea (and k) are off to Kathmandu in a few hours...

Location:India!

Sigur Rós - Ára Bátur HQ (recording)

The stories of this book resonate within me

Why did I never hear of Finnish author Tove Jansson until just recently? How is it possible that this beautiful beautiful writer escaped me?
Today I finished The Summer Book, one of the sweetest, most wonderful books I have ever read. The writing is clear and unpretentious...making me want to take up my own pen once again. I can't shake the feeling that this book brought upon me, as though a spell (much like the Swedish author Linda Olsson's, Astrid and Veronika). 

Sakya Trizin!

Amazing Amazing Amazing! There really are no words to describe what it's like to be in the presence of a living Buddha...All I can say is that despite the traffic and skipped meals and sitting on a concrete floor for five hours and being lost and lack of sleep--it was worth it!

And so the alpenglow is over for the night, the sky now purple above the mountains. my daylong headache finally almost gone after ingesting copious amounts of orange gatorade, tylenol, ibuprofren and tea with cream and honey. the headache brought on by money worries? travel worries as the impending date of our departure to asia creeps closer? 'course i'm so happy and excited to go, still...i dread the long plane ride...squashed into a long row of seats in economy class. at least it's only 19 hours...

I haven't been able to bring myself to write here for some time now--too immersed in life to be able to enter this space. The summer has come, and almost gone--the second summer I didn't feel the cold New England sea.

Still, we jumped into the icy waterfall pool in our underwear, there in the woods. We've slept in the hammock under the stars. We've gorged on tomato pie, berries, cucumbers, corn. I've read the beautiful Bitter in the Mouth and lived in a tiny tent in a forest in upstate New York.

Now, we are off to see Sakya Trizin in Vancouver, then on to India and Nepal... 

In the Trees

The last few weeks found us spending hours and hours amongst trees and water. In forests with moose and bison nearby. Crossing a crystal clear Jenny lake. At the bottom of an enormous waterfall. Sitting by raging rivers. Floating through rapids. Drinking melted snow. Loveliness.

Finally, Summer

This year, salt lake has been very strict, not letting us have any truly hot days until it was officially summer. Never before have I longed for heat as I did this year. But finally, finally the hot days are upon us, the rhubarb and strawberries are here, the beans and tomatoes and blue Hubbard squash, the carrots and chard and Brussels and broccoli, it's all growing like wildfire-despite the crickets and slugs best efforts to eat everything up.

And now, finally, we've been having summer food: raspberry rhubarb crisp, homemade mint ice cream, cold asparagus soup, suntea.

And the parents are here! We've picnic-ed by rivers and lakes, stuck feet in icy waterfalls, thrown snowballs, driven through the greenest rolling hills covered in purple and yellow wildflowers, walked through snow in sandals, viewed lakes still covered in ice...

Hooray For Summer!

This year in Salt Lake, spring has made a poor showing. It hasn't swooped in with nonstop sun and blue skies and warm days. Instead, there's been rain and more rain. Snow and endless clouds--the sun visiting oh so briefly. Still, the flowers haven't minded. First crocus, then daffodil and tulip, big showy irises and now poppies and roses. In the Avenues, the flowers hang out on street corners, blanket front yards; constantly cheering in the face of all this un-springlike weather. And while we're not having hot ninety degree days like they are back on the east coast, and it technically won't be summer for another seven days, each day I can feel it creeping closer.

Signs That Summer is Almost Upon Us:
1) the farmer's market has begun! fresh wild arugala, scapes, chives, honey and a billion people rejoicing in the fact that summer is coming
2) ate two popsicles the other day
3) there are tiny tomatoes on one of my plants, the painted lady beans have come up, we've been eating kale and baby broccoil greens from the garden
4) yesterday at little dell reservoir there were girls in bikinis in inflatable rafts, my feet in the icy water
5) wide open windows, two mosquitoes in the mudroom
6) the sun is up at 5:15 AM!