India and Nepal

We have just returned from a month travelling in India and Nepal.
Business took us to Delhi in India. Delhi is always such a chaotic place.

The markets are fun to wander through though, and we always stock up on tea and spices to take with us.

I always enjoy Nepal and Kathmandu.
Kathmandu didn't seem to suffer that badly from the earthquake, but walking around the villages outside the city the devastation was much more obvious. You can read more about our experiences here.

Here a woman is carrying fodder home for her goats and cows.

Life goes on-weeding the potato patch,

and carrying compost to the fields in preparation for planting.

Due to a blockade at the Indian border there was a shortage of cooking gas, so many people went back to burning wood in their clay stoves.

Time to harvest the potatoes in this village.

In spite of the earthquake and the blockade at the border the people are getting on with their lives and there is a sense of optimism and cheerfulness in each of the villages we travelled through, that I for one could learn something from.

In search of coffee

We have had visitors staying with us for the last few weeks and have had fun exploring and showing them our favorite places.
Not far from us, up Doi Inthanon mountain a bit, there is a Karen village we like to visit.
It is a typical quiet dusty village filled with small gardens, pigs and dogs and where they also grow lots of coffee. After the required coffee tasting we bought a sack full of coffee beans to roast in our roaster.

In a walk around this village we discovered other things going on like this woman with her back strap loom weaving a length of colourful cloth to make up a typical top that the men and women wear here.

Drying in the hot sun we found a deck full of cabbage leaves and this tray full of colorful chili peppers that glowed like jewels.

A few days later we spent a couple of nights at Bodge and Yas.

The early morning light reflecting off the pond that the guest house looked over was pretty magical.

Another Karen village we like to visit has a large Royal agicultural project going on.
This is my favorite time of the year there because the mulberries are starting to ripen.

Fingers were covered in the red juice by the time we finished grazing on them, and washed them down with some thyme and rosemary tea.

The manager-MonTon and his wife Ohn live up there. Ohn does some lovely paintings of village life. We already have a number of her art pieces on our wall,but we couldn't resist buying a few more pieces.

As well as the herbs, cabbages, lettuce and fruit, they grow coffee in this village.
We bought a few more kilos.
Time to start roasting again and have a taste test.

After all this investigating we had worked up an appetite, so we started cooking with MonTon and Ohn, and created a feast.

The last few days a very strange weather pattern moved in bringing cold weather and rain. In Thailand we don't usually complain about the cold but we were up in the mountains and the high for the day was 9'C. We certainly weren't prepared for that!

Exploring the mountains

Last weekend we went exploring.
We discovered a pretty little town up in the mountains called Om Koi. At 1000 metres high the climate is wonderful.
This orange vine-yet to be named- grows rampantly all over the town. I love it.

Lots of flowers grown in the area for the cut flower market because of the great climate. Also coffee, grapes and many veges that supply the markets on the low lands.

One of the villages was harvesting cabbages. The motor cycle guys delivered the cabbages from the villages to the main road. From here they got loaded onto the back of a pickup truck and ferried down the mountain to a depot where they got loaded onto huge trucks and taken to their final market.

One morning we woke to temps of 5'C. a little chilly.This fire was going at the guest house to warm us up.

There are lots of Karen and Lisu hilltribes in the area. Here the Lisu have a vege market happening.

Lots of cool weather veges that are hard to grow at lower altitudes.

Back home we had another visit with Bodge. His rice is harvested and in storage.
We were lucky to be given some brown jasmine rice He has several varieties in storage including red sticky rice, mountain rice and the above mentioned jasmine.

Here we are helping him put some jasmine rice though the hulling machine.

His garden has lots of lettuce,kale,egg plant, edible morning glory etc on the go.

Here is a fresh compost pile ready to do its thing.

Finally I was so lucky to get given this beautiful orchid plant for New Year.

Rice Harvest

Just before Christmas we made a quick trip out to visit our friends Bodge and Ya.
It's always fun to catch up with what is happening on the farm.
The peanuts have been harvested and are now drying.

The rice has been cut. A rain and wind storm blew through just before the harvest bending the rice over, so a lot of it was cut by hand instead of using the machine.

 Finally the rice was harvested and drying on the tarps. Now to get it dry while the sun is shining.
There was rain in the forecast, but the rice did get dried and bagged in time.

Now they can relax and enjoy their holiday time.

Karen village

A few days ago we took a trip up to Sooks village in the mountains.
Sook is growing coffee and we were checking to see when we should harvest.

The coffee is doing well and should be ready to harvest soon.

The cabbages are also doing well up there.

Sook and her dad chat with us in the fields.

Meanwhile Sooks mum prepares some wood for the fire.
The mornings get pretty chilly up there these days.

Poinsettias aka the Christmas flower are used for hedge rows on the slopes. It provides great slashes of colour that is appropriate for the season.

Tropical Flowers

Back in Thailand we are appreciating the warmth.
Always interesting to see what plants in my yard have survived the neglect.
In spite of a long absence I still have a few flowers to provide a little colour.

A few of them made it into a vase, and a quick trip to the flower market for some gladioli ( they grow them in this town) to fill another vase.

Crabs and sunsets

We have been enjoying the warmth of Thailand for a few days now. Before we left Sointula we learned the fine art of catching crabs for dinner.



It all seems pretty easy. Put down the traps in the morning and harvest a feast in the afternoon.  I think we'll be doing it often when we return in the spring.



The last few evenings in Sointula there were some spectacular sunsets. Missing being there already.