Getting into the swing

So being in one place for a few weeks with the most inspiring room really helps things to get going. This was at the Dia Homestay in Pushkar where I stayed for three weeks in November 2019.

I did a few touristy things in Pushkar – like walking up at 0630 for sunrise at the Savitri Temple

I am going to write this blog through four completed projects!

But before I start a really wonderful set of four videos about Charlie the Unicorn. Enjoy.

Bulbs and Seeds

In the UK just before I left, I cycled to a garden centre in Kentish Town and bought every purple or lilac seed and bulb packet I could lay my hands on. I brought them to India with the idea of settling in one place and planting them out and watching them grow. I wanted to set up my phone to video them for 1 second each day. Betsy did this for about a year and produced a very interesting 365 second (just over six minutes) documentary of that year. But I realised early on I might want to travel. It seemed that planting them in the Dia homestay in Pushkar would be a good idea.

All the purple seeds and bulbs that I helped to plant

Anoop, the owner, was both obliging and keen but he thought they would be better off in his secret garden. I went there on the back of the manager Ravi’s motor bike.

I have travelled a huge amount in Rajastan on the back of motorbikes. It is exhilarating if a little scary!

We bought 11 x 15 cm pots for the grand sum of 220 rupees (25p per pot!) and I helped the gardener and Ravi to plant all the bulbs and most of the seeds. We worked out the pet tortoises were eating all the plants that Anoop and Marie had recently had planted so the pair of them were moved to another garden behind a gate.

One of a pair of pet tortoises who eat seedlings – oh no – they had to be banished to a more mature garden.

The only problem for me was trying to get regular photos of how my bulbs and seeds were doing. The people who worked there only had old Nokia bricks (like my Dad!) and so couldn’t take regular photos. But you just can’t control everything!

These bulbs went into pots

Grape Hyacinth, Anemone, Iris, Crocus, Standard Hyacinth.

The work was supervised by this very experienced gardener

And these seeds were sown

Flowers; Blue Angel, Cornflower, Lobelia, Blue Cushion, Pansy, Phlox, Nigella, Crane’s Bill, Baby Blue Eyes, Poppy, Sweet Pea.

Vegetables and herbs; Kale, Carrot, Chives, Basil, Borage, Verbena, Broccoli.

Not really hard work – more supervisory! The seeds were planted randomly in the ground behind where I am standing

We returned a week later. Nothing doing on the bulb front but a number of the seeds had germinated. I fear this is another complete disaster. Not on the global scale but on my journey where I had imagined everything I had brought with me would be wildly successful. Not that I am driven (thanks Mum!) but tolerating disappointment doesn’t come easy but I am learning to celebrate even things that fail.

Yarn bombing – well wrapping really – like a bandage

I brought loads of yarn from the Handweavers Studio – I pretty much bought every shade of purple in as many yarns as they sold. Once I realised I would stay in Pushkar for a while I suggested to the owner of the Dia Homestay that he might like me to wrap his vines in yarn.

The tree is a known as the Jungle Jelabi tree or Manila Tamarind and in Latin as Pithecellobium dulce. But it is dead. I decided to wrap the surrounding vine trunks.

Anoop readily agreed and his girlfriend Marie gave me some extra supplies (purple acrylic twine and a tassel made originally to decorate camels.

You can see the pompom used to decorate camels.

I thought I could do about a foot of wrapping a day. It is quite back breaking work as much of the yarn I had was pretty thin.

My stash……

It is also pretty tedious so I listened to a set of BBC podcasts. On the Crypto Qqueen, Murder at the Lucky Hotel and Ratlines. They were fascinating, informative and really well produced.

Half way through

Anoop put a rather scary wooden mask in the tree and I gave him a rather bright purple moustache, beard and headband. He put it there to frighten me but I thought it was rather funny to be honest.

I am thrilled he has let me loose on this amazing set of vine trunks in his garden and it is a way of finishing up all the excess yarn from my 2019 mystery blanket and make a start on the stash I lugged here.

The redecorated scary man!

Besides taking lots of photos I have threaded each of the yarns I have used into a bracelet and made a pompom too. Stupidly I bought a fancy pompom maker from Purl Soho (very upmarket knitting shop in New York with particularly icy staff) when I should have brought my tried and tested kit from London so the pompoms are naff to say the least!

I also brought some fairy lights and wound a blue set around another trunk. But like Adrian, Marie doesn’t like this very artificial colour so I switched it for a yellow set! I was delighted that Anoop and Marie not only allowed but positively encouraged me to do this. It was a great project for me to do at the beginning.

I returned to Pushkar 5 years later (October 2024). Ravi was delighted to show me what remained!

Dream catchers

I made my first ever dream catcher having looked up some videos on YouTube but also Babu at the Paka Wala shop in Pushkar.

Babu was very patient and loved to use superglue to stiffen the yarn rather than using needles. In the first one I used the feathers I had gathered outside the Anokhi Textile Museum near Amber Fort and some stones I had bought with me.

My first dream catcher on my balcony

For all 4 of the dream catchers I used hand spun and vegetable dyed yarn from Peru.

The subsequent ones I made using all beads I had but bought the hoops and feather from Babu. Lily who I met at Dia Homestay gave me some earrings which I broke up to use at the bottom. I used beads left over from the mystery blanket 2019 and mother of pearl buttons that came from Hazel (I think).

My 4 dream catchers in my bedroom

Besides photographing them on my balcony I took them down to the swing near the trees I had yarn bombed, covered the swinging seat with my purple sarong and videoed them dancing as the swing swung

This can make you feel a bit giddy

This is the first new skill I have learnt here.

Cards

I brought with me 10 card and envelope blanks. I tried with my first commissioned stamp but it wasn’t really of good enough quality to be the feature of my cards. Or maybe I am just not a very good stamper? I think the man I commissioned to make them has waltzed off with the 2000 rupees and hasn’t been seen since and I had checked on him daily. Actually, he did deliver! I think he might have been busy doing my stamps and going to college – whoops…..

So, I put the stamps on the back and on the front lined all the cards at the top and bottom with Washi Tape. I then put the first paper cyanotype prints I had made at Trowbridge all guillotined up on the front. I had decorated them with puff paint. I did it as the Traveller’s Boutique Café and left them to dry under a seat. Then the café seemed to have closed down for two days. I went with my torch at night time when someone was lying on an adjacent bench on the phone and said nothing to me as I rescued them! It felt quite surreal entering a closed property and fishing around under a bench for some papers.

I cut them all at an angle and put between one and three on a page with a wooden butterfly sprayed with purple plasti-kote spray paint on each one. Or some painted with a pinky purple ink I had brought.

My 10 cards. They are quite nice. But nothing particularly special and not really in my theme but I wanted to complete them……

Addendum on calligraphy

I really don’t think my calligraphy is up to much. I left the set in Pushkar that I had brought out following a lovely class in Islington with wine one evening. You cannot be good at everything. The nibs don’t work and to be honest I just don’t have the patience. Interestingly in the 6th form where we could choose an art option and I knew painting wasn’t my forte I chose to do calligraphy and I wasn’t that bad!

Next time there will be camels and things that I made in Rajpura, near Ranakpur.

Hmmmm – really Spirographs? Is this where creativity should start? Well yes it did for me!

I think I have thought a lot about my design. And there are many conceptual possibilities and limitations. I don’t see this as failings on my part in how to carry them out but rather physical impossibilities such as the materials I don’t have or know how to use. And of course, there is a time constraint although with four months here this seems an old adage used to excuse myself from being truly creative. I am not, for instance going to do intricate embroidery although of course I could. And probably not large floor loom weaving as I am unlikely to have access to one. Or fine figure painting because I can’t.

I have put this photo in as I went to visit a herd of milking camels nearby. They keep their calves with them for a year and only are milked once a day. They do rather remind me of dinosaurs with halitosis.
I love the affection and play between the camel and her calf. Also I don’t want my first image to be my dreadful drawing.

Of course, there are things I do have time for and aren’t any good at like drawing or sculpture but as I bought the requisite materials then I will have a go and be satisfied I had a go and failed – you should see my drawings I have done based on my initial spirograph drawings. Truly terrible.

Done at break neck speed with increasingly fatter nib pens. Truly dreadful. The rest are no better!
Another pretty dreadful drawing with wax crayons

But part of you has to fail to know that you really aren’t any good at something. Even if others think you are actually good at something if it doesn’t spark joy in you (thanks Marie Kondo who wrote the celebrated “Magic Art of Tidying” – one of my new bibles) then I cannot really celebrate it. I am also scared. I have been very clear and repeated this almost as a mantra before I left. I wanted to spend my time here being as creative as I truly could be. I find my work in London hugely satisfying but limiting in the creativity I am allowed to do both in my clinical work and my teaching. There is a carte blanche with true material creativity (painting, drawing, musical composition etc) that there really are no rules. But the health and university system are tied by so many rules most people cannot even remember why they are there!

I laid all the things out in both places that I have stayed for at least a week so that seeing them can inspire me to be creative. Going around with my eyes open has led to purchases – like seven purple small blow-up beach balls bargained down to 300 rupees (50p each ball).

7 balls. 2 of flowers and 5 of stripes. In a pond outside my room. All prime numbers……..

And having a decent camera makes me place things in as many different ways as possible. That really does fill me with joy. I have managed to delight in spending time photographing different arrangements of ribbons and a stone. The ribbons were purple, lilac and violet. The stone said “contentment” on one side which is the most memorable feeling I had a child. This was given to me at the end of the Bridge Retreat I did in July this year in Frome, Somerset. Before receiving it, I danced to Karl Jenkins Palladio ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqmbz8W1-tA ) flinging my arms high into the sky in a yurt on a wooden bridge beautifully decorated with flowers. Freddy gave me the stone at the other side. I took 92 photos and could have gone on.

Enjoy – only another 91 to see!

It reminded me of an exercise I did on Staff College. This was an amazing leadership course set up with the Army and NHS by Aiden Halligan. We were asked once to write down all the different uses we could think of a paper clip. Most come up with under 10, some 10 to 20 and occasionally people came up with more – that was me. Its is just the way my mind works. Always whizzing about thinking about things. I find meditation and mindfulness so painful. Not constricting just impossible! Yoga is fine though – phew as it really helps my back.

I had been keen to design a logo that sums up my theme and this may still be possible. But this might come later. I feel I am still at the exploratory phase.

Here is what I have been working on and considered completed….

Spirograph

So, the spirograph helped me unleash some creativity but I did do it an orderly way. Using the smallest of the 6 cogs till the largest and methodically going through all the points of each cog. The largest went up to 34. So, in total there are well over a 100 spirograph examples. I had the idea of some order but did need to decide where to move on the next drawing to start it. And I also had to decide when to change direction with the spirograph and then it got very busy. I used very thick paper (lilac 220gm paper) so it wouldn’t get any holes and it didn’t. I thought I might not get all the spirograph entries on one side and would need to insert a hole to get to the other side but that wasn’t necessary but maybe I missed some of the starting holes out (oh dear the problems of hyperactivity).

The tin I brought with me. Now shipped back – really what was I thinking when I packed? I came with 75 kg of stuff!

The Spirograph was invented in the year of my birth 1965 by Denys Fisher and sold in a Department Store in Leeds – Schofields. I used the 6 cogs which fit in the larger circle you have to hold to keep still. Each cog has between 10 and 34 settings. But they are produced different shapes which gradually change.

All the bits laid out

There are nicks where the cog jumps and the whole drawing then can become mal-aligned. I mostly turned them clockwise. It was a purple HiTechPoint pen on lilac paper. Nothing like sticking to the theme. Actually, the paper was chosen as it was the heaviest and Spirograph drawings tend to make holes in thinner paper. The bends and corners were most compressed – a bit like life when you make twists and turns it feels denser. I knew it wasn’t neat or particularly predictable but I also knew that in reality I just cannot draw so this was a great way to start and feel that I was being true to myself and my sabbatical. It is as much about realising your limitations and going with the flow of what you have and what you can do.

My first piece once my knitted mystery blanket was completed.

Lavender bags

The lavender was bothering me. It spilt all over my case and so I made 19 little lavender bags using the material I had bought from Anokhi. I had chosen only 2 designs as these were plentiful and I liked the designs (flowers).

The 19 lavender bags on my door in my fabulous room in the Dia Homestay, Pushkar.

So this was my only (well probably although I did buy some frangipane perfume oil later in Pushkar) foray into smell. And I decided to make 19 of them. For the year (2019). To commemorate what a hard and emotional year it has been for me. And it being a prime number. I tied the bags with the lavender yarn left over from my 2019 mystery blanket I had just completed.

They smell heady and comforting. I photographed them all around the room with different backdrops and with all different lights and using twists so that I could video them https://vimeo.com/377514037. I like the way they fall from a single point and all are different lengths and twist and unfurl on each other. Twisting takes time and get multiply tangled like life. I spent my last day untangling them which took well over an hour and I photographed them all nice and untangled. But this is a temporary respite from their normal state of getting re-tangled all over again!

You can see the Master Promise Hotel next door. 10/10 for it’s name!

Lavender isn’t a very pretty plant but it is characteristic with a very special smell. From fields in France to gardens in the UK. Especially lovely was the day I spent with Tracy at Hitchin Lavender with the wonderful lunch and a great time spent picking and taking fabulous photos. A truly wonderful memory. There is a photo of Hitchin Lavender on my first entry on purple.

All untangled. Another hour of my life gone but sooooooooo very satisfying. A bit like removing bogies from your child’s nose?

Cyanotyping

I had a wonderful day of cyanotyping in August 2019 in Trowbridge. In the morning I joined a class of other women and did the cyanotyping using 2 light sensitive chemicals (potassium ferricyanide and ferric ammonium citrate. We did paper and cotton and I brought along some taupe silk. All my results worked well there but when I tried to reproduce it on some baby vests the edges were a murky dark green and it didn’t have sharp blue edges.

On a different piece of paper I laid out 10 shapes I had recently painted.

I took both chemicals to India and decided to try it out on a thin piece of white A3. I prepped it in the shower part of my bathroom in Pushkar (Dia Homestay) and put it under a stool covered in towels but they got wet and the whole thing was one soggy mess. The A3 was too large to dry between applications (usually 3). I did expose it on the balcony but it was too blowy. I also only left it for 10 mins to expose it which again wasn’t long enough.

I then transferred the shapes at breakneck speed to the prepared paper and left them for 30 minutes in the afternoon sun.

The subsequent pieces I did (5 white A4 and 1 lilac A4 – all 220gm heavy paper) worked well. I prepped them in the dark (easy as it is dark between 1900 and 0700. I kept them in a felt case and once the wind had died down in the afternoon but the sun was still strong, I used them to make a whole pattern using bracelets, rings, earrings, findings from jewellery box, felt and wooden flowers. Essentially, anything that was round went on the paper. This worked really well.

The paper after expose worked well.

Next up will be yarn bombing (wrapping to be precise), dream catchers, a jungle jelabi mobile and cards.

How do you represent How Time goes Faster as you Get Older?

I have thought about this a lot over the past year. Part of coming to India was to see if I could be truly creative. Life at work will only tolerate a certain amount of creativity and then the hammer comes down and ‘Computer Says NO!’

I knew I needed some limits to be creative and thought that this theme might work. Certainly no one had bought the domain name – but it is not very catchy and rather long! I also limited my colour palate to purple (see earlier blog on this). At school when you are asked to write a story about anything it is really hard but when you are given a title such as The Woman with the Glue on her Fingers (me now!) then it really is much easier to get started.

Since I have been telling people about my theme I have been worried about how I really can see it panning out. Let’s be really clear. I just cannot draw. My copying skills are limited and my impatience overwhelming. I had thought of this. I suppose it has some connection with seeing something like How Time Goes Faster as People Get Older between my career and love of medicine and something I can imagine in space, in 3D but really it is about the 4th dimension and as my son says – time only really changes when you go to a different planet. Oh yes India can feel very different but I am firmly placed here on earth.

So the idea in my head was to start with a nearly perfect circle – no one is born perfect – I should know – I am often referred babies as a paediatrician whose deluded parents pick up the most minor aberrations and expect me to do something about it! But I do like a first opening circle. Full of promise, life and curiosity.

The circle then becomes a spiral in time and space. It twists and turns and has some nooks and crannies. It may break and be re-joined. I wasn’t sure what to do at the end. I could have made it become an every decreasing circular size but I am not sure as I get older that the circle I am on should get smaller. And should the end circle be like the first (birth) circle? Or should they even join up and look a bit like a doughnut?

I like the idea of using the gut as my organ of choice as it the place of most interest. Of course I love eating – and here are 2 purple meals I recently ate at a wonderful restaurant called Heavenly Blessing (with 103 amazing reviews on google!) It is next to where I am staying ( http://www.inn-seventh-heaven.com/Dia.html – I am in the room that has windows on all sides just below the roof terrace!) .

Not really purple food but a delicious breakfast of goat’s cheese on home baked fenugreak bread
This is called Blue Fantasy – it is creamy pasta with blue cheese and purple cabbage.

Back to why the gut is a great organ to model my theme. So besides eating, the gut is where we experience all sorts of emotions. Funny my spell checker wanted to put in the word emoticons! I have actually designed a load of personalised Carly emoticons. She has a purple face and grey hair!

I am not quite sure what is happening in the top right hand one?

So back to the gut and emotions. It is a repository for feelings such as anxiety and manifests all manner of feelings by experiencing pain, diarrhoea, constipation, indigestion etc. I rather like the duality of clearly the necessity of processing food (but eating is enjoyable to ensure we fill up our guts) but also where many emotional states and reactions are expressed. The joy of food, birth and living are all wondrous, joyous and fabulous.

Here is a pictorial representation. It is from a website (unsplash) where you can download free images. It is an image from Adrien Olichon.

So this is something I would like to express through as many media as possible. I have always maintained that I am a Jack (or rather Jill) of all trades and a master of none. My knitting is good but I am no expert. Before I left I made a list of all the ways I could explore my theme. There are 133. This is a multiple of 7 x 19. 19 is my special number this year and of course besides being the year we are currently in, it is partly in recognition of how much I have struggled this year. But I love prime numbers and and 7 fits with days of the week. Again fitting with the time theme. And my love of numbers and how they fit together.

My list of possibilities to explore my theme in reverse alphabetical order.

  1. Yoga
  2. Yarn bombing
  3. Woodwork
  4. Window art
  5. Weaving
  6. Water colour painting
  7. Walking
  8. Video
  9. Travel journal
  10. Toys
  11. Textile art
  12. Tattoos
  13. Tatting
  14. Tassels
  15. Stencils
  16. Stained glass
  17. Spirograph
  18. Soap
  19. Silkscreen printing
  20. Silk painting
  21. Silk flowers
  22. Short story
  23. Sewing
  24. Sellotape
  25. Sea shells sculptures
  26. Sawdust hearts
  27. Sand stone sculptures
  28. Rug making
  29. Ribbons
  30. Quilting
  31. Quilling
  32. Pressed flowers
  33. Pompoms
  34. Poetry
  35. Podcast
  36. Play writing
  37. Plastination
  38. Plasticine
  39. Plaster
  40. Planting
  41. Photography
  42. Pets
  43. Perfume
  44. Patchwork
  45. Pastels
  46. Papier-mâché
  47. Paper marbling
  48. Paper cuts
  49. Paint
  50. Origami
  51. Oil paint
  52. Mosaics
  53. Mobiles (not phones)
  54. Mindfulness
  55. Millinery
  56. Metalwork
  57. Meditation
  58. Massage
  59. Marquetry
  60. Mandalas
  61. Macramé
  62. Luggage tags
  63. Lino cuts
  64. Lighting
  65. Lego
  66. Leatherwork
  67. Lavender
  68. Lapidary
  69. Lace making
  70. Knitting
  71. Kites
  72. Journaling
  73. Jewellery
  74. Ipad drawing
  75. Installation
  76. Ink
  77. Hair design
  78. Glass work
  79. Gemstone
  80. Fused glass
  81. Furniture
  82. Food
  83. Flowers
  84. Flower arranging
  85. Fish
  86. Fire
  87. Fimo
  88. Felting
  89. Feather decorating
  90. Fascinators
  91. Family
  92. Fabric painting
  93. Fabric design
  94. Fabric books
  95. Embroidery
  96. Embossing
  97. Drink
  98. Dressing up
  99. Dream catcher
  100. Dancing
  101. Cyanotype
  102. Cutting
  103. Cushion making
  104. Crochet
  105. Composition (music)
  106. Comedy
  107. Collecting
  108. Clothes making
  109. Clock making
  110. Climate
  111. Clay sculpture
  112. Charity
  113. Charcoal
  114. Cards – playing
  115. Cards – commemorating
  116. Candle making
  117. Calligraphy
  118. Cake
  119. Bread
  120. Brass rubbing
  121. Botany
  122. Board game
  123. Blog
  124. Block printing
  125. Birds
  126. Beads
  127. Batik
  128. Bath bombs
  129. Balloon sculptures
  130. Aquarium
  131. Animation
  132. Animals
  133. Acrylic paint

I feel sorry for the z’s and y’s of the world as everyone has given up by the time they have got to the end of the list!

And clearly I cannot do all of this and I am not even sure what I mean by some of them. This final video shows what I have brought with me to start off!

https://vimeo.com/375809864

I have done some research on my theme and here are 2 useful links

https://qz.com/1279371/this-physicists-ideas-of-time-will-blow-your-mind/

https://qz.com/1516804/physics-explains-why-time-passes-faster-as-you-age/

And I have been a bit of a tourist.

Early morning jaunt up to Savitri’s temple (first wife of Shiva), Pushkar for the sunrise.
from this!

Next time I can start showing what I have been making…..

Becoming Carly

So I wasn’t always Carly. In fact until a few months ago, I was Caroline. But I went on a course to get a brain transplant – note not a personality transplant as I am  happy with that aspect of me but I realised that having a nickname was something I’d always yearned for and so took one. It is a known diminutive of Caroline. Take out the o and turn the ine into a y. Then I rhyme with my kids – Harry, Toby and Betsy. Rather uncool – yes. No it is actually completely naff (do you know where that comes from – not available for f—ing) – how useful is the internet?!

So why would anyone chose to start using a nickname at my age? Well I have always wanted one. Of my siblings, only my sister (Susanne -> Sukey) had one that I gave that to her whilst she was a baby. It was from this nursery rhyme. I rather like to compare these two YouTube videos of ‘Polly put the kettle on’. Funny how YouTube knows where you are as the first one is clearly recorded in India!

I did have nicknames at school but neither Fert nor Fart are particularly nice or kind names so I dispensed with them after school.

So what did possess me to change my name at the ripe old age of 54? Well for one I told people that why not now? Actually I used much worse language to be honest. Like the final f of naff…..

Clearly having a change in marital circumstances was part of it. Also, I had been on a course that did change my life – the Bridge Retreat in Frome, Somerset. The one for the Brain Transplant I mention above. Amazing course. Everyone should do it.

On the last day of the course, I decided I was Carly going forward. But we had no access to the internet otherwise I might have chosen one of the other nicknames names listed below. Carly for sure is a known diminutive of Caroline.

It isn’t that I didn’t like Caroline. I just wanted a change.

Caroline is the female variation of the name Carolus, or Charles (which means “freeman” or “full-grown man”). The name is also interpreted to mean “Beautiful woman” in Latin, “Music” and “Strong” in Italian, “Song of Happiness” in French, and “Joy” in American English.

What I could have chosen.

Nicknames for Caroline

My comments are italicised at the end of the explanation.

  1. Caro – The most common nickname for Caroline. This is my Mum’s name for me
  2. Carol – If you think Caro is too out there or grownup, try Carol. Never did like this name – sorry to all Carols out there!
  3. Callie – Is Callie a nickname for Caroline? Seems so.
  4. Caddie – Caddie Woodlawn was named Caroline – Caddie is an old nickname for Caroline. Now this is one I think I would have like more than Carly but too late now. Can’t change it again!
  5. Cal – A shortened form of Caroline. Sounds like a boy’s name
  6. Car – Short form of Caroline. For real – a car?
  7. Cara – A sweet short nickname for Caroline. Agreed
  8. Cara Curls – For a Caroline with naturally curly hair – well I don’t!
  9. Care Bear – Perhaps, the sweetest Caroline nickname. Vomit
  10. Cari – A sweet nickname for Caroline.
  11. Carla – Another popular nickname for Caroline.
  12. Carly – A cool nickname for Caroline; iCarly made this nickname cooler.
  13. Carolien – A Dutch variant of Caroline. Hardly a nickname
  14. CaroMine – I do quite like this one too.
  15. CaroWine – A funny Caroline nickname. Suitable for a Caroline that cannot do without her bottle of wine. Yup that is me. Particularly in dry Pushkar!
  16. Carrie – Another common nickname for Caroline. I know quite of lot of them and also reminds me of Carrie’s war. One reason to choose a more unusual nickname is that there are sooooooooooooooooooooo many Carolines.
  17. Cat – Some consider this a stretch, but it is a legitimate Caroline nickname. And another one for a cat lover like me.
  18. Cathy – Another nickname considered a stretch, but it works. I disagree – it is a nickname for Catherine really.
  19. Cawol – Suitable for a baby girl named Caroline, because if she could talk, this is exactly how she’d pronounce her name. Oh dear – going to vomit again……
  20. Caz – More popular in New Zealand and Australia. And of my lovely friend Caroline M.
  21. Coco – A cute or funny Caroline nickname, it depends on your tone. And always reminds me of Coco Channel – I should be so lucky to be so famous!
  22. Cora – A less popular nickname for Caroline. And no really very nice!
  23. Leena/Lina – From caro-LINE. Yes we get it but rather silly.
  24. Lennie – A cool nickname for Caroline, culled from Liney. Always reminds me of Lenny Henry so wrong gender. Are we allowed to say that still?
  25. Line – Not a very creative nickname, is it? Or at all attractive – Line – just no….
  26. Liney/Linney/Linnie – A sweet and playful nickname adapted from the original name Caroline. Better than Line but not much
  27. Lollie – Another example of how nicknames evolve. Quite a bit to be honest!
  28. Arrow – From (c-ARROW-line) mad mad mad!
  29. Ina – A nickname for Caroline with Danish origin.
  30. Joy – From the literal meaning of the name (interpreted as Joy in American English) for a happy soul named Caroline.
  31. KaroLie – A funny nickname for Caroline, especially if she knows how to spin a lie or two.
  32. Olie – Another stretch, but it’s an adorable stretch. No it is silly stretch and I have a nephew with that name! Interesting both he and his sister have nicknames – like their mother Sukey – all my doing!!!!
  33. Roe – If you have Caro, Carrol, Line, Liney, you are bound to have “Roe” as well. Well maybe but far fetched.

Things I have done since becoming Carly.

I have learnt to make sourdough bread – I had to leave my starter and hope Sarah and Lizzy feed it well.

I learnt to make yogurt last night – so simple and yummy.

I haven’t really learnt to respond that well to my name – even when no one has called me Caroline (as in Limnisa, Greece or here in India). Leonie came running across the street and physically touched me as she had been calling me Carly several times yesterday with no response!

In London, I wore a badge most of the time. Most people thought I had lost the plot but it meant they asked me about why I was wearing a badge and they could (as could I) make the change.

Kali

A lot of people in India say my name Carly pronounced Kahrli – and it is a bit like their goddess Kali. She looks a bit scary.

I like her nose ring and her skull necklace is cool if macabre.

Kali’s earliest appearance is that of a destroyer of evil forces. Kali has been worshipped by devotional movements and tantric sects variously as the Divine Mother, Mother of the Universe, Adi Shakti, or Adi Parashakti. Shakta Hindu and Tantric sects additionally worship her as the ultimate reality.

She is also seen as the divine protector and the one who bestows liberation. Kali is often portrayed standing or dancing on her consort, the Hindu god Shiva, who lies calm and prostrate beneath her. Kali is worshipped by Hindus throughout India.

Kali’s most common four-armed iconographic image shows each hand carrying variously a sword, a trident, a severed head and a bowl or skull-cup (kapala) catching the blood of the severed head.

Gosh all a bit powerful and scary!

This video really appeals. It is about medical art and reminds me of the fascinating a exhibition I went to with Elle Wilson recently – Body Worlds in London.

A very famous Carly

Carly Simon is a wonderful singer who’s song “You’re so vain – I bet you think this song is about you” is fab.

Other famous Carly’s are the app for cars and the American teen series iCarly

Carly app

No idea what it does but am running out of things to say!

iCarly

is an American teen sitcom that ran from 2007 for 5 years staring Miranda Cosgrove and it tells the story of Carly Shay, a teenager who creates her own web show called ‘iCarly’.

Carly is in pink in the middle

This is the end of the self-indulgent Caroline becomes Carly blog post. Next up is going to be about some of the things I have been creating.

This includes yarn bombing (wrapping actually), planting bulbs and seeds and taking lots of slightly weird photos. Oh and cyanotyping if it works out!

Rituals – well more like ritualistic daily events

I have decided to ground myself by undertaking regular rituals. They aren’t rituals in the true sense and I also think some of the things I think of as rituals are actually ceremonies. There is a useful website (https://www.differencebetween.com/) which helpfully differentiates the two. “A ritual refers to group of actions performed for their symbolic value. A ceremony is performed on a special occasion.” None of my repetitive actions is really either a ritual or a ceremony but anyway here they are.

I have played the card game patience every morning. To date not one has worked out!
I also do this daily. I am still pretty slow at finding them all but it is enjoyable.
Coffee is a mandatory daily event. I have found the best places so far in Jaipur and Pushkar. Do they meet up to Cricks? Probably not but enjoyable all the same.
Clearly I am obsessed about knitting and my creative journey couldn’t really start until the 2019 mystery blanket was finished. Ta da!
Now I run in the city – mostly off road. Previously I ran with Bryn round Highgate Woods.
I write my diary daily. I have additional books to write down thoughts about what I am planning to create, what I have created and how I did it and one about animals at one end and finances at the other. In London, for the last year and a half I wrote my morning pages. This has been a bit sporadic here.
This is a ritual – it actually is one! I am going to start this. Sarah and I bought the white key rings in Neve Tzedek, Tel Aviv in April 2019 during Pesach (Passover). But as you can see the conch shells have been falling off and it is rather tatty. I found they were actually made by Anokhi in India so bought a pair of every colour imaginable. So we will change them every Pesach going forward. As we bought them in Israel and Hebrew goes from left to right we will both use the lime green one first. These keys will last till Pesach 2033. How very cool!
I do up to 10 minutes guided meditation every day. Still not very good at this! Mind wandering problem………
I was introduced to a really useful and enjoyable yoga app. I do 10 mins twice a day

I am not really very good at yoga but I do try! Here is a short story I wrote. Interesting my kids had different opinions about it. Harry enjoyed it, Toby thought is was very dull and boring and Betsy thought it was good but need to a greater climactic ending. See what you think?

Carly does yoga

Carly knows yoga will be helpful for her wellbeing at this moment in time.

Everyone knows yoga is helpful when you are going through a difficult period. Yoga teaches you to relax. Carly knows she needs to relax more. She investigates. She thinks a simpler, slow version of yoga is best and an early morning yoga class will be best of all, as she will start off the day calmly. Calm Carly. That sounds good.

Carly last did yoga when she was pregnant and that was a very long time ago. Carly thinks yoga will help her develop her inner core – that’s what people say. Carly considers her inner core for a minute.  But Carly gets bored very easily and worries that she will let her mind wander during the yoga. Also, Carly is not very bendy. In fact, the last time she sat crossed-legged was in primary school and now Carly prefers to sit like a duck with her feet sticking out to each side. How will Carly be able to get her knees below the level of her hips? She may need a mountain of rubber yoga blocks under each knee to achieve this. She is worried there won’t be enough blocks left for the other participants. She spends most of the class thinking about these people. Is anyone less bendy than Carly? She thinks probably not. She is correct. No one is less bendy than Carly. She makes a miserable face but she carries on. Carly tries all different yoga animal poses. She has to be a dog, a cow and a cat. She wonders if there are chicken, lizard or rabbit yoga poses? She tries to bring herself back to the present by concentrating on her breath. She listens to the yoga teacher who tells her to be a baby. Carly makes a sulky face as she has remembered she hates babies. That is odd as Carly is a paediatrician.

Once she has completed the animal section of the yoga, Carly does some sun salutation dance positions and repeats the sequence three times. She likes the number three. In fact, she likes all odd numbers as she feels they get a hard time compared to even ones. By nature, Carly likes to support the underdog. Even underdog numbers. Then she does some warrior positions. Carly is surprised there are war-like yoga positions. But she goes with the flow. She does warrior 1, warrior 2 and finally warrior 3 . This last one is a side angle warrior which can be extended to expose all your organs to the elements. Carly thinks of a crow pecking away at her left lung and spleen as she stretches up towards the sky.

Then Carly is instructed she needs to find a partner. Hmmmmm… she thinks. Who is the same size as her? She surveys the heights of the other yoga participants. They are all taller than her. Last night she went for a walk with Wendy after drinking a lot of wine and they farted the entire way home following the consumption of some vegetarian moussaka for dinner made with lentils. She smiles at Wendy who agrees to partner her. When she bends down, she mouths silently to Wendy to desist from farting and they both erupt in giggles. This is not very zen at all.

Carly is relieved as she can finally start the last pose. This involves resting flat on her back with her palms facing upwards in submission. It is called the corpse pose. Phew! Carly can do that well. She closes her eyes and concentrates on her breath and what she would like to eat for breakfast. She keeps her eyes shut to savour this part of the yoga class and bring her attention back to her breathing. The teacher carefully draws symmetrically around her face. Carly is overwhelmed and cries. Yoga has been good for her.

Carly does yoga.

Carly knows yoga will be helpful for her wellbeing at this moment in time.

Everyone knows yoga is helpful when you are going through a difficult period. Yoga teaches you to relax. Carly knows she needs to relax more. She investigates. She thinks a simpler, slow version of yoga is best and an early morning yoga class will be best of all, as she will start off the day calmly. Calm Carly. That sounds good.

Carly last did yoga when she was pregnant and that was a very long time ago. Carly thinks yoga will help her develop her inner core – that’s what people say. Carly considers her inner core for a minute.  But Carly gets bored very easily and worries that she will let her mind wander during the yoga. Also, Carly is not very bendy. In fact, the last time she sat crossed-legged was in primary school and now Carly prefers to sit like a duck with her feet sticking out to each side. How will Carly be able to get her knees below the level of her hips? She may need a mountain of rubber yoga blocks under each knee to achieve this. She is worried there won’t be enough blocks left for the other participants. She spends most of the class thinking about these people. Is anyone less bendy than Carly? She thinks probably not. She is correct. No one is less bendy than Carly. She makes a miserable face but she carries on. Carly tries all different yoga animal poses. She has to be a dog, a cow and a cat. She wonders if there are chicken, lizard or rabbit yoga poses? She tries to bring herself back to the present by concentrating on her breath. She listens to the yoga teacher who tells her to be a baby. Carly makes a sulky face as she has remembered she hates babies. That is odd as Carly is a paediatrician.

Once she has completed the animal section of the yoga, Carly does some sun salutation dance positions and repeats the sequence three times. She likes the number three. In fact, she likes all odd numbers as she feels they get a hard time compared to even ones. By nature, Carly likes to support the underdog. Even underdog numbers. Then she does some warrior positions. Carly is surprised there are war-like yoga positions. But she goes with the flow. She does warrior 1, warrior 2 and finally warrior 3 . This last one is a side angle warrior which can be extended to expose all your organs to the elements. Carly thinks of a crow pecking away at her left lung and spleen as she stretches up towards the sky.

Then Carly is instructed she needs to find a partner. Hmmmmm… she thinks. Who is the same size as her? She surveys the heights of the other yoga participants. They are all taller than her. Last night she went for a walk with Wendy after drinking a lot of wine and they farted the entire way home following the consumption of some vegetarian moussaka for dinner made with lentils. She smiles at Wendy who agrees to partner her. When she bends down, she mouths silently to Wendy to desist from farting and they both erupt in giggles. This is not very zen at all.

Carly is relieved as she can finally start the last pose. This involves resting flat on her back with her palms facing upwards in submission. It is called the corpse pose. Phew! Carly can do that well. She closes her eyes and concentrates on her breath and what she would like to eat for breakfast. She keeps her eyes shut to savour this part of the yoga class and bring her attention back to her breathing. The teacher carefully draws symmetrically around her face. Carly is overwhelmed and cries. Yoga has been good for her.

The end of Carly does yoga.

and the end of this blog. The next one is on Becoming Carly.

Pushkar – camels, horses and sadhus (oh and quite a lot of Israelis)

The camel festival

This happens yearly at the beginning of November. The room rents triple and unless you arrive right at the outset all the quality camels have gone. However you can still buy some beautiful stud reared horses.

When you arrive at the Mela (the festival marketplace) you can take a ride,

or inspect their finery,

or their teeth

or what about buying a beautiful stud horse?

You have everything in this picture.
A grounding mountain, a religious shrine, a fun fair, a camel and only a little bit of rubbish. India all summed up!

Always lots of bright colours.

Probably the most memorable stall was the camel welfare stall run by Camel Charisma who look after camels near Ranakpur. They were selling camel milk, soap, wool products and paper made from dung. They do a lot of conservation work as camels are dwindling in numbers. https://www.camelcharisma.com/

The camel fair meant there was a lot of noise and religious shrines belting out prayers 24/7. But I loved the feel of Pushkar so returned for a longer stay.

Next post is about rituals.

Animals – so very grounding

At home I had 2 cats and 2 dogs to look after for the last year mostly by myself with help from others – so it is odd to give them all away – either temporarily or permanently – not sure yet. So of course I looked to chat and talk to animals in India. And there is no shortage of them. Here are my thoughts about them in my first week. So as not to show favouritism I shall list them in alphabetical order.

Camels

As I have come specifically to buy one I will have a dedicated camel input once I have done my Pushkar International Camel Fair Blog. As they sell horses I will include them also!

Cats

and being stroked……
Cats doing cat things – like nothing

Cattle

In India they wander around everywhere. Many are willing to be stroked but not all of them. You often see them being walked along by women who I presume milk them as this is a very dairy culture.

Chipmunks

These are the Siberian variety and a rodent. They zip around all over the show. They seem cute as have stripy backs and furry tails. I have only seen one rat. However my all time favourite poems is about mice by Rose Fyleman

I think mice are rather nice;
Their tails are long, their faces small;
They haven’t any chins at all.
Their ears are pink, their teeth are white,
They run about the house at night;
They nibble things they shouldn’t touch,
and, no one seems to like them much,
but, I think mice are rather nice.

Dogs

This is Pipo – an German Shepherd/street dog puppy at the Mosaic’s Guesthouse. Loved my trainers. Total sweety. And lots of other dogs to stroke for the brave. If they sniff me, I stroke them. Not the very mangy ones. But the normal ones with nice coats.

Elephants

They are returning from taking visitors up to Amber Fort. This one is highly decorated and the one below has a man on a scooter driving around them! Seems some local charities have been involved in the past in ensuring none of their drivers use metal sticks any more and provide veterinary care. But I wouldn’t ride one…..

Goats

This goat keeps trying to take food and goods from vendors outside Amber Fort.

Monkeys

Ubiquitous and very naughty. This one is eating a marigold holy necklace and one came into my room to see what he fancied taking. But I was having none of that and showed him the door PDQ.

Pigs

Quite a lot of pigs wandering around eating rubbish. Here is a family in Pushkar. Opposite the cafe run by Manish – where you can actually get a decent cappuccino!

over and out from Carly and a few animals…..

So my sabbatical has finally started!

After 4 years of planning and NHS sign-off, I have finally set off on my big adventure. The house is sold and when my neighbours asked where I was moving to I just said India. It is really freeing having no fixed abode. But scary too!

I arrived in Delhi to have my first coffee and as I had a few hours spare I went to Qatab Minar. I ate loads of street food but my overwhelming sensation was the overwhelming smog. Totally ghastly….I had been warned but since when was I going to listen?

A few hours after landing at Qutab Minar

I am very committed to setting up in one or two places with all my stuff to explore my sabbatical theme – how time goes faster as you get older. And a polluted city is not a draw for me.

Ice-cream style cupola of the Hawa Mahal – Palace of the Winds, Jaipur

So off I went to Jaipur. My phone app said it was still polluted here. Lots of photo opportunities both inside the Palace of the Winds (Hawa Mahal) and outside….

Teachers visiting
In a family shot.

Dresses of all sizes
Man in a wedding shop tying on a wedding outfit.
A rather cheesy smile in a special palace

Initially I stayed near the old city and it was very pink but the sun was indistinct too so I moved further out.

So besides a little pollution as possible and a bit of quiet – hard in India when the lorries actually have ‘sound horn’ plastered by their rear number plate I was excited to have arrived at the Mosaics Guesthouse near Amber Fort. We have climbed up a high Hindu shrine (see me looking pensive on a broomstick) and seen the Amber Fort Sound and Light Show. But this lovely place with a mosaic workshop and totally lovely staff is backed by a wedding venue place that plays loud music throughout the night. So time to move on.

Later on I am on the move to Pushkar for the world famous camel fair. I always said I would buy one to whizz around in India. Well maybe I will……

Next post on animals

Another post on why purple is important

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people’s gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practise a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

by Jenny Joseph

So purple is going to be my colour for this sabbatical. Here are all the names for purple

Amethyst

Aubergine

Blackberry

Blackcurrant

Blueberry

Burgundy

Dawn

Haze

Heather

Heliotrope

Indigo

Lavender

Lilac

Loganberry

Magenta

Maroon

Mauve

Mist

Periwinkle

Plum

Pomegranate

Purple

Tayberry

Violet

Wine

Can you think of any more purple colours?

I was asked to make something in purple. Then I got carried away and made loads of them. Purple challah covers. They are to protect the bread from being sad when you bless the wine at the start of Shabbat meals.

purple Shetland wool week hat
purple candlesticks
Challah cover i
challah cover ii
Hitchin Lavender Farm with Tracy

So here are some initial thoughts on purple

This is a getting started and on with the case blog

I am just gearing myself up to going on my sabbatical to India. But I want to make sure I can do this technical stuff. So here is a picture of me at an Adolescent Conference in sunny Ascot mid Sept 2019. I am not presenting and enjoying the presentations and doing my knitting! bliss……

enjoying the sun outside the conference…..

Does time actually go faster as you get older? It is all about perception. What a fun thing to explore in a sabbatical. Watch this space.