First Nepal post for 2012

This post will be interspersed with photos of the wonderful banners that are so often a highlight of WOMAD.  As you can see from the photos, the weather was glorious and the blue sky really set the banners off. And it is a little mind blowing that merely two days ago I was enjoying the music and banners at WOMAD and this morning I enjoyed my first dal bhat breakfast for the year.  At Sonrisa, we all have a mug of steaming boiled milk to kick start the day.  The children go off to dance class at 6.30.  That is not a typo. They go to dance classes at 6.30 am and come back happy and hungry and ready for first dal baht.The rice we ate was all grown here and the next crop will be planted soon.  Sonrisa is currently growing carrots, coriander, cabbage, broccoli, chillis and tomatoes.  Not entirely self- sufficient but getting there!  The 49 chickens are not laying yet but will be in a few months apparently.  And the three dogs play a significant role.  Well one does.We had a great night last night making up the animal puzzles from the closing down Australiana shop in Rundle Mall.  THEY WERE A MASSIVE HIT!!!  The older boys liked the red back spiders particularly.  They were trickier to assemble.  It is cute watching them all enjoy the freshly installed mirrors.  Much posturing and posing!  Today I head into town to get some supplies for Samunnat.  Much to our great relief (even if I did carry many kgs of polymer over with me just in case) one of our big clay orders from US arrived more or less as I did!!!  The supplies  I am getting today are all the findings we use and as we have been unable to make a lot due to stock shortages, we will be working hard now!  So I hope I can post a few times from Nepal.  Would love to hear from you!  Not sure how easily I will be able to reply individually but I will endeavour to keep up to date here.  Photos take a decade to upload so they will be light on but we'll be grateful for small mercies.