Chapter 11 - Continuing On...

Last week we celebrated. My very clever husband finally finished the technical drawings, material and construction details and submitted them to Building Control. It’s amazing what A level Technical Drawing, a year working for English Heritage and You Tube can do to help a chap along.

 We now have to wait up to 6 weeks to hear from them, but, in the meantime we have dug holes and trenches, installed the waste pipe and connected it to the main drain, had a huge cable installed for the electricity supply for the entire building and can finally attend to the roof in the shop , which has caused so much damp and leaks over the winter. So, we are progressing.

'A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.' Chapter 14 of the Dao De Jing ascribed to the Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu. Love those wise and encouraging words.

Meanwhile, away from all the dust and damp, I have continued on with my quest to find any Indian connection that is linked to the area. I think I peaked with the Maharaja of Cooch Bahar but I am sure I will tweak out a few other gems. For example, just down the road, well actually a few miles away, is the delightful National Trust property formally owned by Rudyard Kipling.

Bateman’s is a 17th-century house located in Burwash, East Sussex. It was the home of Rudyard Kipling from 1902 until his death in 1936. The house, a Grade 1 listed building, was built in 1634. Kipling’s widow Caroline bequeathed the house to the National Trust on her death in 1939. He loved the house and its tranquility and spent time and money collecting period furniture and decorations that were appropriate for a wonderful Jacobean pile.

Surprisingly, there is not a great deal of reference to his childhood and early life in India. It is a lovely, friendly, cosy family house surrounded by beautiful gardens and countryside. I had a very enjoyable visit, and, it was sunny.

Just so!

At last, the fruits of my labour while I was away in India, have started to arrive. I have added to the Jaadu jewellery collection with some stunning new pieces, now available on the website.

Very thrilling though, is the newest partner I tracked down in Jaipur. I love hand made paper, it has such a dense, soft quality and is an age old craft. First introduced by the Moghuls, it is a very physical process, using pieces of rag, hemp, or any other textile, making it into pulp and then rolling it out and compressing it to make sheets of paper. Aanchal and Anshal, who are artists, have linked up with nearby villages to form a social enterprise project making delightful hand made paper honeycomb decorations and I am going to sell them.

A lovely selection of Christmas baubles, featured on the Jaadu website in a few weeks time. Every self respecting Christmas tree should be adorned with them this year!