Local architecture

 Modern, Western-style apartments (where I stayed the first 3 weeks):

Apartments and hotels crowded on a hillside slope near Library Bazaar:

One of the earlier British built houses in Landaur, this one built in the 1830s .. later occupied by Presbyterian missionaries .. now refurbished inside and home to three different Woodstock staff families:

Near the Everest House there are some stone houses of goat-herders and farmers built in a more traditional way. Note the plastic sheeting used on the roof.

This one had a stone barn for goats, but a newer stone & plaster house with a metal roof.

A very traditional mountain house (photo taken Oct. 2012). The lower level is for the animals, the upper level is where the family lives (and benefits from warmth coming up from the animal stalls). This house still has the traditional slate roof.

Archives 2

My 2013 stint working in the Archives of Woodstock School is coming near its end.  Some very able volunteers have been and will be working very hard to help me get things in order - Cate, Lauranne, Lori, Max, Sue & Ron.

Our big accomplishments have been to get everything OUT of the Archives room that didn't belong there, to sort through some of the many piles of miscellaneous folders, and to get some of the material re-inventoried.  There is now Log Book for those using the Archives, as well as somewhat up-to-date Finding Aids, both housed in a neat little 'pocket' outside the door of the Archives room

Still there is much to do, so I will likely plan another trip sometime in 2014.

Woodstock School setting

A couple of weeks ago, when it was clear, I got some good photos of the school and its environs - taken, I think, from lower Tehri Road.
The whole campus:

The mail school and classroom buildings:

Midlands, Alter Ridge, and Ridgewood dorms with Witches' Hill in the background:

The Eyebrow

I am quite proud of myself!  Yesterday afternoon, in need of a walk, I thought I would check out the start of the Eyebrow above Upper Woodstock.  The last several times I have been in Landaur I have been afraid to try to walk it as it is very narrow and one section is along very vertical cliffs!  But I made it along the whole path .. helped in part by fencing that is along the outside of the path. I really feel this accomplishment is testament to my healing from the stress of 2004-2012.

No pictures, alas .. but FYO the path is about 2 1/2 feet wide and goes about 1 1/2 kilometers in length from just above Woodstock out to the Oakville Estate.  The path is about halfway between Tehri Road and the Chukkar at the top of the hill. The sides are very steep in some places.  As I child we would take it often, and I thought nothing of the narrowness of the path nor the steepness of its sides.  Just below the Eyebrow near Upper Woodstock were some big rocks we called "Sliding Rocks" where the Upper Woodstock kids would play for hours.  When I last found that in 1974 I was shocked by the steepness of the down khud & wondered how our parents ever let us play there!

Cold weather!

The temperatures here are dropping into their winter pattern. I woke at 3 AM on Monday feeling freezing cold (this despite a thick fleece blanket and a heavy cotton 'razai') covering me.  There are no thermometers around, so I can't tell you what the temperature was, but I would guess in the 50s F.  When there is no central heating in rooms with 2 1/2 feet thick stone walls and high ceilings, even the low 60s can seem very cold.  I am very grateful for the little heater that is provided in the guest room .. it does take the chill off!

Jantar Mantar - Delhi

This post is totally out of order .. I haven't suddenly transported myself back to Delhi!  We did walk the few blocks to the Jantar Mantar from the YWCA Guest House where we were staying. It was a beautiful day and we got some great pictures. We also had a knowledgeable guide, though I missed having Tom with me to explain more of the physics of it all!

Food

While we were staying at the Church View Flat we did our own cooking for breakfast and dinner.  The water filter did not get hooked up until a couple of days before we moved out, so until then we had to buy bottles of drinking water from the Library Bazaar.

For breakfast we would have German Meuslix bought from Prakash's store or spinach, eggs and toast cooked by CW, and always some fruit.

For dinner we would have vegetables cooked by CW, or left-over take out from a dinner out, along with chapatiis cooked by the Chowkidar's wife, and more fruit.

A favorite place to eat out is the Rice Bowl (above the entrance to Hamer's area), which features Tibetan and Chinese food.

 

We even enjoyed an evening glass of wine produced here in India:

Now staying at the School I have my meals in the dining room.  Since last year a salad bar has been added .. and one can even have lettuce (in limited quantities)!

Langurs

Last fall when I was here I said I would post pictures of langurs, but never did. In my last post there is a picture of langurs in the moonlight. Here is a shot of a troop we saw near Prakash's at the top of the hill.

 Last evening on a walk to JabarKhet I got a good look at this fellow!

Guest Suite II

On Thursday I moved from the Church View flat in Library Bazaar to a guest suite at the School .. the same room in which I stayed last October. The suite is much the same, although the bathroom has been updated and is very nice!  If I go on about bathrooms a bit too much, it is because I know how dreadful they were when I lived here as a child!

New tiling on the walls and floors:

And a new dual-flush toilet!

Schoolmates

This post is for my schoolmates ...
Last Sunday for Parent-Teacher conferences and Worldwide Woodstock Day, the QUAD was decorated with class flags from across the years.

Our class has quite a presence this fall .. Marg teaching here; Max and Sally in September; Dale, Lauranne, and I overlapping in October; Sue & Ron coming in November!

Evening skies

I may have mentioned that Mussoorie has been having unusual October weather so far ... a day may start out sunny but clouds roll in and cover the hills.  I still have not seen the full range of snows.  But the evenings are beautiful and the Winter Line is now prominent in the sky. It is hard to get a shot without power lines!

Lungurs and the Winter Line -

My favorite evening shot -

Sunset from the School - 

Walking

Church View flat where we have been staying is about 3 or 4 miles from the school.  We have been taking a taxi to school in the morning, and then walking all or part of the way back at the end of the day.  If we walk the whole way it takes a couple of hours because we stop and chat with Faiz (son of the Faiz of our day), buy some Kashmiri handicrafts from Habibullah, poke around and buy yet another book at Cambridge Book Store, and then get food for breakfast and dinner at the little stores in Library Bazaar.

These last two weeks we have been averaging well over 12,000 steps per day (CW and I each have pedometers).  I managed 17,000 the day MG and I walked back from Everest House.  Even Saturday just poking around in Kulri Bazaar gave us close to 15,000!

Later this week I will be moving to a guest room at the school, so likely will not be walking nearly as much!

Environmental misc. 1

There is a lot of plastic litter around Landaur and Mussoorie, though  perhaps not quite as much as when I came in 1997.  Plastic bags have been banned, though they are still used by the sabzi (vegetable) and phul (fruit) walas. Provision and clothing shops generally use cloth bags.

There is trash pick up of sorts, and one does see the big trash bins carried off to be dumped somewhere.  The one near our house was 'emptied' by burning the contents.

There is also some attempt to discourage public toileting .. and there are two of these decent facilities on Camel's Back road.

Kulri Bazaar

On Saturday we spent about four hours exploring Kulri Bazaar, and stopping to chat with old friends in Hamer's, Chic Chocolates, the Kashmiri shop, etc.; then tea with CW's friend Winky at his guest house.

Hamer's: 

Domino's Pizza where Kwality's used to be.

Cambridge Book Shop:

Some shots near the main Mussoorie Post Office:

Winter Line

The weather seems to have gone directly from Monsoons to Winter.  Yesterday the temperature dropped and we are really making use of the little electric heaters in the Church View flat.

Last Friday on the way down Mullingar from Char Dukan, near Doma's Inn we got a great view of langurs and the Winter Line!

Everest House

On Wednesday I took a day off along with friend MG who is teaching at Woodstock.  We took a taxi out to the Everest House, and then walked the 5 or 6 miles back to Library Bazaar area.

The Everest House was the house of Colonel Sir George Everest, who was the Surveyor General of India, and whose name was given to the highest peak in the Himalayas, Mount Everest.  The house is in great need of protection and restoration, and a good team of volunteers needs to clean up all of the trash around the grounds.

There was a lot of mist blowing up from the Doon, but we got a glimpse of a snow peak and of Benog Tibba. There are hundreds of strings of prayer flags on the top of the Park Estate hill, all fluttering in the breeze from the south.

The walk back to Library Bazaar was quite pleasant.  We were accompanied almost half the way by two friendly dogs.

We stopped about half way and had chai and fresh alu parathas .. the perfect restoration for a hike!