Going Down Day

It is always hard to leave Landaur & Mussoorie, which I must do this afternoon.  Each time I come I realize how strong my emotional connection is to this place - not to the School (and certainly not a strong nostalgia for my school days) - but to the hills and environment of the lower Himalayas.

This is the one place in the world, other than with my siblings or other alumni, where there are people who knew me as a child and who remember my parents. This is the one place in the world that is imprinted in my heart - the very rocks on the path and the ferns on the hillside welcome me home.

More on June floods

This summer I posted about the devastating flooding in the valleys of the Garhwal Himalayas in June. The biggest damage in our immediate area was to the Aglar River valley .. water carrying boulders swept through the valley and destroyed the farming terraces along the river and destroyed small canals which brought water to some of the villages.

Today Woodstock issued an update on some of the aid being supplied to villagers in the Thatyur area along the Aglar.

There was also a 'jumble sale' sponsored by all of the Christian churches of Mussoorie and held at St. Paul's Church in Landaur. There was quite a crowd there when I stopped by.

The Snows!

The snows were out this morning in all their glory ... I took a slow walk around the back chakkar to drink in their presence & to commune with the deodar and rhododendron trees.

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!