Four years ago, I spent six weeks working as I volunteer teacher trainer in the Solokhumbu region of Nepal. The Solokumbu region is where Mount Everest is, although the villages that I worked in were much lower in the valley. I did see Everest as a tiny peak in the distance on one hike I did during my time there, but we were pretty far away. As a result, the remote mountain villages that I worked in didn't see the tourist traffic that villages higher up in the valley would see. Tourists bring the potential to earn money through tea houses and sherpa services. The lack of tourists and the remoteness of the villages meant provided additional challenges to the people who lived there. The Himalayan Trust is the charity set up by Sir Edmund Hillary to support the people of the Solokhumbu with building schools, training teachers and providing clean drinking water. During his time in Nepal, Hillary formed a close connection with the people living in the villages he visited as he...
As many of you already know, I love making things, particularly involving fibre (a.k.a. fabric and wool). One of my goals for this year is to expand my skill set in this area by taking up as many learning opportunities as I can. When I saw rekindle was advertising a class on using natural dyes, I knew I was interested. Over the course of the class, we experimented with the different dyes, both on their own and mixed with each other. Of all the colours, my favourite was the colour made with avocado stones, which is, rather surprisingly, a lovely, soft pink. We also wrote out the recipes for each of the dyes, as well as some others we didn't have in front of us. It was really interesting to learn about Ari, the teacher's, philosophy around dying. To find the plant matter to make the dyes, she forages what has been left on the ground, leaving the living matter for the plant to continue to use. I am often in awe of nature, but I found it particularly interesting that only...