The Distancing Diaries - 23rd & 24th April, 2021

 The sun streaming through the curtains woke me up early on Friday. I put the tea towels on a boil wash, filled the utility room sink with houseplants to give them a good drink and booked next week's National Trust adventure. After my Wii Fit workout, I put the upstairs houseplants in the bath, caught up with blog comments and wrapped my latest eBay sales before joining Jon in the kitchen for breakfast. Jon did the supermarket & post office run while I pegged out the washing on the line and sat in the sunshine embroidering a few more craftivism banners.

Jon returned and we sat outside enjoying an alfresco coffee. Our friend Erica and her daughter, Freya, were passing on their daily walk around the block and popped by for a chat. 

We first met Freya at the End of the Road in 2012 when she was a little girl and the epitome of festival chic. Now she's about to sit her GCSEs and study Animal Management at agricultural college. Where does the time go?

After our noodles, I walked into town for my long-awaited hairdressing appointment. I'd had a phone call earlier in the week to tell me that my regular stylist had left the company and that my booking had been switched to the style director, Reece, for no additional cost. I've seen him before and was more than happy.

In fact, the last time he cut my hair was a week before we visited the Taj Mahal back in January 2019. That's also the last time I dyed the length of my hair, I've only retouched the roots since then (and switched to chocolate brown as opposed to black.)

Thankfully I made it back home without any hassle from feral men, possibly as the time I walked home coincided with school chucking-out time and the only blokes out were collecting their offspring from school and therefore on their best behaviour!

I spent the rest of the afternoon reading my trashy - but gripping - thriller in the sunshine and marvelling at our stunning tulips that had finally graced us with their presence. 

Tea was a cheese salad with garlic bread accompanied by a beer. Later we drank rum, watched Waking The Dead and Gardener's World.

After a fitful night's sleep interrupted by the supernatural screams of randy foxes, Jon got up first, made tea and brought it back to bed where we read until 8.30am. I stripped & changed the bed, scrubbed tea stains from the bedside cabinets, loaded the washing machine & joined Jon in the kitchen for sausage sandwiches.

After breakfast, I pegged out the washing, got dressed and headed outside for a full-on day of gardening. Whilst my mission was to repot an aloe vera, move another fern and continue with the garden shredding, Jon's was to empty and demolish this rotten shed (by the way, that's the second of our compost bins, I'll move it next to the other one when we've used the contents). 

A visit from our friend Kev was a welcome distraction as was seeing Erica, Freya and the menfolk of the family again. After a break for noodles, we continued with our tasks and after 4 hours of shredding, I'd  reduced the garden waste pile by 75%.

Jon distributed the contents of the shed into another of our sheds and recycled the old shed into a store for our leaves. By the autumn we should have a good supply of leaf mould.

We rewarded ourselves with an hour in the sun accompanied by an ice-cold beer. Tea was pizza with jacket wedges.

I've discovered so many many more amazing ancestors in Lord Jon's family tree but let's start with his 13x saintly great-grandfather, Blessed Adrian's family, shall we?

He was married twice, first to Anne (1484 - 1518), the daughter of Sir William Stonor. She inherited Stonor Castle in Oxfordshire (above) upon his death. Adrian & Anne had two children, their firstborn being Margaret (1502 - 1551) who was Jon's 12 x great-grandmother. She married Sir Thomas Wentworth, the First Baron Wentworth who was Jane Seymour's cousin. His mother was the daughter of Sir James Tyrell, the supposed murderer of the Princes in the Tower. He and Margaret had eight sons and nine daughters. Sir Thomas was Lord Chamberlain to Edward VI and is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Lady Frances (1504 - 1529), Adrian's other daughter, married Thomas Fitzgerald, 10th Earl of Kildare. 

He was appointed deputy governor of Ireland. Hearing rumours that his father, the 9th Earl, had been imprisoned and executed in The Tower of London, 21-year-old Thomas feared the same fate and organised the Kildare Rebellion (1535- 1535) against his cousin, Henry VIII. Following the failure of the uprising Thomas surrendered to the King and was hanged at Tyburn.

After the death of his first wife, Blessed Adrian married Anne Rede/Reid, daughter of Sir William Rede/Reid of Boarstall, Buckinghamshire and widow of Sir Giles Greville. They went on to have three sons and two daughters. Sir Thomas Fortescue was the MP for Wallingford, Anthony Fortescue attempted to overthrow Elizabeth I and was imprisoned in the Tower of London and  Sir John Fortescue of Saldon (1531 - 1607) became the seventh Chancellor of the Exchequer serving from 1589 until 1603 (portrait below).

Adrian's daughter, Elizabeth married Sir Thomas Bromley, the Lord Chancellor, who presided over the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Daughter Mary's son was the explorer, Sir Thomas Cavendish (1560 - 1592), the first to emulate Sir Francis Drake, raid the Spanish towns and return by circumnavigating the globe. He became rich by captured Spanish gold, silk and treasure from the Pacific and the Philippines. He was knighted by Elizabeth I and died at sea at the age of 31. American novelist, Jan Westcott's Captain for Elizabeth, follows the events of his first circumnavigation.

Ann Rede survived Blessed Adrian and went on to marry Sir Thomas Parry, Comptroller of Queen Elizabeth's household. She was granted the manor of Great Washbourne in The Cotswolds in 1557.

I've now managed to trace Lord Jon's family back to 850AD - more to follow.

I'm off to drink rum and watch TV. Jon's promised me a trip to the charity shop & Wilko in the morning. We know how to live!

The Palace in the Sky - Amber Fort, Jaipur

I spotted this dress on eBay last week, it wasn't listed as vintage and was described as "Abigail's Party, perfect for a fancy dress party". I was the only bidder and won it for a song. Now I'm a big fan of Mike Leigh and loved Abigail's Party (link HERE) but fail to see any resemblance between this early '70s embroidered crepe maxi and Beverley's tiered polyester confection. As for fancy dress party, I wore it with my lavender Docs this morning for a trip to the DIY superstore. In my world every day is a fancy dress party.

I don't know about Easy like Sunday Morning, round here it's more like Freezy like Sunday Morning, it's positively Baltic out there today. We've lit a fire and abandoned all intentions of doing anything outside. I've been scrolling through our India photos, trying to recall the delicious 20°C winter warmth of Rajasthan just over eight weeks ago and realised I'd omitted to write about our trip to Amber Fort.

Better sort that out.

On the crest of a rocky hill seven miles north of Jaipur, Amber (often written as Amer) was the capital of the Kachchwaha Rajput clan from 1037 until 1727 when Jai Singh established his new city at Jaipur. Although Amber's buildings aren't as spectacular as those at Jaipur, the setting - perched high on a narrow rocky ridge above the surrounding countryside and fortified by natural hills and high ramparts - it is unforgettably dramatic.

It's a steep climb up from Amber town and you'll run the gauntlet of hawkers, beggars and itinerant musicians along the way. It is possible to visit the fortress on elephant-back but animal welfare groups have criticised the keeping of elephants at Amber (there's posters imploring tourists not to take elephant rides throughout Jaipur) because of reports of abuse and because of the carrying passengers can cause lasting injuries to the animals.

You'll enter through Sutaj Pole (the Sun Gate) which leads into the large Jaleb Chowk courtyard at the entrance to the main palace complex. 

Jaleb Chowk courtyard

A steep flight of steps ascends to Singh Pole (Lion Gate), the entrance to the main palace. The architectural style is distinctly Rajput but, from the mirrored mosaics covering the walls, it's pretty clear that there was a strong Moghul influence.

Singh Pole leads to the first of the palace's main courtyards, on the far side of which is the open-sided pavilion known as Diwan-i-Am (Hall of Public Attendance), constructed in 1639. 

Diwan-i-Am

Opposite, the exquisitely painted Ganesh Pole marks the entrance to a second courtyard, its right side filled with a miniature fountain-studded garden, behind which lie the rooms of Sukh Mahal. The marble rooms here were once cooled by water channeled through small conduits carved into the walls, an early and ingenious system of air conditioning. 

Ganesh Pole

Sukh Mahal

On the opposite side of the courtyard the Sheesh Mahal contains what were the Maharajah and his queen's private chambers, the walls and ceilings are decorated with intricate mosaics fashioned out of shards of mirror and coloured glass. Beyond the Sheesh Mahal, on the far side of the courtyard, a narrow stairwell winds up to the small Jas Mahal, decorated with similar mosaics and guarded from the sun by delicately carved marble screens.  

Sheesh Mahal

Sheesh Mahal

Sheesh Mahal

From the rear of the Sheesh Mahal courtyard, a narrow corridor transports you into another courtyard and the heart of the Palace of Man Singh I, the oldest part of the palace complex. The buildings here are plain and austere compared to the later structures, although they would have originally been richly decorated and furnished.

Maharajah Man Singh I (1550 - 1614) SOURCE

Within the Palace of Man Singh I

Below the palace, the atmospheric but little visited Amber town, is full of remnants of Kachchwaha rule as well as home to the Anokhi Museum of Hand Printing (which I wrote about HERE).

Amber Fort: 

Admission fee Rs.550 for Foreign Tourists & Rs.100 for Indians

Timings: 10 AM - 5 PM (Daily)

Getting there: A cycle rickshaw takes around 40 minutes and costs Rs.400 (around £4) from Jaipur city. 

 I can feel the sun on my skin again (or is that the heat from the log fire?)  

See you soon!

Huggin' Up The Big Monkey Man - Galta Ji Temple

Like many other travelers, Jon and I can tell you a few stories about our dodgy past experiences with monkeys. However, we never learn. We'd heard about an ancient temple, now home to some five thousand macaque monkeys, and decided that we needed to see it for ourselves.

Nestled in a steep-sided valley 10 km from Jaipur, Galta Ji has been a popular pilgrimage for Hindus since the 15th Century. 

Our tuk tuk dropped us off at an unprepossessing fly-blown, litter strewn patch of ground and within minutes we were surrounded with touts offering to save us the hour-long hike ahead by taking us on the back of their dirt bikes or to accompany us on our walk,  I'm Monkeyman, monkeys steal your sunglasses, break your phones, very bad. Monkeys not hurt you if they see you with Monkeyman. Tourists were thin on the ground and they're only trying to make a living so we declined politely and started our ascent.

 Our first stop of the journey was a 200 metre hike up to Surya Mandir,  the Temple of the Sun God, where we were anointed with oils, had tilak marks daubed on our foreheads, scarlet thread knotted around our wrists and ate prasad with the priestess who lived within the temple grounds. I'm sure our donation towards the upkeep of the temple made the sun god equally generous, I reckon it explains the record-breaking, unseasonably warm weather and glorious sunshine the UK has been experiencing since we got home!

Sun God appeased, we carried on with our journey, stopping to chat to this charming sadhu along the way. We loved his twinkly eyes and radiant smile and were thrilled to finally meet an Indian who didn't ask us about Brexit!

If you've been following our travels no doubt you'll be familiar with my wardrobe by now so here's a new maxi dress to add to the three I took to India with me - my other purchase from Anokhi. There's one currently on Etsy for £200 - needless to say, I didn't pay that much!

Squeezed between cliffs in a rocky valley, Galta is a desolate, if evocative place. We'd been walking for about forty-five minutes without seeing another soul or glimpsing anything that resembled a temple and were starting to think the smiling sadhu had pointed us in the wrong direction .....

But no, smiley man was to be trusted. We'd arrived at Galta Ji.

What is it that Diana Vreeland said? Pink is the navy blue of India. She wasn't wrong. The sight of those colourfully-clad pilgrims performing their ritual ablutions was unforgettable.

You'll find a picturesque collection of 250 year-old temples squeezed into a narrow rocky ravine. Galta Ji owes its sacred status in large part to a freshwater spring that seeps constantly through the rocks in the otherwise dry valley. From here the water flows into tanks, the depth of which is claimed to be several elephants deep.

In a chamber at the end of the bottom pool you'll find 250 year old frescoes, still in reasonable condition, depicting the maharajah playing polo. the exploits of Krishna and his milkmaids.

We visited a shrine dedicated to Hanuman (the monkey god) where the priest tied more scared thread around our wrists, beat us with peacock feathers and chanted a mantra. We were a bit concerned when he bolted the doors behind us - until we heard banging on the roof and the windows rattling - the doors were locked to keep the monkeys out. Is nothing scared?!

After we left the inner sanctum of the temple and sat on a bench so we could put on our shoes Jon started shrieking, What the f*ck!!! Get it off, get it off! I looked up to see a bastard massive monkey sitting astride his shoulders, massaging his ears. Luckily the priest was on hand to distract the wayward monkey away with a boiled sweet. With monkeys perched on walls and trees throughout the duration of our hour-long hike back up the hill, poor Jon was a quivering wreck.

But they're cute really, aren't they?

During our tour of the Golden Triangle we also visited Amber Fort, built in 1592 (photos HERE), Jaipur's Albert Hall Museum, opened by the Prince of Wales in 1876 (photos HERE) and Amrapali, an absolutely incredible museum of tribal jewellery which sadly didn't permit photos but you can read all about it HERE.

See you soon for our final Indian adventure!

Linking to Patti and the gang for Visible Monday.