Wonky and rustic but hugely practical

Large bike basket designed to take the compost bucket and allotment vegetables was made last weekend at a willow weaving workshop - such fun and a great bunch of women doing it with me.  However the news about Nepal arrived all too soon and I've been in touch with some of my friends but not all of them yet.   A Buddhist Russian friend who lives in Delhi has sent the start of her account of survival for she was on the Tibet/Nepal border trekking to an isolated monastery - when the earthquake started she was within 20 kilometers of the epicenter.  Ive been talking with her on Skype - she says there has been insufficient aid so far -  too much concentration on foreigners on Everest and Kathmandu has meant some of the outlying villages are still not getting any help.  It will be imperative for safe building to start asap for there are only 5 months before winter sets in again.

If you have time here is the start of her story which she emailed me:
(English is her third language)
on the plane back to delhi i started writing my account of what have happend. I didnt finish yet and you are the first one to read it. I need to write everything because i feel like a soldier who came from the war - I cant think about anything else and i cant talk about it to the people who havent been there. 


 On 24 April two friends and me went for trekking to Nepal Tsum Valley in Manaslu area. Tsum is one of 8 Buddhist Secret Valleys. It conceded to be a very special pilgrimage place and I wanted to go there for a long time. It takes about 7 hours drive and 5-6 days walk to reach Tsum valley from Ktm by land. We were lucky to be dropped by the helicopter to a tiny village of Philim -  one day walk from Tsum. Flying there we circled Manaslu admiring the mass of snow on the slopes. Our guide Samir commented that it's unusual amount and it's difficult to cross the pass, also it's a danger of avalanches. We spend a night in the tents above Philim and started walking early next morning. The narrow trail was crowded with trekkers and caravans of mules headed for Larkhe Pass of Manaslu circuit. We waked along it for about 2 hours. Then before the hanging bridge the path split into two — one toward Larkhe La, another toward Tsum Valley.  From that point we were alone on the narrow path.  After about an hour of gentle climb we stopped for a short break in a tea shop of Lokpa village. The whole village was about 10 houses and 2 newly build guesthouses. It started raining while we were sipping our tea and we were tempted to holt but then decided to continue. Rain soon stopped, we entered the valley through a formal gate. The scenery was amazing - lots of trees, bamboos and rhododendrons covered with pink flowers against a blue sky and mountains all around. Sun was shining but the breeze from the mountains was cool so it was not hot. I felt deeply happy and alive and whole. Nowhere else I have this feeling. I think it's one of the main reasons why I'm addicted to the mountains.

We hardly walked for about 2 km inside the valley when earthquake happened.  We were very very very lucky and blessed that we decided to have an early lunch because we spotted a nice place next to the river. We sat near the water joking and unpacking lunch boxes when suddenly everything became very still and silent. Only sound of water continued and a strange sound like 10 heavy planes taking off spread from everywhere and nowhere. Then the earth started shaking so violently we could hardly stand. But even then I couldn't believe that it was an earthquake and by some reason I was not scared. I'm writing this on the plane to Delhi. May be I'll come home and crack down and will start crying. From the very beginning to the end I felt protected and sure nothing bad could happen to us but we all did have a very narrow escape. If we would not stop for lunch or were a little bit late to reach our lunch spot we would have been on the path with no where to hide from the stones, broken trees and rocks. As earthquake continued we run across the river to a small island covered with trees, bushes and nettles and got a shelter behind a big tree. Later we discovered that we all were badly stung by nettles but that time nobody noticed it. Tremors were very long up to 55 sec and they came again and again. We could hardly see anything around because of the dust from fallen rocks. Our local guide former monk from Mustang Chime and one of my friends were so scared they hugged each other and the tree and couldn't stop shaking and reciting one Buddhist prayers another - Christian ones. Our Nepali friends Bhupen and Samir were very calm alert and protective. Samir literally tried to shelter us with his body from fallen stones. One small stone hit his back. Fortunately he had his camera bag pack on. That stone was like a bullet — it broke through all protective layers and smashed his camera lens. For about an hour we stayed on that island. I phoned through satellite to my son who told us that earthquake magnitude was 7,9 and we were about 20 km from the epicenter. Suddenly another tremor came. It was not as strong as the first one but it seemed it done even more damage. Much more rocks and stones were falling all around us. We got concerned about both fire and water. Fire - because we could see multiple sparks flying around when rocks hit each other and water because the river was getting blocked with huge rocks and bolsters and I thought that it might flood our refuge island. After some time we decided to try to get back to Lokpa village. The path we came was damaged so badly that instead of 20 min it took us more then 2 hours to come down crawling under the broken trees and climbing over fallen rocks. In Lokpa we met some locals and an American couple Jennifer and Andy. It was a total chaos with some of the people crying, some trying to pull out belongings from damaged houses, others sitting silently with frozen faces, others gathering in small groups exchanging experiences. Frightened animals were running everywhere around. We were told that the road to Philim was destroyed by the landslides and the whole caravan of 11 mules went down with it. The owner of the mules was sitting in the dust. His face was covered with blood and he was sobbing continuously. He almost lost his life and he did loose all his livelihood. The next few hours people kept poring in with some more stories — another caravan lost half of the animals... one more caravan's mules got stuck under a big rock badly injured and the owner was running from one person to another crying Help me to kill them! But nobody dared to approach poor animals out of fear of falling stones and they kept screaming and screaming. Surpassingly only two houses in the village were partly damaged. It gave us a hope — may be in spite of looking so clumsy and unsteady these houses are really strong and earthquake resistant? May be people here knew how to build? Our hopes were sharted at night when a few foreigners — a Spanish couple ... and Chinese American girl Sandy walked in almost falling with exertion. They managed to walk along the destroyed path all the way from Sardi -  the first out of  20 Tsum Valley villages. They saw how the village of about 60 houses was wiped out till the last house. Unbelievably fortunate was that nobody died and only few people sustained a small injuries. They heard that the next village was also completely flattened out. Aftershocks came continuously one after another within 20-40 min and after some time people almost stopped reacting. I said: Just pay attention to the birds. If they stop singing it's serious. Bhupen looked at me - I think, - he said -  it might be not a reliable sign any more. Even birds got used to endless earthquakes.