Dear Reader, In the morning we carry our sketchbooks to Sabali, the coffee shop perched above the river Manalsu. The rains have stopped, the day is clear. All around us are hillsides full of conifer forests, and in the distance the snows of the Pir Panjal.
As we spread our paints over the long wooden tables, we reflect on how to capture the myriad shades of emerald, viridian, and sap green with hints of white and Prussian blue. We ponder the textures of spiky grass and ancient bark, the brown, black, and burnt Sienna, the dappled light and shade.
Our book of the month, The Overstory by Richard Powers, feels painfully relevant as we watch the destruction of the beloved Van Vihar forest across the river. The forest is now separated from the river with barbed wire, and there are tin shacks and JCBs where deodar trees once held sway.
Tomorrow, I will plant magnolia trees, setting a magnolia with white flowers beside one with purple flowers. I hope these trees will survive, and I wonder what difference two magnolia trees will make. But I will plant anyway. What else is there to do.
