What I do.....

 My name is Linda Chaves but the nickname 'Lin the Pink' seems to have evolved recently - after years of pondering, I finally plucked up courage to go punk and pink at the same time and immediately felt forty years younger. I am about to enter the rather daunting world of blogging because I want to share a little of my art and my writing, and maybe a traveller's tale or two. So this first blog will be quite long, but then hopefully just snippets.


I am a semi-retired teacher, but the joy of teaching still lives within. I adored every second in the classroom and I often dream of the thousands of pupils-who-became-friends that I have taught since 1974. I graduated into adult education, but teaching children aged 7 to 12 years old will always be my purpose in life.




I came to live in Portugal way back in 1979. I love it here - the deep blue of the summer sky, the yellow glow at sunset and this warmth mirrored in the most loving, caring, hospitable people you could meet. Since my soulmate. Roy, died in 2009, my life has changed beyond recognition. I was scared of flying all my life but crazy to explore the world. Two years ago, I finally summoned up the courage...and now I am addicted. I have been several times to India, driven Route 66 in true 60's style, ventured across many stunning areas of the US like North Carolina, Arizona and New Mexico, driven Highway One in California and braved the sensual onslaught that is Vietnam. On the road,  I spend the evenings in pyjamas on hotel beds writing up the excitements and enchantments of the day in my Moleskine and printing out photos uncontrollably from my little pink Pogo printer.  I attempt to make a few marks and splashes of colour before I am forced to sleep in order to carry on next day. 

I travel as far and wide as I can afford. I am off to tour Utah in a car all alone next week and super excited so I aim to start some limited travel blogging from there. You could call me a scenery addict but that's untrue. I'm also addicted to the sky and weather to the point of boredom, chatting endlessly and quite frivolously to complete strangers and other odd/interesting/kind people I come across, taking photos from every angle except maybe the best one and, my guilty not-so-secret pleasure - shopping. I will absolve myself from guilt only to say that I only spend all of my money and nobody else's......and I do like birdwatching, though I am limited by the fact that I can hear them but can't see them, in fact I am hopeless at the 'spotting', better at the identifying!

I also journal at home in my little house in the north of Portugal. Two years ago I had never done a single creative act in my life. All I needed was a sketchbook and some inspiration and an array of colours on a shelf.... I write lots ....some of the pages I may publish will have bits 'covered' - thoughts best kept to myself - and I like to splash colour around sometimes wildly, sometimes thoughtfully, and usually pinkly (well, my hair is pink after all). I also attempt more 'artistic' pages and am trying to improve my drawing skills. I am doing a course (in a sister blog) to try to learn some actual technique, maybe get more confidence so I have the guts and motivation to do more and to try to develop the one thing that, in my head, still eludes me - imagination. How to generate imaginative thought. How to think up something different. If anyone out there can tell me how to do this, I would be SO grateful. I'm nowhere near being creative yet but the process is fun, rewarding and absorbing.

This is my first ever blog and I promise to get better layouts, as I practise. I would like to post some of my journal pages and welcome any comments. I'll publish some of my travel journals while trying not to be boring. I'm hoping new ideas will come once I get used to blogging and can relax into it.....