Gentle Days In and Rough Days Out

Well, my first English course this academic year is done and dusted, Christmas is come and gone and here we all are in the limbo of January. It's pouring with rain most of the time, a few gales of the howling variety like distant wolves, and two frustrated cats who can't go outside and instead release their pent up energies by having a protracted and vicious war with the bathroom mat.......I am happy to be in a peaceful and sheltered place, though suffering from that incurable 'less is more' syndrome - the more time I have, the less I seem to do, that is. But I've enjoyed spending hours talking to dear friends in the US and in India on Skype, addling my mind on Facebook and the like, doing all sorts of online art and journalling courses and best of all, I have learnt to hook up my iPad to the TV, stream from the main computer and watch Game of Thrones and other delights on the big screen. What joy!

I've had some ups and downs. I can't be alone in that at this time of year, our thoughts naturally turn to those we have lost, and moments of reflection are followed by sadness and some tears. But somehow we manage to jerk back into reality and cope and live our own lives to the absolute full, even if that's a day moving from one inane task to the other. I've managed to keep up with my journalling, finish another Buddha and start quite a few things so I am happy.

Second Buddha finished

Bought a book of Graffiti Stencils - love them!

Christmas was spent in my beloved Silveira with Lynn and John. It was cold and wet outside but we were so warm and cosy indoors with crackling log fires giving us all a rosy glow (or was that the Baileys?) and making sure we kept up all the traditions. We managed to procure parsnips, crackers and Christmas pudding so we could do it all in style and then repeat it the next day but having a pyjama day! I discovered my best friend Lynn has a fantastic singing voice, strong and sweet and full of emotion. She sang to us on Christmas Day evening and tears glistened in all our eyes.

Why I love Christmas!

Yoko and Slash add the cute factor

Still beautiful in Silveira

A Sardinian warbler nibbles the last pomegranate

Serendipity - a unique positioning of magazine, tin and the rest make for a brilliant shot!

So, not very much to report but I am going to Florida on 21st January so I hope to have more to blog about soon. I am going to stay a few days with a girlfriend I made online through our love of art and journals! We have talked on Skype and have discovered that neither of us is a monster alien or possible serial killer. Then I am going to take off alone in a car and do what I do best - explore. Through the Everglades and down to Key West. A few days in Art Deco Miami! I just can't wait!

Play with landscape .....

Just play

Another example from a Jane Davies lesson

Didn't like painting flowers until I realised there were some on my bed!

I have also decided to take a more serious course - and become a Creativity Coach....I will have lots more to say about this later on. It starts soon........watch this space!

Indian Summer 2

Out birding with my good friend Binoy. We cruise for hours along the backwater canals....

Now replete, I am still thinking that it is almost impossible to get across the real experience of being in India, as there is so much more happening than just a visual feast. You have to feel the soft, balmy breezes lightly brushing your skin in the cool of dawn, sway along with the rustling palm fronds to a gentle rhythm, dodging the odd coconut dropping like a brick from high up in the tree make a huge plopping splash in the water, as straight as an Olympic diver. Drift out onto the water hyacinth-filled lapping lake to hear the distant chanting from the Hindu temples interrupted by the raucous laughter of iridescent turquoise kingfishers. Feel the intense midday sun from which there is no escape except a refreshing shower. Best of all is a special feeling I only get when I am there - that this is spiritually where I feel internally most at peace, where I feel spirituality in the very air, surrounded and protected by soft, gentle people who seem to take everything in their stride with an enviable dignity that invites immediate respect, yet with a sense of humour as free as a child's. Somehow here I can accept with more grace the cycle of life, the loss of loved ones and our own inevitable fate. Watch the colours of sunset as they turn from yellows into oranges and burnt golds, into the reds onward through the spectrum through deep magenta until, about half an hour after sunset, the sky has turned into a deep violet and the water steely indigo. Some photos and some journals - hopefully they speak louder than words.......

Dawn is misty, still and cool, though the birds are already awake and the fishermen already on the water

From yellow through orange and red.......

...........and into violet and purple

One of my more noisy neighbours - a
ring-necked parakeet

The forest glows emerald green, yellow and lime after the deluge

 

I got to experience the monsoon rain. It starts quite gently, as a few refreshing droplets, but quickly escalates into a downpour like no other, like buckets of water being emptied from above. This is accompanied by a deafening pouring noise, then swiftly made worse by the simultaneous pourings and drummings from numerous roofs and gutters, forming instant lakes and marooning me in my bungalow within minutes. But it's still warm and it's not at all uncomfortable. Then, the clouds clear and the forest seems to glow in its greenness - colours are vivid and luxuriant, the air fresher and cleaner. Parrots squawk with delight overhead as they feast on the last of the year's mangoes high on the tops os the trees, whilst bright green barbets utter shrill shrieks which penetrate the undergrowth. Everything here in Kerala is about bright, lurid colour, from the ladies' saris, to the temples and colours of people's houses and the heaps of bright in-your-face powders found in the market place so I am in neon heaven!

When it rains, it pours...............

Two of my favourite bamboo trees on the farm.....

Most people know of my encounter with this chap......

Finally just a couple more typical pages from my journals.....

The yellow trumpet bushes are in full bloom just by my bungalow

The tiniest cows in the world - Vechoor cows -  the head came out a bit large! I can vouch for the yummy home made yogurt they provide me with every breakfast...plus a little treasure which Anya gave me with love and I will always keep....

Catching up with myself

Blogging is hard. I am full of admiration for those folks who manage to do it so regularly and don't let life get in the way at all. I have always been a girl, rather like the moon, with phases....ranging from intense activity to complete apathy with all sorts in between......you can guess what my last phase was as I haven't posted since May! I do find that if I am worried or tense about something, I find it really hard to write and post - I wonder if other people have the same problem. Anyway, here I am back with renewed promises to do this more regularly and to find the courage to publish my work alongside others who are clearly better at it than me!!! I have won a few battles with the Inner Critic, but I haven't won the war yet....but I am trying.

I loved my visit to Santiago de Compostello - a delightful easy-to-explore city, brilliantly preserved but full of life - you really feel the past in every nook and cranny.

Where have the last few months gone?  The usual helter-skelter of travels, plus looking after my home when I rent out to holiday-makers and now I have started teaching again. It was flattering at 65 to be asked back to my old job teaching English at the Psychology Faculty in Porto - nothing too heavy, two ten-week courses a year. I'm loving it, have lots of interesting students and not a moment of regret. Still not in a position to start planning my next world travels, but things are more optimistic, and I am really hopeful that things will turn out well. First stop will be Florida in January, staying with a new friend, then I will drive off and do what I love. Exploring. Just me and a car plus maps, travel journal, camera and guide books. Plus a bird identification book and binoculars. This is all I need to feel totally fulfilled, and I can't wait to hit the road again.

        For (the few) who do like to see some of my art and my journalling, I have been able to complete some pages and some pictures....I also have to fight of my worst enemies of all - LAZINESS, SLOTH and a tendency to ALWAYS find some way of DISTRACTING myself from what I really want to be doing. I would so love to know what the cure is - there are no medicines for this in the local pharmacy!

....and a few recent pages from my journals.....

I used the following idea later for a painting - I dream constantly of the South West USA.........

...and a tribute to the wonderful Isabel as well as my return to teaching after four years!

Back to Silveira

The sunsets here are unforgettable

View of Belver castle from the river beach

I have fallen quite unashamedly in love with the hamlet of  Silveira - when I go there now I feel I have come home and enjoy strolling round the village, having a chat with the locals and making sure all is well. It must be related to what we as people need at various stages of our lives. Here, I am at one with nature, entering a new stage of decluttering and simplifying.

Lynn's lovely lily pond

Chatting to the neighbours. The goats' cheese here is delicious - creamy and smooth.  My last visit was at the end of September. The prickly pears were at their best - plump with deep yellow-orange cactus lets......this turned out to be the last hot, sunny weekend of summer - it all ended with a perfect evening out with friends and a gorgeous sunset.

Journaling Workshops

How easy it can sometimes be! I love this ....and this is from my drip page, under whatever I was working on at the time!!!

There are many times when I am so thankful that I was born in an English-speaking country. It has provided me with the ability to get a job teaching English all over the world, to strike up conversations and new friendships easily, to watch films without struggling to watch and read subtitles at the same time, and, VERY importantly to enable me to enter easily into, firstly, the world of art journaling and, now, the world of some of my favourite artists. 

One way to do this is by doing online art and journaling courses. I love doing them. Not only have I learnt a lot and been motivated. Since I plucked up courage to join in the various groups, blogs and Facebook groups, I have entered a world of friendly people with a common interest, all over the world. This leads to more confidence and better work, I think! At the moment I am doing quite a few - 21 Secrets, a massive workshop involving a huge list of teachers and many lessons to choose from, Extreme Composition from another favourite arist and journalist, Jane Davies, and two from another person who really motivated me - Traci Bautista. One called Digital Canvas - now I can do much more with my ipad, produce journal pages, cut and paste, collage and much more. Also I am slowly working through Discovering You, where Traci guides us through the process of setting our goals and, possibly, turning our hobby into a business, whether by teaching or by selling. 

Ipad pictures - very first efforts..

The learning experience

Unfinished picture

I am toying with the idea of teaching online, or giving workshops locally here in Portugal. But recently I have been thinking of turning my house into a workshop holiday centre, with guests from abroad, and guest teachers as well. If I do some conversion work, I could easily sleep at least 10 people and have great plans for workshops inside and outside by the pool. Of-course, this could all be a dream - that will depend on how much I really want it!!!

Here are a couple of pages I did from ideas from Tracy Verdugo, a wonderful artist form Australia, as part of the 21 Secrets workshop. It's about our individual 'print' - starting off with thumbprints in our favourite colours, then using a previous picture of ourselves to extend the idea. I then had the idea that, as well as our unique thumbprint, what people really remember about us is our 'personality print'....