You... and that joyous bouncing feeling!

Reading about the brilliant things that you are doing, I am filled with joie de vie this morning! As a Basque country friend has written on her Facebook profile... L is G!

Well?... isn't it??? :}

Inspite of the fact that I have one of those visually crippling type headaches looming in the shadows somewhere, making me feel a little nauseous, and kind of sweaty (or is it that I'm menopausal... I wasn't feeling that great last night either, but that happens quite frequently to me). And inspite of the fact that my small workspace (a self-deligated corner of the dinning room) looks like this...















... I am feeling totally fueled! And it's definately got to do with the flow of creative energy pouring out from you. And I've noticed that links to my blog have started to appear in other people's sidebars recently, and so thank you for those kind thoughts *:)

Well now, I was over at Hannah's this morning ;} and she has a lovely post, involving her attempts at chinese papercut, the results of which are really bold and fabulous. Her talking about cutting paper snowflakes, reminded me of a What-about - I guess that's my version of a What-If, - which I sketched in my notebook a few weeks ago. And no, I'm afraid it isn't inspired by snow in anyway, since all we've had for weeks is sun, sun, and more sun! Oh yes, and the odd earthquake!



















This is my "What-about cutting cloth like cutting paper snowflakes?"

At the time, I don't always get what these scruffly little sketches are about. But then, you have to do them, 'coz you never know where they might take you later. I haven't tried this idea yet. I don't know how... or if it would even work.

Following on, from somewhere, I can't say from where exactly, came these new bag designs and lept onto the next blank page...



















And I'm realizing just how much my style has to with rustic simplicity. Give me a bit of scraggy old cloth and some hand stiching and I'm in my element! ;} Can't wait to apply that to printing on cloth too.

Back to my soft pale cloth... Last night, during the commercial breaks of Dr. House, (one of my few televisual indulgences!) I worked on this little frame, which consists of back-to-back rows of buttonhole stitch. Simple! Isn't that a pretty stitch... albeit crudely handled!
















And here's a close-up...















Earlier, yesterday afternoon, I was suddenly grabbed by the idea of roughly outlining the Wheatear stitching with a single thread of dark chocolate colored DCM silk.



















Don't know what came over me! I'm still not sure about that. What do you think??? In anycase, it has been removed. But who knows, could just as easily reappear!

Also last night... busy little bee arne't I?... I decided to rinse out an unbleached cotton cloth that I've been solar dying with red onion skins for the past week. As you may know, I love magenta. I've tried with red cabbage, but you know, that whole PH thing... when you add an acid or an alkaline to red cabbage, makes it very hard to control the results when dying coth. At least, I got the cloth to turn a gorgeous shade or purple, and then, stupidly, I rinsed it with soap powder and, hey presto!, the whole thing turned a wild sea-witch green! So I thought I'd try it with red onion skins instead.

At first, it looked to have been a great shiborial success. Then I rinsed it... using soap powder ... and... OMG! ... PUTRID!

As it appeared it rapidly began to leach its way down the length of the cloth! I was not expecting that! I ran for my camera.These are not good photos, as the light was poor, and my hands were so soapy that I could barely push the shutter button, never mind focus at the same time, but you'll get the picture. Just take a look at this...















EWE! Arlee is gonna love this!















And here you can see the difference. The left-hand side is still nice and purpley. The right-hand side... isn't!















And, in the end, it all looked like this. Very... umm... yucky!

I haven't dared look at it in the light of day! Who knows what might be lurking in the outside sink this morning!

Did you know that that could happen with red onion skins? Why didn't you warn me?

I've done some mental maths (N.B. my maths has always been very mental!) and I figure $400 for a 5-day creativity advance here on the Osa Peninsula is what it would cost. That would include full board and lodging, but not flights (international or internal) or hotel stay-overs that may be needed on the night of arrival and probably the night prior to departure. Anyway I'm curious to hear what you think about that price? In theory, at least, is it reasonable, or not?

Where the heart is!

For those of you who didn't already know, we own and manage a very rustic field research station - although "station" is really too grand a word for it. We called the place Los Charcos de Osa, (meaning swamps of Osa, which right now it is anything but!) Here we protect four hectares of tropical lowland wet forest. Both the Los Charcos Blog and our webpages are in dire need of updating. Although, this year, I'm thinking of using Facebook to promote the place, and will probably be loading some image albums shortly.

So... it's not much, but it's what we call home, and I love it! So much so, infact, that apart from my all-to-frequent trips to the city, I rarely leave the property.

When we bought the land, about 5 years ago, there was nothing here. And I have to say that I'm extremely proud of the fact that everything that's here now, we created, with our own hands... blood and sweat and tears! And, isn't it those things in life that end up have more meaning?

Anyway, I guess you could call it slow home-making!

We first started coming up here at weekends, to clear a strip of land, about 20 x 50 meters in total, in order to build on it. A patch of what is known as "tacotal", which is basically scrubby, low quality, secondary growth, and in our case, many thorny vines wrapped around everything! It was super hard work. While we were doing it, this is where we lived...
















Seriously! With a two year old, no water, no electricity, cooking under plastic on a wood fire, and doing the necessary out in the forest, where it doesn't linger for long, thanks to a phenomenal diversity of fauna that exists in this part of the world ;}


















This is my husband Reinaldo Aguilar, known to most as "Rey". He's world authority on the plants of the Osa Peninsula (although he's never gonna say that!) He's my best friend, and a great father. We've been together for 9 years now, and for some reason I'm reminded of the Michael Ondaatji title, "Coming Through Slaughter" ;} I love this picture of him, it was taken as he was about to leap into the forest canopy on a zip line, whilst working as botanical field support to a French film crew.















This is my house just after we built it. Note that I use the word "house" loosly! These days, it has a (nearly!) wraparound balcony, the view from which I will never tire of.















And here we have it! Can you spot the house, nestled in the forest there?



















Here's a closer shot of it















This is the balcony of the guest cabin.

And this is an image of a painting, that I haven't seen in years ('coz, like all of my paintings, it's being stored in the UK). I'm sure there are more images somewhere!



















Casablanca - Catherine V. Bainbridge(c).
Oil and oil pastels on paper.
Aprox. 60 x 40 cm.