We've Been Searching...

After Wayne and I got married in May, we moved into my 1,100 square foot, two bedroom, two bath, mobile home in the Lazy Acres park and although he took over the little 10 x 14 shed out back, we still found ourselves needing more space both inside and outside.

Wayne is a big, tall man, with a history of being outdoors in massive timber country and my tiny backyard garden, although a challenge at first, soon seemed like a fish bowl for a salmon. I like to garden, too, and there just wasn't enough dirt for both of us.

Gardening is necessary for Wayne's life.

At first we thought we should look for a place to park the RV off the Olympic Peninsula so that we could have both a retreat and a place to launch ourselves on various journeys. As we looked, it soon became clear that any place we would be leaving the RV just wasn't secure enough to be several hours away for weeks at a time. And we kept finding places that had, curiously enough, too many trees.

"What will I do when we are here?" Wayne asked. He wanted to continue his farming life with sunny land and places for dahlias, roses, blueberries and raspberries to flourish.

We started talking about finding some land we might build on, or have a small house on, but then we realized we would be paying large sums of money each month for something that wasn't really an improvement over where we are now.

In July we redirected our focus toward buying a house with at least a half an acre, some sunny space, and close enough to civilization that I could make contact with other artists and quilting/sewing types.

We were drawn to Shelton in Mason County because of all the water near by. But we quickly learned that most homes with water views were far out of our price range, so we began to adjust our vision to include access to water within a short walk or drive. And we found a place.

House in Shelton we almost bought but then we didn't.

It seemed at first as if it was just what we wanted. But it didn't have everything on our list and more particularly, Wayne was adamant that the property boundaries were clearly defined. As we got further into the purchase process (inspection, appraisal, etc.) we discovered that the Seller, through no fault of his own, was using Mason County title information that was flat wrong. They were defining the property based on a lot that no longer existed and the Seller had built a fence along a lot line that was probably two or three feet off the real line, meaning we as Buyers would lose over 250 or 300 square feet of land before we even got started.

We bailed on the deal. And it was a loss, emotionally as well as financially, because of what we had invested in time (driving, gas, meals, etc.) as well as the costs of pre-purchase requirements. But it was the only choice because to go ahead would mean even more costs in trying to get the boundaries clarified.

And after a week of feeling discouraged, we were back on the Realtor.com site looking... and it seemed like every house we liked enough to visit was snapped up by other buyers before we could even make an offer. There was one that was just about to go to auction, a big house, but when we went to see it, it was clear there was foundation damage, roof damage, squatter damage and it smelled of too many unpleasant things to list. But it looked so appealing in the photos!

This is the first house Wayne lived in with his grandfather.
He would have bought that one if the owner was willing to
sell it, but that was not an option. Sometimes hard to compete
against memories like this.

 It didn't take us too long to begin to recognize phrases like "Needs some work," really means, "Take out your check book and plan to spend a year bringing this place into shape." Or "Has wonderful water views..." meant that the view was the ONLY thing to recommend it.

But each time we toured a house or drove by we got a clearer idea of what we really could not tolerate and what we must have. There was one in Hoodsport we loved, but there seemed to be some strange thing going on with the Seller and his Agent about actually accepting an offer. And another one near a lake we put an offer on but were immediately put in back-up position (if that offer fell through, they would consider ours... as the weeks would roll by...) and so it went.

There were some fun aspects of looking. We would text or email MLS numbers for the other one to look at, and then we'd take a day and drive two hours away to see if the house in reality was anything like the pictures. We talked, we argued, we sulked, we cajoled, we laughed and finally after so much action and no results, we took a break for a week - no Internet searches at all.

TO BE CONTINUED....

Lazy Acres garden was a challenge, but not
for long. Less than half of what he once had,
he made the most of it, but Wayne wanted
more space and more sunlight.

All That Glitters Here is Glass

The red 'floral' is in fact a glass structure.

I am now in Seattle awaiting the arrival of the twins, and it was determined that an afternoon meeting up with an Intender friend was a safe bet, so my Intender buddy and I agreed upon the Seattle Center where the Space Needle and other entertainments are located... where we decided upon the Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibits and ended up having lunch at the Collection Cafe which features a huge variety of things that Dale Chihuly has collected - everything from Mexican ashtrays to accordions. Plus the food was promised to be delicious, and it was, too.

Following are some of the incredible blown glass displays that are both inside and outside, some of which have been shown in other parts of the world at one time or another.

Neon gasses added make this a dramatic display of glass.

The artist's fascination with native American art is shown.

Formerly an instructor at the Rhode Island School of Design, Chihuly collaborated with James Carpenter in 1971 to do glass in botanical designs. Thus evolved the "Glass Forest" which shows the delicate lines of growing things. Once out in the Glass Garden you can see many shapes imitating nature and the botanical additions make the stroll underneath the Space Needle quite fascinating.


The second 'room' is called the Northwest Room as it demonstrates the influence of the native Americans pottery and weaving on the work of Chihuly, who was born in Washington. The shapes and colors of the glass displayed mimic those of the early potters and weavers, much like glass that might have been tossed against the Pacific shores and then polished by the finder, in some of the pieces.

There was so much to see and there were a lot of people standing and walking so that it was sometimes a distraction to focus on one area over another. This entire collection is much more than just a display of glass art, but shows how the artist grew in his understanding of the medium, and how he literally stretched both the boundaries of the glass and the ways it could be presented.

Here is a glass ceiling you might not want to break through!

Passing through the spaces there was a room (Persian Ceiling) devoted to glass as a ceiling -- I loved it! If ever I have a chance to build a space where light can enter from above, this is something I will do. Although this had commercial lighting above, I can imagine such a space where the changing light would be an advantage.

In the "Mille Fiori" room, the colors of the glass against the black walls and mirrored bases was so dramatic that one simply had to sit down and let all the colors wash over and through the eyes. There was some 50's music playing in the background which I found somewhat distracting, however. 

The name for the room comes from the Italian meaning 'thousands of flowers' inspired by the artist's mother's garden. First exhibited in 2003 at the Tacoma Art Museum, this display features many of the varieties of Chihuly's works. The techniques used relied more on gravity, fire and centrifugal force for this collection.

After the loss of sight in one eye and a shoulder problem, Chihuly turned more of his work over to the team and used his artistic drawings to convey his objectives. But in 1992, during a solo exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum, he determined that a space was missing something and he created what has become one of his most impressive series, the chandeliers. In 1995-96 in the Chihuly Over Venice presentation, he hung thirteen of them throughout the city with the final 14th juxtaposed with the Palazzo Ducale Tower's ancient one. Those shown here are either from that event or were inspired by it.

Green glass chandelier

Close-up of white chandelier

Red-orange glass chandelier

The Macchia Forest with four foot bowls of color!

Inside of one of the bowls in the Macchia Forest.

Hanging floral in glass inside the glass conservatory.

The "Macchia Forest" is a collection of huge bowls four feet in diameter utilizing all 300 colors of the hotshot. The variations in color are also achieved by rolling the molten glass in shards of colored glass while blowing it.

We took our break for lunch and then continued afterwards by going into the glass conservatory which houses an enormous floral display in glass suspended from the ceiling. You can see the Needle just outside.

I wanted to show you all the details of this incredible display but I have to leave room for your 'dessert' which is the garden outside.

Did you see the dark orbs that might be slick seals just under the log?

There was so much to see, and I took over 175 photos, but cannot possibly show them all here. I may post them to another site where you can see them, if interested, so if you are a follower, you will be notified of the link. I was so impressed with the landscaping being complimentary to the glass art.

Notice the colored tree bark and the flowers ...

Here, near the end are these precious flutes of blue, like some unearthly forest flower only waiting to offer up a scent that tricks the senses...

Near the exit, blue flutes on tall stalks...

There was more to be seen at this Center, but our eyes were satiated with all the colors and shapes so we opted to leave, but on the way out I saw this weird collection of colors and shapes from the IMAX building and other displays... it's another form of art, don't you think?

Metallic tiles create color on a Center building.

A Fascination with Japan

One year later, after the devastating earthquake and tsunami, Japan proves its capabilities in rebuilding, at least on the construction level. I cannot imagine the horrific loss of family members and friends from such an event. Over this past year periodically I have watched videos and listened to audios of the disaster, as it was too much to do earlier. And now, a year later, rubble and reminders are washing up on the western shores of the U.S. (Ghost ship drifts toward Canada)

I think my fascination with Japan has its roots in my relationship with my grandmother who had a flair for exotic fabrics and clothes which she draped around her or which she had made into interesting things to wear. As a child I was allowed to go into her attic and walk over the creaky boards to the far corner where she had a huge wooden and metal trunk, the kind you see in old movies that people used for shipping their goods to foriegn lands.

When I opened it, the smells of oldness and adventure would rush up to my nose and I would lift up the ancient silk kimono carefully, just as my grandmother would appear behind me to caution me to do just that. I both dreaded her appearance and welcomed it because there were always stories about how these items came into her trunk, but partly I dreaded her invasion of my imagination.

There were tiny little silk cloth slippers with delicate flowers and leaves embroidered on them having a place for a big toe separated from the rest of the foot which was a matter of great curiosity to me. My feet were already too large to try them on, but I delighted in hearing from my grandmother how the ladies walked in little mincing steps on wooden platforms with their silk kimonos tightly wound around their petite frames.

My grandmother Elsa was not one to 'play' with her grandchildren. Instead she would offer up tales of her travels and punctuate these revelations with her unassailable philosophy that war of any kind was both horrible and unnecessary. After her beloved husband, Alain, was killed in World War I in a car accident in France, she worked as a nurse over there for some time before returning home to their four children.

Her diaries show her personal objective to strive toward world peace, as do her poems and essays. And she did travel many times around the world to seek audiences with various world leaders, including a trip to Japan. Her stories were always replete with descriptions of the regalia of the local country she was visiting, so it was like having Rudyard Kipling at my beck and call.

It is distressing to think of Japan as being "off-limits" because of the radiation or more serious disasters like the one a year ago. It is one of my goals to go to visit that country, providing all aspects are supported - my health, my wealth, and the condition of Japan's environment. Intending the peoples of Japan continue to heal from their trials and this one-year noting brings encouragement to all the world.

Living Dangerously

Yesterday, the first day when the sun started out shining and went on doing it all day long, I decided to actually "sunbathe!" Although sun is a known risk for a variety of ailments this was not the dangerous part of my day.

LEFT: VIEW OF ENTRY INTO BASEMENT APT

I have recently moved into a very cute basement apartment in a town near where I was living before and since it is part of a couple's house, I am totally blessed with a lovely backyard garden which is populated by a number of robins and crows. I have seen a few other birds, but these are the dominant species.

BELOW: VIEW OF GARDEN FROM ENTRY

The house, seen from the front at the top of this blog, is on the western edge of Puget Sound, north of Seattle. You say the name of the town this way: moo-kill-tee-oh and it's spelled like this: Mukilteo. One of the treats for this new area is that as I drive to and from their home (and my new digs) I find the views are spectacular, even on a grey day. Lots of flowers, lots of high-end dwelling units, and I do not have hundreds of people living beside, behind, above and below me.

So what was the dangerous part of the day? Well, as I was lying on the grass, half of me in the sun and half in the mottled shade, looking up through the cherry tree, I noticed one of several robins tugging on the fruit. Suddenly, "bombs aaaawayyyy!" And a cherry dropped right on top of me, followed by another 'gift' which I managed to avoid.

And here is one of the offenders, who was listening for sounds in the ground. Later I saw it merrily pulling away at a rather large-sized earthworm which was carried off to a nest in the fir tree next to the driveway.

It is so peaceful here and now that we are starting to have some summer, it is really much more enjoyable than it has been for several weeks. I leave you with this somewhat hazy view of Puget Sound... more to come!

Summer Solstice

We have passed the Summer Solstice and as if that were a deadline for the sun to start shining, it finally did come out, like a shy maiden, yesterday. I spent much of the afternoon pulling weeds and unwanted grass from the pathways. It is still too wet to mow anything.

I was surprised by an invitation from Jey-hu to go out for dinner, and we decided to take our cameras for an after-dinner walk near the Everett Marina, overlooking Port Gardiner Bay. The wild roses were just past their bloom except for a few, and their scent was heavenly. I loved the composition of the tall trees with the verge of grass sort of winding along the rock berm, even though it's a little out of focus, it reminds me of a French Impressionist painting - a little.

As long as there was some sunshine, it was quite pleasant, but the clouds increased, the sun began to set and a chill in the air sent us running back to the car for warmth. It is hard to believe that from this point on, the sun will be setting earlier rather than later. It has been quite amazing to have sunlight until almost 9:30 p.m.!

I don't know the name of this flowering plant, but it had the faintest shade of yellow, and with the yellowing light of the fading sun on the grass and on the buildings in the distance, it was a great combination of yellows.

I saw in the distance a small sailboat scudding across the bay, making a good tack to the marina entrance before it got dark. I liked the colors I found when I downloaded the shot at home. I have just purchased a Canon PowerShot SX20 IS to replace the POS Sony CyberShot which is only good if nothing is moving... even in a breeze. I love this new camera. It is a bridge between my Canon EOS Rebel which is still in Colombia and the pocket digital, and it comes with a zoom lens - not removable, however - which goes from 28mm to 500mm! That was the focal length I used to get the sailboat shot.

One of the last bits of sunshine blazed through the moist moss on the rocks below, and I had to see if this would look as good on 'film' as it did to my eyes.... what do you think?

But the day came to an end and this is how it looked....

Ending 2009 with upgrades...

(This image is the view from the highest point on the 15 acres of Corasoma, looking down at the "city" of Barichara on the right, and the northern end of the Andes mountains known as the Santa Fe range, swinging around to the left.)

Our past couple of weeks have been primitive, to say the least. With limited water delivery from the city of Barichara - there is a serious lack of water here - and with the only toilet unable to function, we have been truly “camping out.”

But the new bathrooms have been completed, with the potential to deliver a slightly more upscale experience than we’ve had so far. But the reality here is that for many of the other residents of this area upscale is not an option. One of the workers saw me heading off to "fill a post hole" and he just smiled and waved. Daily bodily functions are not considered anything to be ashamed of and young children, especially boys, are taught early on that when one has to “do your duty,” one simply finds a place on the side of the road, or behind a bush, and relief is that close.

As a matter of fact, most Colombian “public” bathrooms in the rural areas are places where in the U.S. or in other more developed countries one would be resistant to even entering. No toilet paper or hand towels are offered. In some cases, there are not even any toilet “seats,” just cold porcelain and a dubious level of cleanliness, but at least one is not visible to the public’s eye. I’m a quick learned when it comes to remembering to have tissue in my pocket...

Hot water for a shower is rare. That’s less of a problem in our area because the average daily temperature hovers around 75 degrees, dropping slightly when the sun sets and getting slightly warmer during mid-day. But trying to wash and then condition one’s hair with only a trickle of water is more problematic. Jey-hu says I’m making too much of that issue, but he’s not faced with that challenge!

I haven’t talked much about the limitations of this lifestyle, in part because I haven’t had time to think of how to deliver the information with a somewhat delicate slant. And there is so much here that is truly lovely, exquisite and charming that it seemed almost ungrateful, or complaining, to mention them.

But we are about a month away from returning to the U.S. and there are lots of comments from our hosts about “you won’t miss.....(fill in the blank)” and in fact, I think I will miss many things - not the least of which is our growing participation in the community activities - we went to our first art show this week where the local doctor was displaying her excellent pen and ink drawings.

Because of my gardening expertise, I will probably return before Jey-hu does to stay on top of some of the projects I have committed to completing before we open to the guests. So it is likely I won’t have time to re-acclimate myself to the U.S. lifestyle and will be focused on getting as many of the seeds and other materials we have identified as being useful for our permaculture life here. I haven't had a whole lot to do with the garden shown here except to keep up with the weeding. It was started in October before we arrived, but doesn't it look luscious?

I can’t think of a time in my life when I have been so pre-occupied with what I use and what the end result of my using it is... everything here is either composted, reused or recycled. And it’s a lot of work. I can see why the more developed countries do not put more emphasis on recycling... the return on investment is hardly worth it when you are talking about the cost of ‘man’ hours, but in the rural locations like Santander has, the cost is likely less than 5000 pesos... or $2.50 in U.S. dollars - PER HOUR!

Last night some of us went to a “tobacco ceremony,” to celebrate the Full Moon and to gather for a group intention to bring more water to Barichara this new year and since Jey-hu has a distributorship for “Living Water,” a copper tube that regenerates oxygen into water, we are hopeful this intention is realized - more water, more tubes to run it through.

More on this water business in 2010, and of course more of our adventures as they unfold. May this year bring you good health, because nothing else matters if you don’t have that - the rest will unfold.

Feliz Año!