Moving … and helping a friend

This is going to be a busy week as I finish packing up boxes and move myself into a slightly different place which will actually be closer to the part-time job, and has the environment I need for a more peaceful existence.

I won't go into the details, but sometimes the energy of a place can affect too many aspects of one's life to be enjoyable. When we are younger we seek out places where we can bounce about and have others with similar energies. But there is a reason why senior homes and assisted living are not necessarily bad.

That is NOT where I am heading yet, but I do want people around me who have a sense of their direction and balance and I found a location and a nice little home that I hope is going to fulfill my expectations, not far from where I have been living.

A brand new kitchen and a nicer view...

The outbuilding to the right is the studio…can be heated.

Best of all, it has a brand new kitchen, space for a dining room table and room in the back for a studio where I can have all my art activities. I am truly excited and by this time next week have the intention to be settled.

Another delightful aspect is the closeness to a park so I can go walking or biking without fearing for my life on the roads.

One of my Intender buddies is also looking to move things around in her life and she has a practically brand new camper in Yuma, AZ that she would like to sell.
It is one that has a queen bed, bath, and a nice kitchen with pop-outs for the living and dining area.

If you are looking for something like that as a winter retreat, contact me and I will forward the photos to you.

We've had a mild winter, according to the locals, but this place also has a pellet stove, which will help with heating should winter get nastier between now and April, and certainly will be more economical.

Work continues to challenge me and time will tell whether or not this racehorse can make it around the track.

So, dear readers, wherever you are in the world, I hold the intention that your life is coming together in this new year of 2014 and you are being inspired and excited by what is coming for you. And the weather isn't too cold….

The first of October? Already?

This entry in last year's parade was a huge hit with the kids!

It will time for the festival and ferias (fair) in just two weeks... and I am moving out of my little casita in mid-November, partly because the owner wants it back and partly because I am heading back to the U.S. to the twins in Seattle.

Yesterday my friend Isabel was working with some local folks to raise money for the Casa de Cultura's float for the festival parade. I have been invited to help the team paint it and assemble the floral parts (done in papier mache) so I will keep you updated on that particular adventure.

One of the views over the garden looking eastward; I'll have morning sun.

I have found a much smaller place to store the stuff I am not selling or shipping back to the U.S. It is unclear how much time I will be spending here for the foreseeable future, but I am not quite ready to close the door entirely on either Barichara or exploring more of Colombia as time allows. This new place is just three rooms and a kitchenette, but it is on property owned by a historian, and he has been gracious enough to tell me I don't have to worry about moving anything again as long as he is living. Leaving it there costs about the same as a storage unit, but it has a lovely view in three directions and will be a quiet retreat when I am back here. (The pipes in the picture are for the owner's new house up in the hills with an even more majestic view, he said. They are in the early stages of construction.)

Sombrita isn't crazy about moving either... but

During the past two years I have lived in three different places, four if you count this next (final?) move. As I dislike intensely moving, I am truly both frustrated and unsettled with the living arrangements here and cannot afford to buy land or even a mud shack to solve that, so I am incredibly grateful to my friends for their help. I will miss the little casita, but frankly coming back this time and knowing I have to move again, it hasn't been all that relaxing.

Although the cats will have to adjust, it won't be  too hard since it is only over one block from where we are right now. And Ultimo was found on the day of the visit to confirm the location and price to be hanging out there anyhow... must be a sign! I will be assured of their contentment knowing that along with a huge garden to explore, there are several bright parakeets in an outdoor cage for their entertainment...

Ultimo already hangs out at the owner's house!

The news about having to leave the house came while I was in the U.S. and I received it with mixed feelings. So I was really ready to just sell everything and consider my adventures over in Colombia, except that my friends urged me not to do that and helped me to find this solution. Thus I'm downsizing and preparing for both the move and to travel again... the photos and news I get about the twins is enticing, but other information is worrisome... hopefully resolving itself before I arrive.

I think the rainy season has started again...

Tonight is the third night in a row that it has thundered and then poured down rain. The green festival, Festiver, finally had to concede that it could not have any outdoor movies at the Parques des Artes (the auditorium) and moved the night showing of movies to the church.

My three ceramic works for this session at the taller.

This afternoon, with a few of my ceramic classmates, I went and saw the presentation about getting the lead out of ceramic glazes in Mexican potters creations because of the damage that lead does, most especially to the children. Dr. James Sargent of Dartmouth College is among those taking the lead about the awareness of lead poisoning. Since I've been here in Colombia I've learned a lot about ceramics and glazing and we are exceptionally cautious when mixing colors.

When I first returned to Barichara, I got several interesting responses: 1) We thought you got lost and couldn't find your way back here; 2) I thought the twins were holding you hostage; 3) We were wondering if you died... (what?) and 4) We want to see photos of the bebes now that you are back. I was happy to tell all the ceramic students who offered up some wonderful 'benedicions' on behalf of my family that everything and everyone was good.

But what has been very hard for me is realizing that the little casita I have been enjoying so much isn't really mine and the owner wants it back. She isn't pushing me, thankfully, but realistically I will have to move again and I've been evaluating the options. And I've been thinking about what has to be moved - again. I totally HATE the actual moving process, even though the pre-move appeals to my organizational mind. So today I spent some time making up some lists of a) things I cannot bear to sell or give away, b) things I am ambivalent about and c) stuff that can be replaced or disposed of without much energy. It is amazing what one person can accumulate in two years. But to be fair, I have used everything in one way or another.

The next door neighbor has a baby. Whenever that baby cries, my antenna tune up. Last night in the middle of the night, I heard it crying and crying and I woke up. I was so alert I was out of bed before I even realized I was standing by the window wondering where I was. One of my cats was lying in front of the window and meowed as if to say,"What are you doing anyhow?" Then I realized I was still recovering from a kind of fatigue I've not experienced since... the twins. LOL! And how I miss them. I wonder off and on through the day what they are doing, how they are sounding... sigh.

This is my street. This is actually an improvement.

The installation of sewer lines throughout the city is still progressing, but fortunately my street is completed, more or less. There is still some cleanup required (see the photo) and those large boulders need to be removed. Probably they were dug up when they did the trenches, but there are huge stones scattered all over the village streets, waiting to be picked up. I wonder what they will do with them. There actually is a paved street under that mud, and quite a lot of that mud got washed into my casita while I was away when a sudden downpour forced it under my door and into both the living room and the bedroom. It took me three days to get it all cleaned up.

Well, guess that's it for this week. It's still raining, and the only good thing about it is all the streets are getting rinsed clean.