Inspired

Changes

 

It’s been a long time (for me!) since I’ve changed my blog design and I’ve been itching to change it for awhile now.  I started designing something while I was away but the wireless connections were usually less than stellar so I ended up just playing with the design aspect without uploading anything to Typepad. This ended up being a good thing as I was able to spend some time reading about design and playing around with different ideas. 

This particular design is all about the white or negative space, which is really appealing to me these days.  I seem to be leaning towards the spare and uncluttered aesthetic in my life right now.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a studio space in my new home, which will continue to cramp my style for awhile but this spring/summer we’ll be building a separate studio outside the house…a smallish one…and I’m soooo looking forward to it.

I have no idea what the plant in the photograph above, is called (the “flower” is about a foot long") but I took the picture while stumbling through the mountainous jungles of Panama in La Amistad International Park, which straddles the border with Costa Rica.

I was on a hike that turned out to be an endurance marathon for this out-of-shape person of eternal optimism!  Other than the fact that this is a stunningly beautiful and mostly untouched area, all I can say about my experience in the cloud forests is…Oh my God…I thought I was dying!  I stopped long enough to take the picture and then with legs shaking, stumbled to catch up with the group (because we all know what happens to the weakest one in the pack!)

It was actually a great experience for me as I realized how much I’m really physically capable of if push comes to shove.  I’m also realizing now that I’m home, that the warmth of Mexico and Panama were really good for mobility and ease of movement.  Since returning to the damper and much cooler weather of the west coast, it feels as though my muscles are really struggling to move easily again.

(If I look like a drowned rat who’s hiked straight up one side of a mountain, then straight down the other side only to fall in the river while fording it numerous times…well, that’s because that’s exactly what I’d done by the time this picture was taken. The things we do for fun!).  I was going for the pathetic look here.

Thanks for stopping by and the sweetest of blessings to each and every one of you!

Leaving Boca

We left Bocas del Tora, an archipelago of islands in the Caribbean, this morning and I have some lasting impressions to share.  Bocas is built out over the water…most of the stores and restaurants in town are built on piles and much of the business and daily life of this area is done by boat.  The little panga’s (water taxi’s) zip around between the islands, dodging the slower and more traditional, hand-paddled (and often dugout) canoes which are still numerous and popular as a means of transportation.

The flavour of the area is much more “Caribbean” than anywhere else in Panama…which isn’t surprising, as it’s in the Caribbean!

The beaches are beautiful and numerous…

…and you may not have to be a millionaire to have waterfront property!  Between the fish at his front door and the bananas at his back door, you can see why fried fish and fried plantains are so popular (and they’re delicious too!)

Although these hand embroidered Molas are made by the Kuna women of the southern Darien region, they’re for sale all over Panama.  Molas are hand made using a reverse appliqué technique. Several layers (usually two to seven) of different-coloured cloth (usually cotton) are sewn together; the design is then formed by cutting parts of each layer away. The edges of the layers are then sewn down.

We ended our time here with a day wandering through the mangroves,

watching dolphins play in the bay, finding gentle sloths in trees and discovering the teeniest, tiniest of bright red frogs…barely an inch long!

But for most of the time that we were Boca del Toro during the “dry” season, this is what happened…

to get the actual effect of the torrential downpour that went on for days, the volume needs to be turned up loud...it was so loud we could hardly hear each other speak! 

We got lots of rest, read lots of books and listened to the howler monkey in the jungle around us who were complaining about the rain too.

Selfie

 

Last week’s challenge at Lens-Us-Together was to take a photograph of ourselves…that part  was fairly easy, although without a timer you’re relying on the “outstretched arm shot” that somehow never flatters.  What’s up with that anyway…is it the angle?  The difficult part for most, was actually posting it for the rest of the group to see…no more anonymity!

I’ve been posting photographs of myself for a few years now because I’ve always felt it somehow makes it easier to relate to other bloggers if I know who they are…they become real to me and it feels more personal.  It wasn’t easy though and at first I did the “camera in front of my face” shot and then the “cropping it to show just a portion of my face” shot, but finally thought “what the heck” and decided to just put it out there.

So here I am, untouched except for a filter to take out some of the sunburn on my skin (in my hotel room in Panama City) getting ready to go out for a day of exploring.  My nose is sunburned and my hair is frazzled from 5 weeks of the sun beating down on it.  My wrinkles are getting more numerous by the day, my roots are starting to “show” and  my freckles have “popped out” big time but…hey, I’m smiling!  I’m happy.  I’m a happy, happy camper!  I’m taking life as it comes.  I’m learning to live in the present moment and the present moment is pretty darn good….and that’s good enough for me.

(We arrived yesterday, into the mountains of northern Panama, very close to the Costa Rican border.  The weather is perfect here…not too hot and not too cold…the birds are colourful and numerous and the flowers are…well, just what you’d expect in a jungle...stunning.  For the benefit of family and friends, I’ll post more photo’s in a day or two!)

Blessings of the moment to each of you!