Five years

Wow! So WordPress has informed me that today is my five year anniversary! How the time has gone by! And just when I am starting a new adventure with my Dad. We are going to open a small shop on the farm to sell our chemical free produce and arts and crafts made by me and any friends that want to join in.

I have cleaned out the space, but there is still a lot of work to be done before it will be ready to open. The shop will be called The Sheeps Garden, El Jardin de la Oveja. 

This weekend my Dad and I participated in a small fair, which was fun and we got to see what produce people liked and their opinions.

   
 
I’m so happy to be celebrating five years, and thanks to everyone who has followed along!

Goodbye Sheldon

Our goose Sheldon and our dog Cotton never really got along. I think each one thought they had to protect us from the other, they didn’t realize they were on the same side. In their own space each did their job to let us know when someone was coming to our house, honking or barking. However, when someone entered their shared space, they would bark and honk at each other. Sometimes Sheldon seemed to even taunt Cotton by swimming in the tank, just out of her reach.

  
Sadly last week they fought, (we didn’t see what happened) and Sheldon was badly injured. He is a tough bird, and I thought there was a small chance he would pull through, however he died a few days later. It was hardest for my daughters who raised him from a gosling.

We will miss his honking. He especially liked to honk along with Pink Floyd when we played it loud.

Sheldon, September 22, 2011 – October 24, 2015

Just some baskets

Two weeks ago there was a large earthquake, 8.3, and a tsunami near where I live. Luckily my daughters and husband were at home when it happened and we all stood outside while the earth shook. One of the walls outside our house fell down, but we were fine, and thanks to Facebook I was able to immediately inform all of my friends and family that we were okay.
  
Within minutes our cell phones were receiving tsunami evacuation text messages, which continued throughout the night. The tsunami did more damage than the earthquake, destroying parts of the port city Coquimbo, and many of the small fishing and tourist beaches up and down the coast. My daughter is studying at one of the University in Coquimbo and so classes was cancelled for a week to allow students time to recover and help with clean up. 

Parents are scared to send their kids to school and everyone is nervous with all the aftershocks we have been having. Like the one that woke us up last night rattling everything in the house. So I am trying to stay calm, (earthquakes don’t scare me that much, not like strong winds, I was very scared of tornados when I was little), but the constant moving is hard.

Experimenting with yarn and my hand spun has given me something to focus on. I have been making small woven baskets. I am really enjoying this. Like handspinning, it feels like an old craft, a connection to a long ago past.

  
  
We also have a new family pet. After a year with no cats, (we went from having ten wild farm cats to zero in less than two years), a very friendly stray arrived at our house. She is a real sweety, and my daughters love her. We have just got her fixed, and she is going to be an indoor cat, (farm life is just too dangerous for cats).

  
  

Olives, a month early!

I don’t know why, maybe it’s the strange weather we have been having, but, I thought this weekend was the time to collect olives. However, I am a month early! They looked so ready!

 
And the girls were all ready, especially my youngest, ready to monkey her way up the olive tree. So we collected the olives and while Juventus played Barcelona I sliced olives. 

 
 Now I am left with black fingernails and my favorite olives that I can eat whenever I think they are ready.

Iris nevus, Lollapalooza, and the Big Bang.

Sometimes when I go on a trip, images, words, or things seem to repeat themselves. A theme develops.

Last week my husband and I traveled to Santiago with our youngest for my yearly eye check and Lollapalooza, (our oldest joined us on the weekend with her boyfriend). Santiago was in the middle of a heat wave, and it was a big change for us coming from cloudy La Serena.

I had my iris nevus scanned and we took the results to my doctor the next day. Everything is stable, and she eased my worries by explaining the type of changes to look out for. Melanoma usually grows quickly, showing changes in colour or size over months, (I was never sure what time frame). I was also able to ask her about options for treatment available in Chile if it did change. Luckily there are a couple of choices, however she still believes that it is unlikely to become iris melanoma. I was very relieved. I tell myself that I am prepared for the worst, but each time I visit and she tells me everything is okay, I feel a huge weight lift.

So the rest of the week was spent visiting museums and watching a theme grow, let’s call it the Big Bang Theme. My youngest and I were watching reruns of the “Big Bang Theory” before we left, and so when one of the hotel elevators broke and we had to use the stairs, we laughed and joked copying scenes from the program.

Then in every museum we visited the displays started with the same words – Big Bang Theory! Galaxies, suns, and planets spiraling around us.

The new shoes my youngest chose, she jumped on them yelling Galaxy!

The new knitting looms I bought because I was curious and wanted to try something new.

The wooden disk I picked up in Kidzapalooza which looked perfect for a small drop spindle, (actually part of a recycled skateboard for a key ring).

 

And a mug from the airport, just because.

Circles and spirals. Spinning out and coming home.

Colourful results

Creating colour

The sun was up early this morning, so I put some wool in my solar ovens. I used my usual natural dye materials; walnut leaves, fennel flowers and leaves, onion skins, and avocado peels.

The onion skins I started the day before.

By the end of the day there was a bit of colour showing.

Here is some grey yarn I dyed on the weekend with onion skins.

I will leave the wool in the ovens for another day to deepen the colours, then they will be ready to spin!

All this and a funny hat

I have been thinking a lot about cancer lately.

Probably doesn’t help that I am slowly reading The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, by Siddhartha Mukherjee, (very good book), and I quickly read The Fault In Our Stars, by John Green, (my daughter wants me to see the movie but I wanted to read the book first).

Or that yesterday I went with my mother-in-law for her check up with her oncologist before she starts her 6th chemo tomorrow. She is doing well, happy that the chemotherapy has not been too difficult.

And, (the main reason), is because we have made appointments for my next scan and visit with my ocular oncologist. I know I was calm and not too worried about my iris nevus, but I seem to have gotten back into the mental “is it/isn’t” it loop.

The uncertainty of not knowing.

However, with all this reading I realized that even if the doctor does tell me it is ocular melanoma, (which can only be confirmed by removing it and performing a biopsy) I will still be living with uncertainty, just different questions; will it come back or has it spread? I talked to my husband about my fears, and he pointed out that many people live with uncertainty. My situation my be rare, but my feelings are not.

I found this comforting. We are social creatures, and feeling alone makes everything worse, but I am not alone. So, I will take a deep breath and focus on the other things in my life…

and there are many!

After taking her entrance exams and applying to several universities, my oldest daughter got into Universidad Católica del Norte to study Law. Some of her friends are going to the same university, which might make the early morning commute on the bus a bit easier. (And I know I am being completely selfish, but I am happy that she is staying close. So is her little sister, who still has 8 years before she goes to university).

I have been very busy at Casa Creatif. Not so much teaching, but administrating and organizing. We have different classes for kids from 10am till 1pm most days of the week.

 

My youngest goes with me every day, taking as many classes as she can, and even my Dad and my oldest are taking pottery classes. (He actually taught when I was a baby, but this is my oldest’s first time!)

I have been spinning and knitting, testing projects that use small amounts of hand spun.

A little large for me, but fun, and who doesn’t need a funny woolly hat in the middle of summer!

 

 

 

 

 

Finally…classes

I have finally started offering hand spinning classes. Now that I have a space that I share with other artists, I feel comfortable inviting people to come and learn the beautiful skill of creating yarn from wool!

So if you are visiting or live in La Serena, and you would like to learn how to hand spin, click on the classes link on the right, or visit our page Creatif.cl

Classes can be in English or Spanish, and there are a lot of other classes too, like ceramics, weaving, painting, paper mâché, and yoga…so many!

Christmas gifts made at home

Summer is starting slowly this year. Yesterday the sun was up early and bright, but this morning it is cool and grey.

 

But that won’t stop the Christmas cheer! Tonight is the big night, dinner with family and opening gifts at midnight. I bought some gifts, but some we made.

I have been weaving.

My youngest daughter has been sewing.

And my oldest daughter baking!

Wishing everyone a Christmas full of love and happiness!