Reappearance

November 2010

Seems I disappeared.... I blinked and almost 6 months have passed, I must have done something with all that time.....

At the end of July I went to Jiko An, in the Alpujarra for a course of chi gong and shiatsu. I came back filled with peace and tranquillity . It was so quiet up there and felt a bit like being on another planet. The nearest village, Yegen, was a few kilometres down the hill. Beyond those distant mountains is the Mediterranean.

A week or so later I was in London. In the National Portrait Gallery bookshop I picked up a book about Gerard Brennan , who lived in Yegen back in the 1920s, and wrote "South of Granada" based on his life there. I found myself reading a paragraph where he described the feeling of being high up there looking down on all that space from Yegen, in Jiko An we were even higher up . Most of the time the sky was cloudless and the nights moonlit but one morning a ribbon of cloud drifted up the valley, and gradually spead until it we were on an island surrounded by

cloud, which buffetted up against windows and cut us off from the rest of the world. The next
day all was clear and cloudless again.

Well, about those photos, as we flew over Poland the sun was lighting up myriad lakes of all sizes and shapes, rivers, streams, ponds, and as I watched them I had the impression that they were filled with molten metal, silver or mercury perhaps, and were only prevented from overflowing by the viscosity of the surface tension, it was magical and I could have watched for ages. I later found out that this area has more lakes than almost anywhere else apart from Finland and is called "Kashubia". It is very green and apart from the water also has lots of woods and forests.We are making our descent here and moving out of Kashubia but there are still lots of lakes . I'm often surprised at the photos I can get with my humble little digi cam, and remember many ariel views and configurations of the land which have attracted me, green and yellow patchworked countryside in England, dry reddish brown expanses of Spain punctuated by occasional lakes of silvery green in dragon like forms , and on returning from this trip the surprise of seeing the mountains north of Málaga a verdant green, as if someone had thrown an enormous emerald velvet cover over everything and tweaked them to form perfect blanket folds. The longest wettest winter in Spain for many years has had its benefits.

Back from Poland

First sight of the Baltic, from Sopot, the sea deep blue green, and the sand silver. I strode out along the beach, and reached the pier , where I did my first transaction in Poland, ordered myself a hot chocolate and apple cake with ice cream! Delicious!
No, this isn't Poland but Essex, hard to believe only a mile or so from Stanstead Airport and this the hotel I stayed in overnight. It was little quirky and I liked it. It also had an Indian Restaurant where I had dinner, the only other guests were Spanish, from Madrid.
I just had to go for walk to soak up the green of the English countryside and this is me on English soil with cowslips.
Coming in over Poland I took these photos from the plane. Watch this space, I'll tell you more about them later.

Gardening and grey skies

Sunday 18th April.
I got out into the garden early the other day, and cleared loads of weeds which had taken over the "secret garden". Weed pulling was made easier with the ground damp and I got much more done than expected, I also got busy pruning stuff, and once I started couldn't stop, its just such a satisfying feeling, needs a bit of muscle power, but then the unwanted branch falls to the ground and light floods in where there was only shade before. Poppy came out to watch, but just watching me made her tired....
Later I took her to task sat her down and gave her a lecture on how she should take a more active part helping out in the garden

I was going to bash on but skies got darker and darker and it started raining again, its rather nice working when its cool and grey, but not in heavy rain. Deprived of this pleasant physical work I kind of lost track of the day, and got to thinking about dust clouds and flight groundings, and wondered if we should be learning something from all this.... maybe we have just got too used to flying off to other places .... (I still yearn for a "beam me up Scottie" device though!) and wondered if perhaps I should programme myself to just accepting that I live here and stop trying to escape ... then checking my email found a long breathless excited one from a friend who had just been to Cairo , Petra and other middle east countries, then another from a penfriend travelling around in the States... hmmm, so much for that idea! and now with my Poland trip all sorted and departure imminent, the news of dust clouds dissipating has not come yet.. we shall see .... watch this space.....

Of Poland, pendulum swings, meditation, shiatsu, scientific papers and other things...

Finally got my trip to Poland sorted! News from that part of the world on Saturday though rather takes one's breath away, at least they weren't flying Ryanair!!

Weather here still subject to big pendulum swings, affecting energy levels and general state of "animo", well mine , anyway. Yesterday tried to do something about this , on a personal level you understand and went along with a friend to a small intimate class of " meditation"...
Before you imagine us sitting around cross legged on the floor, in impossibly uncomfortable half lotuses, trying to subdue the "monkey mind", I will tell you we did nothing like that at all... but some curious little activities, with eyes closed, raising sensory awareness and moving around gently bumping into people and at the sound of a gong gazing into others' eyes till the gong sounded again and moving off again ( here the question arises - how do you gaze? do you go from one eye to the other? parallel eye balling is pretty well impossible or do just go fuzzy and fix on a point in the middle? answers please! also doing things like the "trust circle" which I knew about, but had never experienced , in case you don't know bout this, the group form a more or less close circle around one person who stands in the middle with eyes closed and arms folded over their chest, you are gently pushed in one direction or another by people in the circle, supported and pushed again, the person in the centre should be completely relaxed and not impose anything, but
" trust" the others to support them. It's kind of weird, but curious and is meant to reduce fear, build confidence in a group. The guy who runs the course, is a big cuddly bear-like guy, who it is pleasant to be hugged by, and who has unusual green/ grey? eyes, I should know , I gazed into them, but I got to thinking that somehow gazing into eyes that are not dark brown somehow feels very different maybe cos more light is reflected and you get the impression you are really looking into them, ie the person.... hmm. interesting as I am working on a series of drawings of eyes at the mo...

I wish I could add an image or two for you here, but taking pix wasn't quite the thing! We did some other things too, but won't bore you with all that now, because in the evening I went on yet another pursuit for calm and renewed energy. My friend Manolo is a Master of Chi- Gong and Shiatsu , I did chi gong with him and a few friends last year in our garden, and from time to time was lucky enough to have the wonderful experience of a shiatsu. He had managed to clear some time to give me a shiatsu, it is just sooooo relaxing, you never want it to stop. I love the closeness, the intimacy and the warmth of hands , it also requires a lot of trust , if you are tense its hard for the practitioner... he decided I needed another session to work on my back, so I've got that to look forward to next week... In the meantime , if I feel more energetic that will be a bonus, but just having a shiatsu in a darkened room, with gentle music and an expert and being completely relaxed was just fine. At the end of a session Manolo always thanks me, thanks me?? but the reciprocal thing is important, he has told me before how if people are tense and resist , then it is draining, but rather it should be a two way exchange of energy.... I am also convinced that having shiatsus and doing chi gong last year when I was trying to crack the dreaded Sudeck Syndrome after the wrist fracture, speeded up the whole process.. Thank you Manolo, bezaf.
This morning I have just finished revising a scientific paper for a colleague, words like: lipid peroxidation, apoptosis, protein nitration in rat lung/ hypoxia/reoxygenation, abounded. Why did I never do any science at school? Though this is all way beyond me, I am intriqued by the words and concepts..... well I'm off to do half an hours gardening, need to clear my mind....
Unfortunately these photos don't reflect the garden at the moment, they are more like an incentive to remind me that there was a time when the back garden didn't resemble a jungle, or a "secret garden" as my friend Bea pointed out the other day, when she came to visit and discovered our garden went all round the house and wasn't limited to the bit with the lawn in front

Two classes to come today and as this posting is a bit thin on pix here's one to appeal to visual types
this is a painting of mine, an interpretation of a place called Galera, where my friend/ student and archeologist, who is coming for her English class later on, has been involved for many years excavating an ancient settlement..... well, there's the connection!

Thursday 8th April...
Yes, it's that couple again I saw in Granada,they seemed so happy and at peace with each other and the music they made ,this kind of magic needs spreading around.

Finally getting stuff moving for the Poland trip on 24th April, after so many hold ups in admin and the new system, that thought I might never get to go.

When I went to Estonia in May last year, it was very chilly. Some of my Estonian students have just come back from visiting home, and there is still lots of snow there. I like talking to these students, I can visualise the places they come from and I remember fondly the lovely square in Tartu with its divine cafes, where you could happily spend tranquil hours, reading , writing, thinking, or just watching the world go by. Nice place, would like to go back again sometime.
My favourite cafe in Tartu and a couple of the Uni there. This one is one of the Uni buildings,
in each window is a life size photo of Faculty members. Cool!

Still a bit unsure who I am writing for in this blog, maybe I'll find out soon, but if anyone does chance to read it, enjoy , who ever you are...

Going to off to teach for a few hours now... back later.

Of gardens and Granada

Saturday 3rd April. I spent the day with a friend, she loves gardens so we went to the garden centre, enjoyed walking round and choosing stuff, I bought lots of petunias, and two hanging plants, very pretty even though the name reminds me of skin disease(scabalona). I hung them under the porch next to the wind chimes and the easter eggs.
Sunday 4th April.
Surprise visit to Granada... it was a glorious technicolour day, the sun really warm and it was pleasant to sit on terrasses and watch the world go by , or wander through the old narrow streets of the Albaicin. Everything was bursting into leaf and flower, it seemed like nature was putting on a very special performance after the long miserable wet winter.
As we were walking we heard music, thought it was coming from one of the old houses, but as we rounded a corner, it turned out to be a young couple playing (later found out the instuments are called "hang", they originate in Switzerland and make gentle melodious ethereal music). They played beautifully and were lovely together, and when later we sat in a little plaza (and I had a glass of Moroccan mint tea) and listened to more music, the young couple stopped on their way down the hill to listen too . I couldn't resist taking a few photos of them.... ah, to be young and in love....

and so to technology....

1. For three weeks at the uni, no one could work out why I had no internet connection, in the end turned out to be a question of furniture rather than technological glitches. In the big move to another building my computer had been plugged into the wrong socket , the right one being inaccessible behind two heavy and full bookcases, having got this sorted , I was told I was getting a new computer, wow! and it duly arrived , it is of the tablet variety, and apart from that also have a much bigger separate screen, now I just have to suss out the wonders of tablet computers..... so brought it home to play with...

2. When I got back from my visit to the UK, my MP4 refused to work, a bit like me..... everything was still on it, but the screen was dead-Lost without it, decided to get a new one, through the internet, from China! It arrived a couple of days ago, I liked having the package in my hand , it was postmarked, Kowloon,East Post Office, Hong Kong and took me back to our visit to HK a few years ago, one of the best trips ever....( couldn't resist digging out a few photos of that trip)

3. Chris brought his new camera with him at the weekend, he took lots of pix, and promised to send me them... but had still to discover how to send them in reduced format for emailing , he's working on it...hope to get pix soon... then you might get to see some up here...

2nd Posting : Easter holidays and new technology

Along the valley the trees are coming into leaf. It seems so long with bare trees , beige mud and low gray skies, so it's great to see some colour, the birds are singing like crazy, and the skies are blue, even though it is still chilly. Friends came over the weekend and we took them up to Jabalcuz, its a little green paradise there, against an impressive backdrop of mountains. Apart from us there was no one there, except a gardener trimming the hedges. Last time I was there, a few weeks ago, water draining down from the mountains turned all the steps into living waterfalls, and the decorative pond was a little abandoned, the fountains weren't working and leaves floated in the water against green stones , I rather liked it like that, now the water is crystalline and the stones are no longer green and the leaves have gone, but I got a photo and here it is.

Here are a few more photos of Jabalcuz, (that rushing water is very warm!) Jabaluz used to have a Thermal Spa. The setting reminds me a little of Italy , think this is because of the steep mountain backdrop and the variety of trees, its a surprisingly different place to much of the countryside around Jaén, and its only a few kilometres away, I should escape there more often I think and take my sketch book with me.

first posting

Tuesday 23rd March.

Hmm, not quite sure where or how to start..... but think I'll do it with stepping out into the garden this morning, seems as good as place as any. As you can see the grass needs cutting, could it be spring?

Poppy thought so anyway and put herself in the best spot to take the early morning sun, on the bench outside the window of my study / workroom / studio ? from where I am writing this blog. Being camera conscious, she probably noticed the nice red cyclamen, she chose her photo spot well.

A week or so ago this part of Andalucia looked like this


which was 100% better than it had been a day or two before with floods and mud everywhere, wonderful the cleansing, prisitne qualities new snow can bestow on the landscape

this is the flooded river just a few minutes away from my house, a rushing torrent of dirty washing up water, with some neat white decorations to pretty it up.

Today I tried to make some headway deciding on my route to Poland, should it be from Málaga, Granada, Madrid, Barcelona .. ? and that's only the first bit, but doubtless it will get sorted soon.
After a healthy lunch of fish, good for the brain and hopefully, decision making, I was expecting to give a private English class, but atv the last minute it was called off which gave me a free hour or so to play around on the computer, and then I went off to give another class, this time with a group who I have been teaching for years and from whom I learn a lot on subjects various.... tonight we were discussing the effect of new technologies on our lives, how some are completely hooked and can't live without being connected all the time and how others feel the need to impose some limits, and not have their lives taken over by it all. In particular we were talking about Light Blue Optics' new product , an interactive projector that projects multimedia content onto any flat surface , such as a desk, a wall etc, we considered the usefulness of this and wondered about the possibilities of using it while travelling and if anyone had yet come up with a foldable thinwhite sheet of something, about half A4 size? which could be slipped into a pocket and used whenever.

At the end of the class I walked back over the quiet evening campus to the car park with JL and we talked about how important it is not to get bogged down in work and the series of musical events on at the uni in the evenings this month, as these always coincide with classes, we played with the idea of starting Thursday's class a bit early so that I could catch all the concert, piano and clarinet, and JL said he may come along with me, so we shall see.

At this point my first entry draws to a close, I'll be back s00n, in the meantime
as I'm trying to learn/ memorise/ find someway of getting a few useful expressions in Polish for my forthcoming visit, fixed in my mind and usable.....

Do zobaczenia...