Of Flowers and Bees Pt. 1 - Ballina

These pictures were taken in Mark's parents Caravan park, Belleek Park, in Ballina, co. Mayo, just some months ago. Now, I am obsessing with taking pictures of plants. Flowers. Bees (these, whenever possible!). Nature in general. Most of the time (98% of the time, to be precise), I don't even know the name of the flower. Or even if that insect is a bee or a bumblebee or a wasp. But I enjoy it nonetheless, in all my ignorant bliss.

As always, click on thumbnails for detail...

(The above are from the chestnut tree in the Park, so, chestnut flowers!)


(The bright purple one at the left is a pansy for sure!)


(This baby looks like a hydrangea, but may not be one...)

Back after 3 long months...

I am back again, after a long hiatus of 3 months or so, namely, since I moved to the new house. Why is that, one might wonder... Moving to a new place really messed me up: new surroundings, stairs to climb all the time, getting used to it... It takes some time, really, to settle in, and the whole process is quite tiresome for me. I am not very fond of changes.

But now, I am OK. Mostly OK. I am settled, yes, but starting to feel a bit depressed: it's one year since I went to Rio last, and I miss it a lot. We will go there for Christmas, true. But whenever I stay more than 10-11 months away, I start to feel depressed and anxious. So, that's why.

The house is now looking great (I think!), but of course there are still some bits and ends left (hanging pictures, for example).

I still haven't restarted the jewelry though, but at least all my stones and beads are well-organised and in the right places right now.

What have I been up to, during these 3 months then? Well, not much, really, except for the usual: watching DVDs, reading manga and books, organising my little things (Kitty collection, stationery, perfumes, magazines etc) and playing with Super Poke Pets on Facebook. I must say I turned out to be quite an addict, for the pets and objects you buy and collect are so lovely, that it's really very hard to resist!

The manga I've been reading lately are: Nodame Cantabile (Sapphire's recommendation, really great), Inuyasha (yes, yes, still!), Chibi Vampire (which just ended in a rather abrupt/hurried way), XXXHolic (which quickly became one of my favourites), and some others. As for the books, mostly Japanese authors: Natsume Soseki, Natsuo Kirino, Yoko Ogawa. Special mention of course goes to Natsume Soseki, a wonderful Japanese classic. I started by reading his "Kokoro", which is very moving and very hard to put down. I was wanting to read him for some time already, since I read Murakami's (indirect) praises of his work in "Kafka on the Shore" some years ago. At the time I thought: well, if it's something Murakami (his characters, in this case) waxes lyrical about it, of course I am bound to love it. And I was right. It's not a light reading, but one that really makes you think and consider a series of things. And if you enjoy Japanese culture, even better, however the chore of this specific work was rather universal , global, ie, things that anyone (in spite of cultural differences, backgrounds, religion, gender etc) can feel, live and why not, die for. But that was his first book I read, and quickly bought some others: "The Three-Cornered World", "The Gate" and "I Am a Cat" - but am only starting the former tonight.

Talking of books then... Our Play Room (aka library, aka computer room, aka...) is finally ready. Mark finished the book shelves that we bought in Ikea (my favourite place for house stuff, for sure!) and I am very happy to report that our book organising issues are all sorted (for now, ha ha! Nah, just kidding...)...

If you want to have a better look, please click the thumbnails for a magnified view...




And some details here...

The new house

We moved last Wednesday. It was very, very stressful. I don't want to go into details, really. The moving company was OK, but not as brilliant as they claim to be, and once the insides (of the old apartment that is!) arrived, it was not like everything turned out to be completely right. Well, most of it was great actually! Minor issues of course, but these can be fixed. If not now, over time.

Kitchen is great, garden is lovely and, overall, the place is bigger than it looks! The negative points? My shower door is broken, the showers themselves (both bathrooms) have to be either fixed or replaced, and we are running out of bookshelves. A wall unit had to be sacrificed (put to recycle) since it would not only fit in the stairs (1st landing being a bit narrow for the curve and so on), but it was mouldy underneath, as a result of a flooding some years ago in our former apartment. Since it was cheap, not great looking and has already served its purpose, we dumped it.

I feel that I am not completely settled yet, and the house is still in the process of becoming "ours". We still have to unpack lots of things and organise it in their places and so on.

Yesterday we have our friends around. Monica discovered some lavender flowers in the front lawn. They smell wonderful! And today, while watering the plants in the back garden, I found a small kiwi tree! Now you may ask yourself how do I know it's a kiwi tree. Well, it has a tag stuck to the trunk with its Latin name and other specs, simple as that.

We took some pictures (actually, lots!), and here's some of them. Please click on the thumbnails to magnify...

Sunset at our back garden...

View from inside the living room...

There is a Buddha in the garden! The former owner gave it to us as a well-wisher! I love it!

Partial view from the play room...

Moving!

This week is a (very) stressful one. We are in the process of moving house, since we just bought one off Navan Road, more convenient for Mark. And it's a house, it's ours finally, and has a pretty garden!

And, since I am currently addicted to the RockYou Pets application in Facebook, I have decorated my pet according to the occasion. My pet by the way, is a female raccoon and is called Ta-chan (from Tanuki = raccoon in Japanese).

Well, here is Ta-chan then, as lost as me, and desperately wanting to go home!!!

As you can see, she is impersonating you-know-who, and ready to be "abducted to Navan Road".

Now it's back to cleaning and organising for me!

See you soon!

a.

My little JList haul...

I have ordered some goodies from my favourite Japanese supplier, JList! They arrived today and I am super-pleased...

Matcha diet Coke... Probably the best diet Coke ever! The subtle matcha (green tea) taste makes it a must-drink for Summer. This diet Coke even tastes less sweet than normal, and much nicer with that refreshing hint of green tea. I only ordered two bottles to try and will have to get some more:

A gift for my Mother... It's a banana holder! She always complained that the bananas she brings to her shop get all mushy and bruised on the way... This is a cool, albeit a bit weird, little gadget for protecting bananas "in motion":

And finally, we got a present for our new house and these oh-so hot Irish Summer days (ha ha...). This is a katori buta, a ceramic pig where you burn mosquito coils inside. You can hang it to a tree or leave it outside in a Summer day and the burning coils (pretty much like incense, that is) will keep the nasty biting bugs at bay. It looks very cute and is a very traditional object:

My Russian lacquer boxes...

I love Russian lacquer work, and since I arrived to Dublin, I got some here and there, but mostly Matrioshka. I have only four boxes, though, and I think they are quite pretty. My Mom and Mark gave me one each and, when we visited Prague, I bought two more in Celetná. It is not really like I collect them, since I have only those few, and I just get them when it happens to be, anyway. Or when people give me them as gifts. I also have two books on the subject, from an American collector. Unfortunately, I don't have their names right now, since they have been packed already (we are moving in 2 weeks!).

Here they are...

This 1st box was given to me by my Mother. It is an old one, from 1964-1965. It still has the certificate above, which says:

Artistic Foundation of RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic)

Palekh division of the Artistic Foundation of RSFSR

Material - papier-mache

Number of the work - 1964

Theme of the painting - Scarlet Flower

Author - Televinova

Name of the article - ??? (this abbreviation is not clear)

Size - 10 x 10 cm

Quality - Highest

Article of the AF - 193

Price - 9.10

Date - March 23 1965

The above box, depicting a scene of the Fire Bird, was given to me by Mark. I am not sure if he brought it from New York, or bought it here in Dublin. It' s a lovely two-tiered one, with a little mirror inside.

When I saw this one in a lovely shop in Celetná, I could not resist. I was mesmerised with the amazing transparency of the veils and details of the brocaded dresses. I am not sure if it depicts any scenes of a fairy tale, or if it's just a portrait of two young ladies.

Lastly, some pictures of my remaining box, with a scene from the Russian fairy tale "The Gold Fish", which is not quite the gold fish of our imagination, but a large, regal sturgeon. This is another lovely box bought in the same shop in Celetná, with very bright, vivid colours.

My very own Shikon no Tama...

This month I have decided to celebrate Inuyasha's last anime series and last manga books. Yes, it will be over. I will miss it a lot, for I am a big fan of Rumiko Takahashi's work, and especially Inuyasha that I have followed for some years already. This week I will order the last DVD box (series VII). As for the books, I am not sure where it stands so far, and how many more volumes are expected.

Since it's celebration time, and the last shards are to be found soon, I have decided to make my own Shikon jewel. Thus, the name of the piece is simply Shikon no Tama (Jewel of the Four Souls), a globe of light composed by these 4 principles (=souls):

- Courage,
- Wisdom,
- Friendship,
- Love.

I will not go into the plot details though, since it would take a long time. At any rate, if you found this post today, it's probably because you already know Inuyasha anyway! My version of the jewel is a bit elaborate perhaps, in comparison with the original artwork by Takahashi-san. It pretty much complies with my own style of jewellery-making: a bit "baroque" perhaps, mixing several materials and trying to convey a meaning, rather than the object "per se". Thus, if you find that it's not at all like the original Shikon (and most certainly it isn't), please bear in mind that it is simply the result of my own personal interpretation.

Here is my Shikon then:

The following materials have been used:

- One round hand blown Murano glass sphere with gold foil;
- Two faceted Czech crystals surrounding it, with Aurora Borealis coating;
- Several Swarovski bicones and two small pendants in different shades of topaz;
- Several tourmaline chips in shades of forest green, aqua, yellow and pink;
- Several vintage Swarovski molted champagne pearls;
- Small glass pearls in deep green that I brought from Prague last month;
- Small round Czech fire golden beads;
- Toggle gold-plated Bali clasp, all threaded on a metallic champagne wire.

To have a better look at the pictures next, please don't forget to click on the thumbnails to magnify:


Two close-ups of the Bali toggle clasp. The small Czech fire beads and dark green pearls can also be seen.


Two pictures showing close-ups of the Murano focal bead and the faceted Czech crystals, along with other various elements...


The above photos show detailed views of the Swarovski regular and top-drilled bicones, and also the small pearls, Czech fire golden beads and vintage Swarovski pearls. These are quite old, but still have an amazing shine and smooth texture.


These pictures display a nice view of the faceted Czech crystals, as well as some of the bicones and pearls. I have decided to include them because I really like the golden reflections and iridescence generated by the AB coating and facets. A nice play of light.


These three shots focus on the Swarovski vintage pearls. They measure 10mm each. I have included tourmaline chips between them, which made the threading process a bit harder and longer since the holes are too small, as are the chips of course (the smaller they are, the harder it gets to even hold them). Tourmalines are quite expensive when compared to other minerals, but do have a wonderful translucence. The colours (in this case yellow/amber, pink, dark and aqua green) go really well together - to my surprise, I must say!


More detailed shots of the tourmaline chips... and, below, two more views of the piece: