Where Time Slows to an Easy Pace

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jama ecuador, low blood pressure, low pulse, quiet streets, staying healthy, wordpress weekly photo challenge street life

Jama Ecuador (Manabi Province)
Only one street back from the center of town, Hostal Ciragan provides a quiet respite – unless there’s an all-night fiesta nearby!

Mid-morning on Saturday, I walked down the quiet street near Ciragan and pondered my good fortune to have my health, happiness, and many talents to keep me happy; I also felt lucky to have a large support system of people who care about me. I noted wild tobacco in bloom near the sidewalk, and then I noted always-smiling Ramon painting the sign to the hostal!

Are You Ready for Earth Hour?

Balancing a metal colander to double the usb internet reception on the laptop’s left, and using an external keyboard on the right, I’m nudging you to read who what when where and how to prepare for earth hour. Many of you have already seen that hour come and go, but we can start planning to make next year’s event a grand one!!

8:30 – 9:30 tonight – your local time – please: EXTINGUISH YOUR LIGHTS, turn off your chargers, and bask in the darkness. in honor of earth hour!
Spread the word!
yikes! it’s too slow for a reblog prompt!

Petchary's Blog

Tomorrow – Saturday, March 29, 2014 – lights will go out across the globe from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m., local time. It’s just over 17 hours away in New Zealand.

Earth Hour 2014.

Earth Hour is about much more than “lights out.” It is a global movement that aims to create an inter-connected global community that will create opportunities to create a sustainable world (and face the challenges, too!) This year Spiderman has just zoomed in as Special Ambassador for Earth Hour.

How did Earth Hour get started? It started with one city – the beautiful city of Sydney. Then Communications Director with World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Australia Andy Ridley convened a think tank in 2004 to discuss one simple action that would turn the spotlight on climate change. On March 31, 2007, over two million households and 2,000 businesses in Sydney turned their lights out for the inaugural Earth…

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End-of-Day Reflections

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canoe in water, strange sunsets, sunset reflections, weekly photo challenge reflections, weird sunsets

Manabi Province – Ecuador
As if to announce a change in our ‘rainy season’ drought, this sunset cast an eerie glow across the entire landscape.  Still muddy from early February rains, the river seemed to bounce the colors back into the sky.  That night the heavens soaked the parched earth with an inch of rainfall.  We received another inch of rain the following night.

A similar color returned to the end-of-day skies three days later.  My friends were draining the shrimp pond, and the surreal colors played well against the lone canoe.  

Timeout for Art – Sharing Your World with Others

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Acryilc Painting, Brugmansia, datura, Night Gardens, Painting flowers in acrylic, Tropical Gardens

When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. (Georgia O’Keeffe)

Inspired by my friends’ gardens in Mindo Ecuador, this evolving make-believe garden of acrylic paint has grown one flower at a time! Gingers and heliconias make excellent subject matter for botanical studies, but it’s been about ten years since I painted the lovely queen of the night.

A fringe benefit of working from life is the fragrance of the flowers!

Capturing the essence of the elegant datura (brugmansia) raised the bar and challenged me to transport the viewer into the mysteries of a nocturnal cloud-forest scene.  Datura, a bewitching queen of the evening,  opens at dusk and releases her intoxicating fragrance throughout the night.   A dangerous hallucinogen, it is used by shamans in ayahuasca ceremonies and is also abused by criminals to drug unsuspecting victims.  Devoted gardeners cultivate it for the beauty of its flowers and the delicate lemony aroma.

After working inside during the night, I moved to the garden and painted briefly the next morning.

The daturas preside over shade loving plants, and each compliments the other.  Deep crimson king’s torch gingers dig their toes into the cool soil and stretch skyward toward the datura.  Flaming-orange heliconias squeeze between available gaps and fill in the middle ground.   At night, I sometimes wonder what creature might be lurking in the shadows only a few feet away!

Idle, Neutral, Forward and Reverse!

Tags

old trucks, slow internet solutions, what's internet like in rural ecuador

A few of my WordPress friends will relate to the following message that often appears at the top of an “Add New Post’ page:  “Connection lost. Saving has been disabled until you’re reconnected. We’re backing up this post in your browser, just in case.” 

Slow connections can test the patience of Job!   Sometimes the above message remains on the screen for hours as images upload or backfire with snitty red Error messages.  Last night’s “pink”  images took three hours to upload, and I worked on Thursday’s Timeout for Art in another window while battling with the uploads.     Emails loaded slowly, comment and like options failed to load.  Notification stars blinked in the upper right corner, yet the drop-down box revealed a white field.

Although I had typed several hundred words, the Timeout for Art/Save material was still idling with a 31 word count from hours before!

The headlights work; I wonder if the clutch and brakes are dependable!   Slow internet is like an ancient vehicle!

Comments in moderation arrive in the inbox, and the final jump to approval rolls to a dead end!   Other comments that I attempt to answer often swirl for a minute or two before either leaping to the proper place, or they vanish – poof! – or I can sometimes hit the ‘back’ button and return to my comment, let the page load again, then send it a second, third,fourth, and hopefully it reaches its destination!

Today as I watch my comments swirl in neutral space before they sail into a dead zone, I reflect on the time spent trying to move forward.  It’s like having a road-weary vehicle that’s lost its transmission fluid or gets stuck in neutral!   The blank screen reminds me of the odometer stuck on zero!  Instead of raising the hood and searching for solutions, I place the USB modem in a stainless steel bowl or metal colander, and the speed usually doubles…  juggling that with an external keyboard while trying to keep the homing device on the cell tower is a balancing act,  but it’s still too slow in daylight hours.

A Bouquet of Pink

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pink flamingo yard art, pink flowers, Where's my backpack travel theme pink

Almost twenty years ago, a friend sneaked this flamingo into my gardens in Natchez, Mississippi. Kathy’s calling card moves with me, and it still triggers a smile. Presently it watches over a young ceibo tree that was rescued from the blade of an excavator.

The pink flamingo proudly watches over this assortment of flowers in honor of Ailsa’s travel theme, PINK!

Timeout for Art: Timeout for Equinox!

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Equinox, Timeout for Art

Maracuya fruit marks high noon on the equator – March 20, 20140 equinox

“There are times when we stop, we sit still. We listen and breezes from a whole other world begin to whisper.”  James Carroll

There are also times that beg for a fast timeout for art;  the above image illustrates one minute’s prep in the kitchen, a dash outside to record the sun’s shadow at high noon, and a few minutes of doodling with a paint program for a hand-drawn smile!

Compare today’s shadow with the image from last June’s solstice, when the sun stretched as far north as the celestial laws permit!

Omens

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El Matal Ecuador, jama ecuador, ladrones, omens, Sunsets, thieves

Brilliant Sunset March 12 – Jama Central

Could this March 12 sunset have been an omen for an unusual upcoming day?

March 13 began with an early-morning walk to town…  I spotted the first Peruvian Meadowlark for the year, then stopped and admired a smooth-billed ani.  The black and white stilts, herons, ibis and egrets are perennial bonuses!

Some days the walk is muddy; other days it’s dry and dusty. There are always interesting fora and fauna waiting to be discovered!

Grabbing a drink and banana bread on the run, I hopped in a collectivo pickup bound for El Matal….

After a brief check at El Matal, where Project Sandbag is underway, I returned to Jama for lunch and Timout for Art post then home to resume work on the painting…
But wait! The sound of a helicopter veered me off course, and to the airstrip I went!

Timeout for Art: Aim High!

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acrylic paintings, art by Lisa Brunetti, botanical paintings of the cloud forest, datura, ginger, heliconias, Timeout for art: Aim High

2009 Watercolor by Lisa Brunetti

“The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.” – Michelangelo

Datura-Ginger-Heliconia from Mindo Cloud Forest (Ecuador) Acrylic detal

There are times when, with sensitivity, I instruct my students, “Always stop before you think you are finished.”   Sometimes we can overwork a painting, and in search of precision, we lose the spontaneity and freshness.  It becomes overworked and heavy.

There are other times when I nudge my students to stick with the work a bit longer.  I remind them, “The difference in an amateur and a professional, is that the professional takes it a few steps more and puts in a few more hours…’

This painting held its own with the background left stark white. The colors sing against the white background.  Shadows could be added, and it would fool the eye, as it was already fooling mine!   My friend Xavier often walks into the studio and says, “I can never tell what’s painted and what’s real!”  and when this painting was flat on the magic-carpet floor, I often forgot that it was not part of the floor!

When a painting is 35 inches by 48, it’s taking a few more weeks to finish! After several moments of self doubt, I  ‘soiled’ the white background with a medium value wash of dark blues and purples and greens.  I knew there was no option to return to the original white background!!!  I continued adding layers of paint…

More Lovely Women of Jama Ecuador!

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Dia de Mujeres, happy people, International Day of Women, jama ecuador, Lovely Women of Jama Ecuador

Anyone who knows Jama will surely smile at this photo! (More below)

Jama Ecuador

Losing a friend sometimes reminds us to embrace those that are still with us.   This past week’s blog feedback regarding my friend’s death touched my heart, and your observations abut Jama’s Lovely Women filled that same heart with joy. Thank you; I am blessed.   I hope to acknowledge your comments by the end of the week.

Internet options at my house remain poor, so I am only online when in town – usually in short doses while having lunch or dinner at Restaurant Exclusivo. (Thanks again, Sivana!)

Silvana wears many hats! Our appreciation for her tripled when she acknowledged the cluster of extranjeros that participated in the Wear White for Peace March. (2013)

Silvana and her father have visited El Matal to show support and concern for the vanishing beach.

And she can paint!

Silvana, btw, is preparing for another internship/cultural immersion in the USA; she leaves on April 1st and will be there about six months. She will surely share those details with everyone soon.

Are you ready to meet more fabulous women of Jama?

Postscript for As Beautiful As You

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Joe Kaknes Costa Rica

Whenever I return home, I note the placement of the gate latch, the padlock on the outside of the bodega doors, and I step inside, look at the floor and say, “Hello House!”    Yesterday after a three-day absence, I returned home to find everything in its place.

Except for one item.

The Lovely Women of Jama Ecuador

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Hard Working Women, International Day of Women, Jama, jama ecuador, Latin America Culture, March 08 2014, Moving to a New Culture

Silvana and her family took a rare afternoon off from their Restaurant Exclusivo. These gals juggle university studies with restaurant responsibilities!

Tapping into photos from the past year, I present some of the hard-working women from the Jama (Ecuador) area.

Nelly took a rare break from her restaurant for Mother’s Day 2013.

Most of these women touch my life on a weekly basis, if only through a smile as we pass on the street.

I always pause to speak to the ladies who keep our streets free of litter!

Sometimes they are quite weary at the end of the day. But they can usually reach down and find an honest smile.

Sorting through these images made me wistful for those syrupy long-ago days in the Mississippi Delta. We did not need trendy gadgets or sleek modes of transportation. We delighted in tending the vegetable garden and shelling peas and beans in the cool shade of the mid-day sun.  Life in Manabi Province in Ecuador reminds me of those days.

…As Beautiful As You…

“Just as we take the train to go to Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to go to a star.  What’s certainly true in this argument is that while alive, we cannot go to a star, any more than once dead we’d be able to take the train.”  Van Gogh to Theo (Vangoghletters.org)

A very talented and dear friend died yesterday after a brief illness.  Shine on, Joe Kaknes;  your sweetness will live on in my heart.

Z

Timeout for Art: Be Yourself!

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be yourself, Timeout for Art, watercolor

“The Magic Portal” – Watercolor – Lisa Brunetti

The hardest challenge is to be yourself in a world where everyone is trying to make you be somebody else.
~E. E. Cummings

Watch the frog come to life!  These photos show how a subject can seize control and affect the mood.