New Beginnings

Left front flower bed just beginning to come back to life & newly potted (the deer had a feast last night, but I know everything will come back even stronger:)

It seems that since I have had a yard, and gardens in that yard – I meet each spring with anticipation. I am not a big fan of weeding (it’s kind of like house cleaning which, although I love a clean house, is not high on my list of fun things to do), but I do love having beautiful flowers and fresh veggies to eat. And I do love the creating and nurturing part, too.

The anticipation comes from thinking
about how the yard will evolve.

A rather crazy & beautiful wildflower garden had evolved in our backyard. In the past few years it has filled with tall sunflowers, bee flowers and many others.

Wildflower Garden – August 2012

We’ve had some lovely rain this spring, and I see the flax which gave us lovely little purple flowers to start the summer, popping up everywhere.

Tim just finished cutting down the big sunflower stalks from last summer

What will it look like as the summer progresses?

This year we started our veggie garden earlier than usual. A dear friend (and experienced gardener) brought me some row cover and insisted the greens would be fine under it – no matter what mother nature had in store for the spring. We now have quite a bit of spinach and lettuce ready to eat – along with baby bok choy, kale and on the way.

Last Saturday Tim planted the rest of the garden with seeds and some small plants (including some squash plants I had started inside).

Beginning of 2013

August 2012

I planted several large pots with annual flowers, and transferred some basil plants I had started inside, to pots.

Tiny basil plants and a cherry tomato plant

Deck Pot – new addition last summer

Small flower beds also hug the house in both the front and the back (see top photo for an idea of what I mean). They were started (revived I should really say), by the woman who rented our house just after we bought it (and before we moved in). I have been nurturing these beds, and although I am not completely satisfied with the mixture of plants, each summer they provide much color, beauty and joy.

So what will happen this year? It always feels like the big unknown in the beginning. Things are just beginning to sprout in some places, and are still barren in others. Will my pots fill out, bloom & thrive? Will our tomato and squash plants bear lots of fruit?

I am certainly not wishing the summer to be further along. I have grown to enjoy this anticipation as part of the journey – while trusting that the gardens will evolve and grow in the beautiful way they should.

I find this garden cycle a beautiful analogy
for cycles in life.

There are times when we are just beginning, and times when we are in full bloom. And then, of course, there are usually fallow times. Thinking of the cycle of growth in my garden helps me to remember that these fallow times are a resting period – and that these are important parts of the cycles in life. It also reminds me how important it is to take care of myself – as I care for my garden (even if weeding is not always my favorite project:)

How does your garden
(flowers/vegetables and life) grow?

I’d love to hear from you.

xox,
Lisa, the mountain mermaid

Lions & Zebra & Elephants, oh my

We started our day before dawn, driving through the park scouting animals. Despite being confined to the car (you were not to get out of your car in the game park), it was quite fun to watch zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, gemsbok, and springbok interact amongst their own and exist with one another.
                                                                      excerpt from my journal – May 11, 2000.

Southern Africa, specifically Namibia, was the first big stop on our around the world adventure that began in April of 2000.

It was the only stop where we had any real plans organized in advance, so to speak. Tim roused himself  at 2am, several times before we left Colorado, to connect with people by phone – to make sure we had camp reservations at several national parks around the country…including Etosha National Park – the country’s big wildlife sanctuary. We also made lodging reservations at the Rivendell Guest House for our first few nights, and a car rental reservation for our adventure around the country.

We also bought several plane tickets in advance (which you’ll hear about as the story unfolds), but we left most of the planning for when we arrived at each destination.

In 2000 researching and planning on the internet was still in its infancy so we used travel guides (mostly Lonely Planet) and some email.  It’s fun to see that the Rivendell still exists and now has a beautiful website!

I could write a chapter (or two, or ten) from all the experiences we had as we criss-crossed our way around Namibia in ‘The Taz’, as our little Toyota hatchback became affectionately known. But I don’t want to make this too long, and likely boring, so I will try to hit some highlights with the precious few digital photos I have from this segment of the trip.

Below is a map that gives you an idea of where we were. All of the roads in Namibia, except two main two lane highways, were  dirt.

We started from Windhoek and headed south towards Luderitz, a rather sleepy coastal town, with many buildings neatly painted in brightish pastel colors. We hiked along a beach near town where we ran into diamond mine no entry signs. We had seen similar signs along the road on the way into town.

The gem we found was where we camped after leaving Luderitz.

Klein Aus provided trails to this beautiful sunset spot, a beautiful camp spot, and our first experience with the southern night sky.

After leaving Klein Aus we headed north on a more back road recommended to us by a local couple – because it would get us closer to the sand dunes. I remember it being a very long and dustyday, and I love this quote from my notes:

“a sea of dried pale yellow grass melts into the marching bright orange dunes”

From here we landed in the Naukluft campground – one of the primitive camping sites of the Namib-Naukluft National Park.

Tim stands with a large Quiver tree on one of our hikes. My biggest memory of this stay in Naukluft was hike down one of the canyons where we had to made our way across part of it – filled with water – using a chain along the canyon wall. I loved the campground that was mostly filled with vacationing Namibians.
Note: Namibia became a German Imperial Protectorate in 1884, so along with the original dark-skinned inhabitants, there are many ‘white Afrkaans’ in Namibia.

Sossusvlei which means ‘the gathering place of water” is home to the largest sand dunes in the world, and is also part of the Namib-Naukluft National Park. They say you rarely see water here, and the year we were visiting was said to be exceptionally rainy…and we saw lots of water the day we ventured, in the Taz, way back into the dunes. I was just reading that the first 37 miles of road now has a permanent surface…but that was not the case when we were there. We actually had no business driving our little Toyota where we did. I remember parts of the drive to be harrowing, but it was worth it to be back in those dunes. I love Sand Dunes National Park here in Colorado, and you could sit those dunes right inside the dunes of the Namib Desert.

Passing through Walvis Bay, we saw the pink flamingoes that live there.

Swakopmund is a lovely coastal town where we stayed in for a few days,at a pension that was once a German Military Hospital. It was here that we bought one of the biggest ‘souvenirs’ of our trip – we ordered a rug, to be custom woven with sand dunes and gemsbok and then shipped to the U.S. It felt a bit like a silly leap of faith at the time, and it still hangs on our travel wall today.

We had several other adventures along the way to Etosha National Park…which was our last big stop in Namibia. In the park you were required to stay within one of the rest camps, and when you were driving around the park – allowed from sunrise to sunset – you were required to stay in your car.

Namutoni was the first place we stayed. It was originally a German fort and had accommodations as well as a campground. We, of course, camped. And were up at dawn each day to scout animals in the the acres and acres of reserve.

I loved the opportunity to see these animals in their habitat – living their lives naturally.

And I had the unexpected surprise of learning to love birding while here. too. There were so many colorful birds, and the book we bought to track the animals also included images of many of the birds – making it easy to learn about them.

It’s funny to find so much about Namibia at my finger tips (on the internet), when it all felt so unknown when we arrived there thirteen years ago.  And I am so glad to be carrying the wonderful memories in my heart and mind – and bringing those memories to life as I read through my journals and share the stories with you. I almost wish you could be a fly on the wall of my mind so you could see all the wonderful stories floating through as I create this little story here on the mountain mermaid.

Knowing that my experience was not documented by a gazillion pictures and sharing socially deepens my understanding of the importance being in the moment. Being in the moment helps you to remember those experiences differently than if you were just trying to document, for someone or something else, as you went.

Still, I hope that my adventure stories are fun for you to read, and provide some inspiration for you to create your own adventures – whether across the street, across the country or on the other side of the planet from where you are.

xox,
Lisa, aka the mountain mermaid

AKAN messages – in progress

Gocco printing AKAN messages

Saturday is the deadline for art for ‘Letters, Unfettered’ – the spring Salida Library Art Show. I love to participate in this show each year: it always has a theme I can relate to, and the call is for all Arkansas Valley artists and writers. This is a place I can put myself squarely in the middle of.

So although I have a list a mile long – not the least of which includes blogging regularly (and sharing my Around the World in 365 story), my drawing challenge, developing my journals for sale, my monthly creative coloring download and Creative Dream Journals post – along with the regular things like client work, eating & sleeping, playing outside, yoga class and hanging out with my husband –my project for the library show has definitely risen to the top.

I won’t say all of the above things have come to a complete stand still…but this art project turned into something bigger than I originally planned, and I am committed to seeing it to completion. I’m even feeling cautiously optimistic that I might even like it when it’s done.

I’ve had so much fun with the process (which is  really the most important part) that I have let go (for the most part) of the many imperfections that have cropped up along the journey. Besides, if I obsess over my them for too long I will never get the project done.

The final piece will be a mixed media artist book that will include postcards I created from paper I painted, and Adinkra symbols I drew and printed onto the painted paper.

postcard fronts

I will also have a limited edition of the postcards that I plan to sell and use for mailing. You see, although I love this online world, there is nothing like finding fun mail in your post box.

I’d love to share with you – so if you love to get fun mail, please let me know about it in the comments. Four lucky readers will receive one of my postcards in their postboxes. (Please comment by Saturday, May 11 – the day the show opens, and if you’re chosen I will email you to get your snail mail address).

And if you’re interested in buying a few to send to your friends or loved ones, let me know that, too. Or just make a card on your own and send it off. I guarantee you’ll make the day of its recipient!

I’ll do a follow-up post with photos of the final piece, and of the show. My plan is to also update my Rivertown Press site with information on the piece and the postcards, so I’d love for you to stop by that site, too.

Happy Spring – and I hope you’ll consider sending someone special a card in the mail. You know you’ll make her/his day!

xox,
Lisa, aka the mountain mermaid

Sharing Santa Fe – A Photo Essay

When you hear ‘Santa Fe’ you’re probably thinking you’re going to see southwestern urban views…and so I have to give you a heads up – when we go to Santa Fe we camp in the Black Canyon campground, and generally play on the outskirts of the city.

weekend getaway begins at Black Canyon…

I love how these hillsides have hearts tucked into them.

I love watching the sky through the trees.

a bit of urban mountain biking

breaking in my new gloves on La Tierra Trails.

crazy old car in a wash, alongside the trail

back at camp again

did I really agree to scramble up this rocky embankment?

finding this cute little guy, who seemed to like me – or really likes getting his picture taken – made it worth it:)

the shape of our bread after we had to trim off the raven maulings

evening campfire

more urban mountain biking

looking out on Santa Fe – and down to Albuquerque – from the Dale Ball Trails

I was hoping for flowers…but settled for last year’s cholla fruit

and other spiny cactus

our city explorations

dragon

mermaid

and cranes

all found in the courtyard galleries along Canyon Road

and lastly

a most decadent almond croissant (and latte) at the Sage Bakehouse. Yum!

my ‘SketchNote’ journal page from the weekend.

and very lastly there was the trip to Trader Joe’s, to stock up on some staples, before heading home.

Thank you for coming along on my little weekend adventure. I hope you enjoyed it!

xox,
Lisa, aka the mountain mermaid

imagine all the people…

….sharing all the world

imagine is the coloring download I am sharing with you this month. After I thought about the word, I glanced up to see this beautiful piece I created a number of years ago which still sits open on my shelf.

While teaching calligraphy & book arts at Naropa University in 2006, one of the semester long assignments I created for my students was a book exchange. There were about a dozen students in the class, plus me, and the assignment was to create a small edition – so that each student would have a piece from each of their classmates. I participated, too, and my book was inspired by John Lennon’s song Imagine, which I absolutely love.

My piece for you this month – click here to download – is also inspired by Lennon’s song, and that book I created for my student book exchange.

The lettering for the word started life with a pencil – actually two – taped together to emulate a flat nib of sorts. From there I scanned the sketch, brought it into illustrator and drew the letters with the pen tool.

My paper doll chain was created similarly – although I just snagged the paper doll peeps off the internet and drew from there.

I’m still learning how to use the pen tool in illustrator, so I’m quite proud of how well I did with the letters. They are far from perfect, but I think I’m beginning to master the tool just a bit.

My paper doll chain is pretty rough – and it was a last minute inspiration that I did not spend a lot of time on. I think they’re pretty cute though, and I hope you’ll have fun adding some color and personality to them.

And I hope you’ll

imagine…all the people…sharing all the world.

I may be a dreamer, but it is a wonderful concept.

If nothing else, I hope you’ll have some fun and share what you create with me and others. And please feel free to share my download if you feel inspired. Spread the word…imagine!

Happy Spring – Let your imagination run wild!

xox.
Lisa, aka the mountain mermaid

P.S. Here’s a peek at the space where my imagine book sits…it is just to the right of my computer – I love being able to glance over at many of the journals and and other bookish pieces I’ve created, along with a collection of other fun memorabilia.