Creative Photography

I found another area to be creative, beach photography.
I came across some beautiful shells on the shore and played around with them.

Snowdon timed the sun setting.  It took 1 min 55 sec from when it hit the horizon...

Injured + Bringing back 'fem' + Creativity

Today is Sunday. On Thursday morning I woke up with a piercing pain between my shoulders. I waited for a few days for it to go away, tried surfing on Thursday, then tried resting on Friday. It didn't go away. So yesterday, Saturday (after remembering that I have medical insurance for just this kind of purpose), I went to the local Scottish Chiropractor Neil. Well Neil, who has Papaya trees and a pond containing fish, in his back yard, said I had injured myself in an equivalent way to spraining my ankle, at some stage. This had restricted my movement around those particular vertebra and the muscles surrounding this area had become strained (happened after several days of big surf), and were now clamped up and filled with lactic acid. I also assert that the halter neck bikini's (very uncomfortable but I hadn't found an alternative) that I've been wearing haven't helped, terrible idea those, they put so much pressure on your neck (Neil agreed). Neil pressed on various areas of my back to break up the lactic acid, and did a few big 'CRACKS' here and there, loosening up my back significantly. I love it how he explained everything to me - pretty important seeing as it's my body. I'm to rest for two days (second day today), ice, stretch.. and should be all good by tomorrow. I go back for a follow up this coming Thursday.

So that's the first topic of this blog. The next is 'bringing back fem'. I assert that many of us kiwi girls often lose our 'fem' (feminine) expression, when we're busy 'keeping up with the boys' (not all kiwi girls of course - some are doing just fine with fem). I think I did to a degree. So I'm bringing fem back. I'm in such a great place to learn - the women are very fem here!  Christiane (Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom) advises 'listening to our bodies'. Well this occasion of listening to my body (resting my injured back) has given me a chance to go bikini shopping. I have eliminated halter neck anythings from my life. My body doesn't like them. Fortunately I have devised a new tying plan (with Snowdon's help) to make them all into crossover backs so that I can still use them :) The same morning I woke up with a sore back, as I got out from my traditional 'after surf swim', I met the owner of Kina Surf, a kiwi lady (Al's mum) who I had seen out body boarding previously (she said "I knew when I saw you that you were a kiwi girl" I now wish I'd asked why!). I said that I was coming down for a look today and that I needed to replace my top (the only non halter neck bikini top I had, I had on and was rotten - now in the bin where it belongs). She said "brilliant we have some new special surfing bikini's (they tie on tight and are made to cross-over) in and you'll love them".

She was right, I did love them - the guy who makes them has come up with a treat! After many try ons, and a few evenings to ponder, I purchased a very bright and incredibly fem, swimming pool blue, crossover backed bikini. Actually it was the femmest one they had! It even has frills and a hanging bow belt tie. 

Christiane (WBWW) had said for women to express their inherent creativity is crucial to their women's health. I was surprised to realize that surfing is one of mine (I've always thought of it as just a sport or hobby not an artistic expression, but it certainly is an expression).  This blogging is a new creative venture for me, we're doing well with our meal creativity (view Snowdon's blog for pics), and I'm currently (hush hush) working on my first website... I've been considering other areas where I can be creative.  I'd thought man I could really dress more creatively - so I brought a cool really colourful boob tube top. Cool, comfy, creative and colourful! You'll see that one in upcoming pics I'm sure.

But meanwhile back to the new fem bikini.  Today I tried it out fully, with a mango feast on the beach.  It passed the mango test!

So there it is. I have officially begun my quest to fully find and enrich both my creativity and my feminine side.  I think I'm off to a good start with my frilly bikini!

One little word for 2010 - Jan to March

Enrich:

enhance, improve, better, add to, augment; supplement, complement; boost, elevate, raise, lift, refine, endow.

- to supply with abundance of anything desirable: to enrich the mind with knowledge.

- to add greater value or significance to.

- to make finer in quality, as by supplying desirable elements or ingredients: to enrich soil.

In January Rach sent me an email that her sister Eli (thanks Eli) had come across, referring to the following idea and website of selecting ‘one little word’ for the year (http://aliedwards.typepad.com/_a_/2009/12/one-little-word-2010.html).

The website is no longer 'live' as it was for several years, but you can still view it. I agree that it's a great idea, and I'm taking it on. Here's how it was created:

One little word – Ali Edwards

A single word can be a powerful thing. It can be the ripple in the pond that changes everything. It can be sharp and biting or rich and soft and slow.

Today I want to introduce you to the idea that a single word can be a catalyst for enriching your life.

Last year I began a tradition of choosing one word for myself each January - a word that I can focus on, mediate on, and reflect upon as I go about my daily life.

Can you identify a single word that sums up what you want for yourself this year?

It can be something tangible or intangible. It could be a thought or a feeling or an emotion. It can be singular or plural. The key is to find something that has personal meaning for you. This is not your mother's word or your spouse's word or your child's word - this is YOUR word.

One little word can have big meaning in your life if you allow yourself to be open to the possibilities. And here's one thing that is totally interesting: sometimes a word will pop into your brain and it will not make any sense to you right now. Give it some time. Let it percolate a bit. I have often found that our hearts speak to us in very unique ways. Maybe this is a word you need to hear but just aren't ready for it yet. Again, be open to the possibilities.

Weekly challenge:

This week your challenge is to create something, anything, that celebrates your chosen word. Maybe a layout. Maybe a blog posting or a journal entry or a simple post-it note that you put somewhere you can see it each day. Make sure to journal about why you chose your word and what it means for you - the more you let yourself explore the more benefit you will receive in the end.

January – Rach sent me this email on Sunday 10^th January. We'd just got married, we were on our ‘family’ honeymoon and I was preparing to leave NZ for a year on this overseas adventure, so I stored the idea away in the back of my mind to ferment.

February – I had time to mull over what word I would choose for the year. Some favourites were: peace (harmony, calm, quiet, tranquility), experience, compile, celebrate, less (is more), embrace, still (mind, body, soul), prepare, completion. I even tried a few words on, during my mulling and got some things done.

One accomplishment was organizing all my electronic data that I had dumped on one storage drive from four different computers in the big pre adventure pack up – what a mess! It’s now all on the macbook, significantly less immense, AND the whole mac book is now ‘time machine’ backed up on that same storage drive.

I also travelled through Costa Rica, read three books, surfed in my dream spot, zip lined through a ‘Cloud Forest’ and worked in a Costa Rican school in the mountains for a month.

March – After a lot of mulling and word research I’ve made my choice. Enrich – what a wonderful word! It’s a great fit for my year of exploration. I’m out to enrich my Past, Present and Future. So far this month I’ve enriched my surfing ability, my level of communication with Snowdon, my knowledge of Women's Health (ref Reading Log - Women’s Bodies and Women’s Wisdom), my ability to relax, and I've enriched my experience - I now know what it’s like to live in a beach town in Costa Rica.

'Enrich' for me for 2010 - I have a few ideas about the areas I’m out to enrich this year – I’ll keep you posted.... Want to play the game? What are you going to pick?

Costa Rica - Nature Watch 1

For you nature lovers out there, on this and future 'nature watch' blogs I'll 'catch' a few of these many species for your perusal.

From wikipedia:

Costa Rica supports an enormous variety of wildlife, due in large part to its geographic position between the North and South American continents, its neotropical climate, and its wide variety of habitats. Costa Rica is home to more than 500,000 species, which represents nearly 4% of the total species estimated worldwide, making Costa Rica one of the 20 countries with the highestbiodiversity in the world. Of these 500,000 species, a little more than 300,000 are insects.^[1]

Firstly there were the series of scorpions sneeking into Cindy's house.

Then there were the AMAZING hummingbirds!

Some of my students at Monteverde found a big blue mushroom on our walk up to the kiosk.

On the way to town one day Snowdon and I passed by an injured bird - it was beautiful.

There's always the house lizards.....

our mango munching monkeys....

and sneaky squirrels.

This morning Snowdon noticed that an Iguana had come to visit us.

And then this afternoon we came home to hundreds of scurrying crabs. Cody told us they come down from the hills after the first rain (which usually happens in May, but we had one last night).

Snowdon found out that they're called Tajalines and that they are off to lay eggs on the beach (http://www.nicoyapeninsula.com/wildlife/crabs.php)

Santa Teresa - 1.5 weeks in; a blackout + surfing and a party!

We've just finished our third day of our second week (out of six weeks yippee!) in Santa Teresa.....and it's raining, with thunder and lightning. How exciting, and oh ….. now the lights have gone off! All is dark in Santa Teresa (8.10pm). Just us in the casita with a lone security guard flashing a light around outside. The rain feels quite eerie when usually it’s so dry around here.. We have a tin roof – don’t you love the sound of the rain tip tapping on the roof – I do! Snowdon’s found a good activity for a rainy night – meditation. So have I – blogging.

The first week here we lapped up the opportunity to exercise. We surfed 2-3 times a day and ran several times in the first week here. It’s so great to be surfing again. This beach is quite different from Playa Carmen where we were last time. Initially I was a bit gutted because I didn’t think the surf was as good (probably because I had trouble surfing it). But by halfway through the first week I’d figured out that it was actually better, more challenging to surf, faster and rounder than Playa Carmen. I’ve been given an opportunity to extend myself – and grab it I will - I’m getting better every day (and my new trademe ‘fish’ is perfect)! I’ve never surfed so much and it’s so great to have good warm waves every day.

It’s lovely and warm out surfing. I come in when the waves putt out or I’m too tired. I wear a rashie but the sun still seems to get through – didn’t realize how much until Snowdon took this kitchen shot - I'm starting to merge in...look like everyone else around here!

That first week we went on a few forays down past Playa Carmen to the crossroads (and the bank). Check out our handstands on the way…..

On the first foray I couldn’t hack the pace, too much sun and heat, so we didn’t do much exploring.

Since then we’ve checked out the place a bit better, and even found a really good bookshop/swap (to Snowdon’s delight).

It’s lovely strolling along that beach, and hopping in for a swim on the way.

We eat a lot here, think it’s all the exercise we’re getting, lots of trips to the super market, but nice healthy food. We’re loving the watermelon, oh and the mangos – oh boy oh boy!

We’re still with Sicilian Ugo in the Surfcasitas. After the first week he gave us a good long term deal for the remaining 5 weeks here. He’s happy, we’re very happy. Here’s a shot of the one we’re in now (we were downgraded because someone else was booked into the ‘top’ one, but I like this one more – it’s lighter inside).

It was Ugo’s girlfriend Cody’s birthday last Friday. She had a pot luck party up at their house, and the friendly being that she is, she invited us! Lucky! I took beer and watermelon. Snowdon stayed home, so I had to be brave to go it alone. It was great to meet some locals and the food was delicious. Ugo has heaps of mates, all day we hear people calling his name! It was great to meet his kiwi mate Al, who's living here, there’s just something about the familiarity of your own culture in a foreign place – it was lovely to hear him share with his mates about NZ (there’s a nice ring to the sound of someone talking up your country). Each person I meet I ask what they do here – I’m eager to find out how people can make a good living here, even with young children etc (the teacher salary here in very minimal). Al works with Aussie Mick who has a surf coaching business: surfmongrels they’re called! Another of Ugo’s mates had said that there’s a lot of work for after school tutors here. Another was a chef. I also met Brad who’s on the PTA for that lovely school down the road, Hermosa Beach School, says they’re looking for a principal (they don’t have one at the moment). Think I need to edit my prior ‘dream school’ comment to ‘dream location school’. That a school has a principal is up there on my priority list for a school. Anyway he’s doing a lot of work to get it back on track. He owned accommodation and ran tours.

When I ran out of mates I came home. So that was the party. I'd love to be so 'at one' with people that I can just sit and 'be' and not feel like a no mates when I've got no one to talk to, but I'm not up to that stage of my self-spiritual awareness yet. But the bonus is that now I know people out in the water (and I’m meeting more each day). Surfing's great alone, but for me it's even better when you feel like your hanging out with your mates.

Now we have a bit of a routine in paradise. Snowdon meditates in the morning, I surf for a few hours. So far the surf's been best in the morning. Brekki and coffee (love the Costa Rican coffee). Read in the hammock (ref book review, man mine is awesome) or internet (searching and applying for jobs in Japan, planning our Europe trip; Wwoofing, visiting friends and Vipassana, or whatever we're researching at the time..), then maybe a walk along the beach into town, another surf, or we sit on our spot on the beach (see photo) and read, talk, write in our journals, or just sit and watch the surf, surfers surfing and the sunset. There are some beautiful sunsets, and it’s cooler down on the beach. Then home for dinner. We alternate cooking nights now, because we now have two cooks in our household! Things just get better and better....

2010 Reading Log - March continued

This is what I'm reading now - it's wonderful!  Rach recommended it to me years ago, I've always meant to read it and now I've found a perfect time for it.  Christiane Northrup is a very clever and insightful lady!

From Singapore to Surfer

My Hubby accomplished his Santa Teresa goal this morning.  He caught his first 'green' wave.  It was a sight to see, and i was fortunate to be in just the right spot to see it.  I was paddling out.  He was out the back in some very nice and glassy (but quite big for a learner) conditions.  He spotted a wave, paddled to catch it (at just the right angle and just the right spot on the wave), got it, nimbly jumped up to his feet, and cruised along that wave just as relaxed as could be....  That's all I saw, then I had to duck dive the wave.  When I popped up again and re-orientated myself, he was quite a way into shore, so he rode that wave for quite a distance!  You should have seen his smile, it was big and stuck around for quite a while.  I'm so proud - my hubby can surf.  So many dreams coming true on this trip!  I wonder what goal he'll set next?

2010 Reading Log - March

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

I found this book very inspiring and ‘life-path-magnetizing’ (I made that up - I wasn’t quite sure how to explain it).  Anyway I find it compelling to live how she illustrates in the book.  Barbara and her family commit to a year of only eating food produced locally, and then produce a book to share their experiences.  It has inspired me to find a way to buy some land and create a big vegetable garden, with some chickens, and probably some milking and meat cows (and maybe even a horse now that Snowdon is all keen on them).

It’s been interesting to read this book in Costa Rica.  Here all of the produce is local, and much of the other products are too.  So we’re automatically eating a majority of local food.  It made me think back to travelling through Egypt and Jordan.  We joked about how every meal had cucumber and tomato in it.  I left there thinking that they eat a lot of cucumber and tomato.  In hindsight maybe it was just the season for it – and that’s what was available at that time of year. 

Right now we’re eating A LOT of cucumber and tomato, and I was delighted to find a lettuce a few days ago – wow a lettuce.  The things we buy are so fresh – I guess because they’ve been grown locally and hence picked recently.  I’d never put much thought into growing vegetables (Dad just always grew them – I just had to harvest some occasionally for meals).  Most memorable for me is firstly the Kiwifruit season, due to the picking, packing and abundance of them, but you can generally buy them when you want too.  Secondly the feijoa season – so treasured as we can stuff ourselves with them, but only for a few weeks!

Barbara also gives a whole lot of insight into what’s going wrong with food in the states and very nicely pin points the reasons why.  I can see the value of growing and eating locally very clearly and that it does make a big difference globally.  What a valuable book and A LOT of people have read it, in a whole lot of different languages!  Barbara was even put on the ‘100 people who are destroying America list’ for her views.  The people on it are accused of being ‘the cultural elites who look down their snobby noses at ‘ordinary’ Americans.  Wow what a bad arse.  Hah a wholesome home-making vegetable grower! 

Anyway planning has already begun for the Taylor-Siregar farm (now that I think of it I think Rach and Mare may have followed a similar process a few years ago).  I’m already thinking about where, what to grow, which heirloom seeds to order, what wwoofing farms to go to in Europe to train myself up…..how I’m going to save up the necessary $ when I’m in the middle of a travel adventure….!? Exciting!

www.animalvegetablemiracle.com

The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz

Another interesting book, not captivating, but useful.  The main point that I got from it is that there is such an over-abundance of choice in the world now (which results in  people stressing out, wasting time and blaming themselves when they can't get things sorted even though there's so much opportunity), that often it's better to just choose something and be happy with your choice (instead of searching far and wide for the best possible option).  Works for me - I seem to be adopting that strategy much more this year (maybe due to the book - I can't say) and it does simplify things.

Playa Santa Teresa - Back in Paradise - A bumpy beginning

 Well we're back in Mal Pais area.  This time in Playa Santa Teresa.  It's absolutely beautiful and lovely.  I haven't written for awhile, so I have a bit to catch up on (unless of course you've been reading Snowdon's blog, as usual he's right up to date).

Whilst still in Monteverde Snowdon organised a place at 'Surf Casitas' for us for the first week, to give us a chance to get settled in.  Surf Casitas has no signage - I guess it doesn't need it!  Anyway when finally we found it, Snowdon raced up top to check that this was 'Ugo's Place'.  We unloaded all our bags (I checked in the van to see we'd got everything) and said good bye to our two shuttle tour guys.  But on settling in to our new accomodation, found that one bag was missing, Snowdon's back pack.  Ugggghhh.  Our beloved mac book pro, money, Snowdon's passport and documents, all in that bag.

We went straight up top to find our Sicilian host Ugo to let him know, and man you should have seen this guy kick into action for his new clients' wellbeing - impressive.  He was on the phone to the company hunting these guys down.  He rang their office about about 5 times and insisted that no, actually those two had had plenty of time to 'find' the backpack - it was one van with no one else in it and the bag was in there, they don't need time to look they just need to get back here!  Hurry up my clients are freaking out - all their  stuff is in that bag!

Eventually we got the word that they were on their way back to us (probably after some discussion time to try and work out how they could keep the bag and their jobs).  We went to wait out the front, and along comes Ugo on his motorbike and says to Snowdon to get on they were going to 'meet' them.  Eeeek, I love that Mac book, Snowdon's passport is very useful and we need the cash (and it would have been a grandeous bummer to have lost them), but I didn't like the look of that bald head disappearing off into the distance full speed on a motorbike (I think they're too dangerous).  Just quietly I was sitting there quietly willing to have the head back in one piece more than the rest.

Anyway, they came back (head still whole) and what do you know with the backpack!!! Boy oh boy, lucky us with a capital L.  Ugo said that they'd asked for $20, Ugo said (in his own words) dream on, you two took too long to have any intention of bringing it back (I forgot to mention that Ugo was on the verge of calling the police and told the office so).  So understandably we think our new host Ugo rocks (we would have had to say goodbye to all that stuff without him) and I'm very happy to right now be typing on the very same Mac Book Pro, and feel like a very well looked after client - customer satistfaction - delight!

We'll never be able to prove what happened there, but from where I'm looking either:
-  when I checked to see that all the bags were out of the van (my learning from this experience is not to check what's not in there but what we do have) I had a really bad look, and it was sitting there the whole time.
- or the driver (who incidentally, was upright leaning over towards the back when I looked) had grabbed it and pulled it over to the front with him (in this case, dammit, never trust that nice conversations about the growing of mangoes, guavas and local points of interest wins you any trust points!)
- in support of the second one - they took a real long time to get back to us!

We've learnt from our experience and heeded the warning......thank you to the travel gods!

Check out our new digs at http://www.costaricasurfcasitas.com/

Our remaining time in Monteverde: Highlights, horse riding, zip lining and cloud forest

Well we have now left the wonderful mountain town of Monteverde. It was lovely to spend a month there.

Here is a pic of Beverly's lovely little cabin.




Some of my highlights were:

• buying fresh milk and cheese from our neighbouring milk factory (it appears the products of which are sold all over Costa Rica)
• breathing in the fresh mountain air and being surrounded by forest (lots of oxygen!)
• living in a cooler climate for awhile
• living in Beverly's fully equipped cabin
• cosy evenings in, watching Beverly's DVD's; 'It's always sunny in Philadelphia', and then our favourite; 'Mad Men' - we became avid fans and watched two series of it (and are on the lookout for the third). Man it was a good look into life in the 60's.
• loads of reading
• participating in the carrera creativa (a big school fundraising walk/run)
• the opportunity to teach in a Costa Rican school
• meeting some great staff and children
• some very fun times with my grade 1 and 2 class (would love to add photos of them but don't have parental consent!)
• taking my class on a big hike uphill into the forest to the school kiosk.
• walking everywhere
• taking the school bus
• holidaying for a week in a real house (Cindy's)
• finally replacing our camera after many conversations, emails and often dead end excursions to pay the tax and pick it up. The joy of a camera in hand in Costa Rica (thanks Snowda).
• morning runs up to cloud forest reserve
• Costa Rican coffee from Cindy's (loaned) Costa Rican style coffee sieve - yum!  
• Three great excursions (see below)

This is the bus stop at the end of our road (it's raining as we wait for our zip line shuttle to arrive).

We went on a few excursions:

The first one was on the Friday of our 'holiday' week - a trip with Sabine's Smiling Horses. It was awesome! The horse was much more comfortable and easier to ride than I recall from past experiences. As far as I could work out Costa Rican speeds are - walk, trot, gallop, RUN! I know ours as walk, trot, canter, gallop, so I got a fright when he said, "Quieres gallopar?" (do you want to gallop). I wasn't too sure about that! Once I worked out what speed a gallop was we 'galloped' some, which was very fun - the best bit actually - after the first gallop I wanted to do it more and more!

Alvaro, our guide, took us to a wonderful secret spot. It was so beautiful - like a NZ mountain stream BUT WARM - oh my gosh what an experience! There was even a natural slide - check out the pics.

It was Snowdon's first time on a horse, and he LOVED it. On the way back he said, "how much is a horse?" I said, "lots". He said, "Really? More than a car". "Hmmm maybe not?" That got me thinking. I'd never considered buying a horse to get around on (when we were all younger our family borrowed the local pony 'Adam' for a few weeks, who loved to drop his shoulder on us and send us flying over the front - a very 'valuable' experience when considering owning a horse!).

THANK YOU TO DON AND SUE - YOUR WEDDING GIFT SPONSORED THIS TRIP - AND WE LOVED IT!

The second excursion, was on the Sunday, the last day, of our 'holiday' week. It was a canopy tour - a zip line through the cloud forest. It was incredible!

The guides were really 'fast paced'.  The main guide gave a 5 min speech on the main points.  Then he said OK we're off.  Then that was pretty much it.  They we're really good at hooking us onto the lines all the time and kept us safe, but man it was all go.  No time to think about what you were doing (which was probably a good  thing - we were soooooo high up in the air).  It was really wet, and quite hard to hear (with hoods over our ears) and see much.  As we were in the cloud forest it was very cloudy.  The guides would race past us, click themselves in and jump off the platform - which looked crazily fast to us but I guess that's what they do every day.  Then one would stay with us to click us in.  They had it very well organized.  Each time they'd tell us if we needed to 'break' by pulling down with our hands at the end or not.  No time for questions!  They'd say feet up - and we we're off!

It was incredibly exhilarating hurtling through the air on the zip line.  At times we were like Avatar zipping right through the tree tops, other times we could see the trees just below us, and once we couldn't see anything at all, just cloud.  That was my highlight, zipping through the air, way way way up high, knowing that I was up that high, but disappearing into cloud and not being able to see ANYTHING ELSE. Oh my gosh - it took some trust!

There were 11 lines (usually 13 but 2 were unsafe in the rain and we couldn't use them that day but no one minded, we had plenty of fun).  Eventually our main guide said that he had a surprise for us.

Tarzan swing.  Well I've been saying that our guides were fast paced, but this was the 'finest' part.  We went up to the top of the Tarzan swing.  The guide buckled us in.  Then...........HE PUSHED US OFF!  I couldn't believe it!  I imagined the contrast with NZ - you'd never get pushed off.  I'm sure our laws wouldn't allow it?  You have to get your own legs to send you off whatever it is.  It was great being pushed off - no thinking (second thoughts) needed - no time for that, you're already off!  Check out the pic of the Tarzan swing - they kept yelling something at us so that they could catch us after we'd swung a few times but no one could hear them (and they hadn't told us previously) so they had to yell it at every person who did the Tarzan swing (some chose not to).  I don't think anyone could follow these instructions in the end!

This was a once in a lifetime experience for us (one guy on our trip had done it many times).  Hurtling through the Costa Rican Forest on a piece of wire.  What an invention, what an experience, what a trip. 

THANK YOU TO THE MASONS WHO SPONSORED MY ZIP LINE, AND JEEVAN WHO SPONSORED SNOWDON'S.  AS YOU CAN READ - IT WAS WONDERFUL!

Our last excursion was a free one (no sponsors required)!  Cindy had organised a school letter for us (teachers and their family are given access for free).   It was a visit to the Cloud Forest Reserve.  We'd been meaning to do it our whole time in Monteverde but only just fit it in at the end. It was lovely - I'll let some photos tell the story this time.  Although we all know that photos never really capture the ambience of a place......