The Island of Malta 

and 

Art Challenges 

August 9, 2012 

Nostalgic about my two Ethiopian Abbys... 

Greetings Family and Friends, 

I hope you've had a good week and that your days brought many smiles! I'm back into the swing of playing with Photoshop, art, my new camera and of course, the challenge blogs. I'd like to share some of the resulting art with you... 

The piece above (my 6-word memoir for this week) is a scrapbook page I did honoring the daughters of my two dear Ethiopian tribal friends, Walla and Buno. They each blessed me by naming their daughters Abby...above are their photos. The Abby on the left is 4 1/2 and on the right is my friend Buno with her 14 month old Abby.  :) Cute, aren't they?

To balance that piece, I did another scrapbook page honoring my daughter and her Hunter and Lilly... the best grandchildren (and the best daughter) anyone could wish for...T

 This week, the participants of Darcy's Art and Sole Postcard Challenge 2012 traveled (virtually) to the Mediterranean island of Malta. Amazing that this little island has been entered in the Guinness World Record book TWICE...for the largest fireworks display with their Catherine Wheel and for assembling the most people dressed up as storybook characters!!! Color them happy!! You'll note, from the postcard message, that one of the correspondents...Jarrod...thinks he's met the woman of his dreams in Malta. More to come... Here is the art for the postcard as well as the book page of an old bus. In the earlier days, these colorful buses, all individually owned and decorated,   were eye candy all around Malta... a source of pride as well as a dependable mode of transportation. They represent some of the island's visitors' fondest memories!  

   

COLLAGE OBSESSION wanted us to create a piece with an oriental theme...I used a photograph I took of a young monk while visiting the Kingdom of Bhutan (between China and India.) 

TAKE A WORD was feeling nostalgic... me too!! With the theme of MEMORIES, I created the following piece...  

Finally, THINK MONDAY-THINK ATC, in the spirit of summer, asked for a piece with a boat or ship as its theme... 

That's it for this week...wishing you all a peaceful and joyful weekend and upcoming week...hope to see you for the next posting of The Vivere...

Hugs,

abbyj   

Travel (real and virtual,) The Beatles and Blog Challenges 
August 5, 2012 

"Pursuing passions for photography and travel..."

"For me, the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity." 

Henri Cartier-Bresson

French photographer,  Father of Modern Photojournalism  

Hi Family and Friends,

Happy you've joined me for this posting. I must say that I haven't been busy with my usual art playing as I've been learning my new camera. It's a bit heavier and larger than I would like, but the quality is worth it! I tried the smaller cameras because I wanted to downsize and carry less weight, but there is a difference in the quality of the photos. Here are some pictures from my new camera...I took them in Asheville, North Carolina this weekend where we celebrated our dear friend Joanne's birthday! We visited America's largest home, THE BILTMORE. It's the home of the famous Vanderbilt family and  uniquely American. With the Blue Ridge Mountains as a backdrop, George Vanderbilt worked with the best architects and craftsmen of the era (1890's) to develop his vision of a self-sufficient estate. It was opened to the public to help Asheville's tourism industry during the Depression (and to bring in money to preserve the estate) in 1930.

A view of the estate from below in one of its many gardens

Two of the Vanderbilt children...loved the photo

The cathedral where the Vanderbilts worshipped

The weekend before this, we were in Toronto visiting with our daughter and her children... always a good time! Our season subscription to the city's theater series took us to the Royal Alexandra Theatre to enjoy BACKBEAT...the story of  the birth of the BEATLES. The show was just okay...until the end when the "stars" played several favorite Beatle tunes...they did well and we all loved it! It was interesting to learn how the Beatles got together and how they became such important names in pop music history! This is my tribute to the show...

BLOG CHALLENGES this week include 'Windows and/or Doors" from THE THREE MUSES...

THINK MONDAY-THINK ATC offered a challenge to  participants to include a "garden gate" in their art piece...

On the Art and Sole POSTCARD CHALLENGE 2012, Darcy, our host, challenged us to take a virtual trip to Denmark... a small country that, surprisingly, has more pigs than humans. Danish ham is a huge export product!  It has the oldest state flag in the world that's still in use by an independent nation; LEGO was invented in Denmark; Hans Christian Andersen, the children's fairy tale writer, is a son of the country; Denmark was the first European country to abolish the slave trade (although it was the state of Vermont that actually abolished slavery) and they were the first European country to legalize same-sex marriages. Here's the art... 

As Bugs Bunny says,  "That's all folks!" Hope to see you next posting and hope, too, that you stay well!!


Hugs,
abbyj

BACK ON TRACK... 
July 25, 2012 

'Try to live your best life!"

CRAZY AMIGO CHALLENGE  blog declared it's theme for the week would be decided by each participant and TAKE A WORD suggested the theme "messy."  I decided to combine the two and make a little soapbox comment about a very big disaster...a MESSY tragedy of major proportions...the senseless massacre in Colorado. I suggest that we all try to be the change we want to see in this world because clearly, things MUST change!!! The hugs and kisses as well as the flowers in the graffiti piece suggest a gentler, kinder approach toward others and toward  life itself.

I hope you've all had a happy, healthy, productive week. I've been getting stronger with each day and am almost back to normal...ready to return to Africa tomorrow (if the opportunity presented itself and if my husband would come with me!!) Instead, I must wait until next summer... I'm still unpacking the suitcase in my mind, filled with memories of another wonderful visit with my African families and friends...

Back in America, in my part of the country, summertime means the fish are jumping...the theme for this week's COLLAGE OBSESSION challenge blog. That's the case waaaay up north in Alaska, into Canada and all the way to the Arctic Circle where the polar bears are catching those jumping fish...they need them to survive!!! Here's a piece based on a photo I took when we were visiting with the polar bears in Churchill...northern Manitoba, Canada several years ago. Amazingly beautiful animals...

THINK MONDAY-THINK ATC, in the spirit of summer, declared their theme to be "summer rain." I really enjoyed this subject and worked on two pieces...

Finally, my year-long Art and Sole Postcard Challenge took us on a virtual trip to INDIA... and what a trip it was. Here are my card and my book page... I was very taken with the depth of spirituality in this country...beautiful people with wonderful, honest, reverent hearts.

I wish you all a gentle, happy week with many reasons to smile. Hope to see you for my next posting...thanks for stopping by!

Hugs,

abbyj

AFRICAN ADVENTURE 
July 18, 2012 

"The RHINO population is near extinction..."

Hi dear family and friends,

I know it's been a long while since I've blogged, but it's not because I didn't try! The signal in Africa didn't allow me to upload photos and since I'm a visual person, I couldn't get myself to write if I couldn't SHOW you what I was writing about!!!  But, having weathered a parasite scare, a severe intestinal disorder, the worst case of flu I've EVER experienced...and, believe it or not, a ROOT CANAL as soon as I returned home...a week ago today... I'm now almost back to "normal."  A few more tests and I'll be free of any scary disorders... 

I want to tell you, first, about the awful state of the RHINO POPULATION throughout South Africa. Poaching has reached epic proportions and it's probable that our grandchildren will never see rhinoceros in the wild when they're grown up...a sad commentary on the greed and cruelty of the poachers.  While in South Africa with my family (transplanted from Glasgow, Scotland to Johannesburg and Capetown, South Africa many years ago,) we all had the opportunity to join forces with South Africa's Anti-Poaching Team as they darted (from a helicopter) a young rhino female for the purpose of putting a tracking chip in her horn as well as to take a blood sample and a bit of her ear...all for d.n.a. purposes if she's ever abducted or injured...or worse. All the info the team gathered will aid in identifying, prosecuting and bringing to justice those poachers responsible. It will help A BIT... they need many, many more people to do what we did. Meanwhile, we all got to be up close and personal with this sedated rhino... to feel her horn, the soft skin around her mouth and face and just be in the presence of such a powerful, prehistoric animal. She was blindfolded to lessen her stress and was quite gentle. After the anti-poaching unit finished their tests and implants, we all cleared the area so that when the vet gave the rhino a "wake up shot," we could observe from a safe distance as she got up and walked away as though nothing had happened. It made us feel good to have done a little bit to help...  A final note to this story: I had the privilege of naming this sweet female rhino, so I named her after my Sweetie Girl granddaughter, Lilly... Lilly the Rhino!! Here are some photos of the process... 

...And in another part of South Africa, East London...

Dear friends in East London, South Africa...Ingrid, Andrew and Emma and Holly...we had fun at an elephant encounter!!

Moving on to Ethiopia and my adopted families and my Kara village... located in the southern part of the country along the Omo River, an extension of the mighty Nile.

Kara village (Duss) from the air

Lumale, the 6-tented camp where I stay, 5 minutes from my village

The drop toilet tent and the shower tent behind my living tent

The view of the Omo River from the front of my tent

A pretty empty Kara village...it was harvest time in the farms and everyone was working at their farms during the day...

  

Now for my favorite part...the people of the Kara community...my families and friends... 

My dear friend Walla, her husband Dido and their children

The first ABBY in the Kara community...Walla's daughter. Color me honored...

I've known this girl, Mudo, since she was 4 or 5...she painted me in typical Kara fashion!! Not bad...

My dear friend Buno with her husband, Nanga and her children. Nanga is holding onto little 14 month old Abby...the second Abby in the Kara tribe. Buno's eldest daughter is married and has a baby of her own now...she's pictured with the infant on the right of the photo...

Buno and little Abby

Finally, a few token animals in South Africa...I never see any of THE BIG FIVE in Ethiopia...too many people!

But I DO see lots of livestock throughout tribal Ethiopia!!

 I've had a hard time keeping up with my Art and Sole Postcard Challenge while in Africa... finally caught up with this weeks virtual journey to Ireland...where residents enjoy the world's highest quality of life- it's true!  This, courtesy of THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT, a part of the group that publishes The Economist.  In rendering this judgement, they used 9 indicators to rank 111 countries for its residents' quality of life: material well-being, health (life expectancy at birth,) political stability and security, family life (divorce rate,) community life (church attendance or trade-union membership,) climate and geography, job security, political freedom and gender equality. Interesting, isn't it?

 All for now, dear ones...thanks for coming back to check in after such a long time away. I hope you enjoyed your virtual African trip with me... it was heart-warming and soul-fulfilling to see family (both blood and "adopted,")  as well as dear friends. I look forward to seeing you for the next posting of The Vivere...my blog!

Hugs of appreciation,

abbyj