A sleeping beauty? At least a pretty face!
Art
Art Suites – In the Rocks
When the first snow has arrived somewhere in November, artists from all over the world come together in the village to take part in creating the art exhibition of snow, ice and light that makes up Icehotel.
My guess is that they will spend quite some time in the cosy bar…! Here you get drinks in ice glasses…as they say – in the rocks.
From the beginning, the glasses were made by hand. But, as the guests started to get numerous, the capacity of three glasses a day became a bit too slow…so now they are machine made. Do you know that they last only for 30-45 minutes? Then the alcohol will make the ice melt and make your drink end up in your lap. Glasses made for fast drinkers like Hemingway then…
The selected artists who are invited to take part are not required to have worked with ice before. Instead, those who want to participate have to send in their ideas based on originality, and creating it in natural ice will pose a new challenge. Some 200 applications usually end up in some 40 artists coming here in November each year for the construction of the rooms. But this year they were about 60 – to decorate the new art suites.
The artists often work two at a time in the rooms, and when they are finished, they are allowed to stay one night in their creation…and only one night.
Let us walk down the corridor and peep inside some of the art suites!
Mermaid Fitness – Nina & Magnus Hedman
Oh Deer – Ulrika Tallving & Carl Wellander
In fact, should you spend the night here…you would get a mattress, reindeer skins and a sleeping bag for -28 C. My absolute favourite room was Living With Angels – artist Benny Ekman. I would have felt perfectly safe and secure.
Cee’s B&W Photo Challenge: Glass
Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Glass
Let there be light – through wine bottles! Spain this summer, visiting a winery. For more of Glass, click the link to Cee!
CFFC: Inner and Outer
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Inner and Outer
This candle decided to venture outside its cage… some surprise in the morning sun.
WPC: Repurpose
Repurpose – a good thing to do! My daughter´s remake of an old Encyclopaedia Britannica.
She knows my love for books and would never dream of throwing away any kind of book.
Thursday Thoughts – The Importance of Festivities
Travelling means learning new things every day. I guess that is one of the best parts of life – learning new things. In this 2 million people capital, Quito, Ecuador, I enjoyed every second. Almost 3000 metres up in the Andes – you had to take it a bit easy the first day.
Do you, for instance, know which mountain is the world´s highest? I learned from the Ecuadorian businessman sitting next to me in the plane between Guayaquil and Baltra, that it is…..Chimborazo, a big volcano in Ecuador. It is higher than Mount Everest – if you count from the middle of our planet Earth.
Colourful Old Town Quito, together with Krakow, Poland, 1978 became the first UNESCO World Heritage sites. And they keep it colourful, clean and tidy.
There were grand festivities this week – December 6 was celebrated everywhere. So, what did they celebrate? Their freedom? No, they celebrated the Spaniards conquering them in the 16th century…I asked them how this could be something to celebrate – and they all answered that they had put all this behind them – this day was just a good day for festivities and having fun. That sounded just great to me!
Ecuador Ama la Vida
Music and Dancing in the street
Miss Quito and Gentleman
Lovely festive ladies
These musicians were absolutely professional – we did not leave even if we had finished our meal…
Beautiful city and beautiful people – and wonderful food! We enjoyed Quito despite some rain. Old and young, everybody in a good mood.
A young man came up to me with a rose. You know, the thing they do everywhere down in Europe, expecting you to give some money…This young guy was in a group of students, and he was the only one to have a single rose in his hand. I shook my head and told him I had no money, but his eyes were shining when he smiled, saying that he did not want any money…just to give me the rose.
Travel theme: Paper
For PR – promoting things, like Lars Wallin clothes, we still use paper…
Writing novels, short stories and poetry…
Writing other important, or less important, messages…
Milk Maid Made in Sweden (out of milk packages)
Art and documentation – Photo after Pinatubo’s eruption
Paper craft…
Information and news…
…and for candy bags of course…
So, except for wrapping paper, these were a few more I found in my pockets, for Ailsa!
Thursday Thoughts – Ama la Vida!
Ecuador Ama la Vida – and they do. And they make us, all visitors, do. And we love them, the Ecuadorians and their astonishing country and nature.
I came back a couple of days ago, but in my heart I am still there – and I will never leave. On my first day in Sweden I immediately caught a severe cold, but still had to go to work. Yesterday was my last working day before Christmas.
So, where to begin, trying to explain that my childhood dream has come true? That this journey was the greatest adventure of my life? But we all have different dreams…
As a 7-year-old girl I first borrowed a book about the remote Galapagos Islands, and learned there was a place on earth where animals and humans lived in peace with each other. The animals were not afraid of humans, and you could sit right next to them and we could talk to each other as true friends. The little girl marvelled and nourrished a dream in her heart, that someday and somehow she would travel to these enchanted islands…
After this day she devoured everything about the Galapagos Islands…and later, on TV, she listened to David Attenborough and …her heart and mind was set. About then, she also decided to one day walk in the jungle, listening to all the sounds in the dark night, in the REAL jungle, the Amazonas. I do not think she realized the possibility of these two dreams once coming true within the same country, within the same year and the same month.
To a little girl who loved animals more than people, and who, in fact, in many ways still prefers animals to people – such a journey was the ultimate dream.
On this fantastic journey, I met some astonishing people as well…people I never will forget. They enriched my life and will hopefully continue to do so. The artist Jane Tomlinson and her photographing husband Moth Clark are two extraordinary gifted people. Their deep feelings for, and knowledge of, the natural world are genuine and vibrant. Moth’s photos are outstanding and Jane’s paintings as vibrant as life itself.
I received the permission from Jane herself to use one of her paintings in this post. I love starlings, so this was a natural choice. Now I am looking forward to seeing more of Moth’s photos from the Galapagos Islands and some lovely paintings by Jane. Ama la Vida – easily done when you see Jane’s artwork! The art of Jane Tomlinson.
Thank you so much for visiting, and waiting – I will be posting more when I am recovered!
I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Ann-Christine
Wordless Wednesday
WPC: It’s Not This Time of The Year Without…
For WPC…
…my youngsters filling the kitchen with good friends and happy, (or sad…) tasty, Swedish Lussebullar!
Leya 
Du måste vara inloggad för att kunna skicka en kommentar.