Good bye to a blog friend...

Today I heard the sad news that a friend in the blog community has passed away.

Nancy from  http://highplainsfootprints.blogspot.ca/ lost a battle with cancer yesterday.

It is strange how I never met Nancy in person but felt I knew a little bit about her and the things that gave her joy...knitting (she was an amazing one at that!), nature, sunsets, 

riding in the mountains, her family. 

At one time she spent a week in Port Angeles and I could almost wave to her from across the ocean on Vancouver Island!

 I feel like the blogging community has made the world a smaller and more friendly place where kindred spirits can find one another and share their lives even though we have never met face to face. Nancy always had such kind compliments and comments on my blog.

A friend of hers took the time to go through Nancy's comments to find those who

followed her and to let us know about Nancy's illness and subsequent passing.

I want to thank this person for being so kind in her actions.

Sometimes I will see a blogger who hasn't posted in a long time

and I wonder what happened...in this case it was not the answer I had hoped for.

I know that Nancy posted photos of the mountains and sunsets in Wyoming 

where she lived and 

so these photos from my world are for Nancy...rest in peace.

mis·take məˈstāk/...

So I was thinking about this word a lot lately and looked it up for a proper definition.

Here's what I found...

noun

1. 1.

   an action or judgment that is misguided or wrong.

   "coming here was a mistake"

   synonyms:

   error, fault, inaccuracy, omission, slip, blunder, miscalculation,misunderstanding, oversight, misinterpretation, gaffe, faux pas,solecism; More

verb

1. 1.

   be wrong about.

   "because I was inexperienced, I mistook the nature of our relationship"

   synonyms:

   misunderstand, misinterpret, get wrong, misconstrue, misread More

   
   
2. There are many times in life that we here the expression
3. "I made a mistake"
4. or 
5. "that was a mistake"
6. In my wanderings through a creative life I have found many times that I might make these same
7. statements...until now, when I looked up the actual definition.
8. Lets look at the first one, the noun.
9. 'an action or judgment that is misguided or wrong'.
10. Well I can strike that one off since I don't think artistic endeavours can be misguided or wrong.
11. They are experiments.
12. I have been experimenting a lot lately on the science of botanical alchemy or eco printing or 
13. eco dying...whatever you want to call it.
14. Printing on small swatches has given me much insight into the process, which
15. is really what creativity is all about.
16. 
    Eucalyptus print, not so bold and defined as I had hope but lets make some
17. lemonade out of lemons...
18. 
    I find that if something is not quite what I had hoped for, I will let it sit...
19. Somewhere where I glance at it every once in a while until it speaks to me...
20. 
     ...of what it can become...
    
    
    Like this other piece that became a wee pouch...
21. 
    
    
    
     Incorporating an old zipper I had lying around for years that fit perfectly and
    then lined with some vintage velvet I had in my fabric stash...
22. 
    How about this... 
23. 
24. A little arrowhead I found at the beach the other day, the tip broken off.
25. Possibly it was done in the making and the maker tossed it thinking it to be a 'mistake'.
26. Not so!
27. I the fortunate one who found it all these years later!
28. A delight indeed!
29. The second definition could be discussed at length...
30. we may leave that for another time though.
31. Be happy in your experiments...they will always teach you something.

The 'easy' birds...

You here them everywhere...in the towns, on the beach, in the jungle but...

not all birds are easy to capture in pictures.

I have been taking photos of 'easy' birds for many years.

The hummingbirds who will allow you to be within a few feet of them,

water fowl when you have food, and some birds with a zoom lens but I'm

concluding that I need a much more powerful telephoto lens to capture

the more elusive birds in trees.

Of the many photos I tried to get of some birds in Nicaragua all

but a few turned out. 

These were the 'easy birds...

Seems like the Nicaraguan Grackle is everywhere...

Tom and I were calling it the 'alarm clock bird' since it was always the first one

up in the morning making all kinds of interesting sounds.

I think I counted at least 5 different calls and songs from this 

gorgeous jet black bird...

the female is a taupe brown colour but with the same striking eyes...

On a boat trip on Lake Nicaragua one day, we witnessed a not so easy bird to capture pictures of but 

it's nests were very easy to spot...

These are colonies of Montezuma Orpendolas...that's one with the bright yellow tail in the photo above. They also make some crazy sounds.

They nest in these grassy 2 foot long sock looking nests and there

 were probably a hundred in one tree.

Kind of like bird condos!

this is a short video of the call...pretty impressive when you here about 30 of them calling!

The white egrets were numerous too....along the shore line mostly...

 and near this cattle trough...

This little kiskadee was hanging out there as well...

I was lucky one morning while on a rocky shore on the beach to have this handsome fella

allow me to take some nice shots...

The one bird I could watch for hours are the brown pelicans.

Gliding in formation like an aviary air force, tipping their wings on the waves...

Diving like arrows at the last minute.

 Again a not so easy thing to capture without the right equipment.

They love to hang around the fishing boats too...

But the easiest birds to photograph on my trip were this pair of ducks that

lived at one of the hotels we stayed at...

 The male was super friendly and let you pick him up but the female was a bit more cautious...

So a nod to the ones who aren't so shy!!

...as I walked out in the streets of Granada....

Granada is a pretty little town and at times can be a busy one as well.

The main street which leads to the locals market is brimming with life...

 ...much faster and cooler to walk than to take one of these 'chicken buses', called so because basically

EVERYTHING goes on them...

This is not a tourist market, instead it is the market where one goes 

to buy their daily goods...

Mercado Municipal, housed in this ancient stone building of robins egg blue, is the place to buy pretty much whatever you need or want...

The building is a maze of entrance ways and exits, meat stalls, fruit and veg, fabric,

zippers, buttons, backpacks, shoes, dresses, rice, beans, cd's,

 and pretty much whatever else you can think of

The one stop shop...seems like everyone comes here early in the day to avoid the heat of the

afternoon and get the best and freshest deals...

Here in the 'meat department' you can see these stalls made of stone have 

been here for a hundred years...not for the faint of heart or the vegetarian shopper!

Along the backside there are the cooking stalls and boy did it smell good in there!!

So much choice of yummy foods indeed!!

Tom negotiating a pineapple sale...

Back out on the streets, taxi, Granada style...

Granada is full of bikes and double riding (and triple riding even!) is very common...

A few quieter moments...

The lovely Colonial Hotel Dario where we were privileged to stay for the first 4 days of our trip...

And because they've probably been out all night searching for food,

the pups take their morning siesta in the cool of a shady sidewalk...

The dogs here were sweet and mellow. Only thing besides food that they seemed to want 

was a good ear rub and a pat on the head once in a while...

If you're prone to trying new things then the local little outdoor cafe offers up

the most delicious snack called 'nacatamala'...

slow roasted pork stewed in polenta and steamed in a banana leaf...YUM!!!!

...just be easy on this pickle...it's SPICY!!!

Nothing that a mango/pineapple smoothie won't cure...

...under the canopies of course!

A look down to the Cathedral...

...another view ...

Along the street to the Mercado there's shoe makers...

...furniture builders...

...bike shops...

...and always the big basket sellers...

Then there's the poor little horses...definitely beasts of burden here...

used as a mode of transportation for hauling things and people...

And at the end of the day take a left at the corner of Penny Lane and Abbey road...

...pull up a hammock...

and settle in for a nice cool cerveza...