About That Timeout...

...it wasn't planned, but I'm sure glad it happened.

Let me tell you a little story.

{Part I}
If you read Rebecca Sower, then you know she likes to unplug periodically.
I used to wonder what the heck did she do during her unplugged times?
And then I realized, oh she's actually living life during those times!

Me, well I would have an utter conniption fit if the power should go out and I had NO internet service.
And then one Sunday (not too long ago) I was at home all day long doing regular ol' at home stuff all day long and at the end of the day I realized I had not touched my laptop at all.
Not one single time.
And the world had not stopped spinning.
And I was still breathing.
And I was still functioning like I always have.
And I liked it!

So, I did it again the next Sunday.
And the Sunday after that and the Sunday after that.
And......

Sometime after all that happened I read this post of Christen's.
A year or two ago, I decided it was okay if I missed a day or two of posting here on my blog, but if I missed a whole week I felt guilty.
Christen's post reminded me that that's just ridiculous.
I mean when you get right down to it, it really is!

{Part II}
The second week of March we flew down to the island.
I packed my laptop and my camera and all the accompanying cables, because I had full intentions of taking photos and blogging while there (for 11 days).

On a side note, do you have any idea how heavy a tote can become when toting a laptop, camera and all the accompanying cables plus three books, two magazines, two art journals, a pencil bag full of markers and paint, stitching stuff, your wallet, phone and favorite trail mix?
Let me just tell you it is HEAVY.
And it gets even heavier when a Farmboy looks at you and tells you that no he won't carry it for you, you packed it you carry it; without even once blinking those pretty green eyes at you.

I lugged all that techno stuff down there (and back) and I took three photos with my big camera and check my email one time.
Why?
Because this is what I did.

I did this in a lounge chair, in a hammock, on the beach and right there in that bed when it was raining or during the heat of the day.

When I wasn't doing this, I was working in an art journal like my life depended on it.

I liked it.

It was awesome.

When we got back home I was still kind of in that mind set (or maybe I just didn't have anything to say). 

Either way, I unplugged, stayed unplugged and didn't feel any guilt about it.

And now I feel rejuvenated and am so happy to be back.

Talk to you soon!

Farmboy Photography

When we packed for our trip, we both decided to take our cameras.

I took 1 picture.

He took 572 gazillion pictures.

So I thought I would share the island with you, through the Farmboy’s eyes.

(Warning: I narrowed 572 gazillion photos down to these 26 that I asked him to process. That equals one very long post. Enjoy!)

Home

We've been gone for a little over a week, but we are back home now. We took a trip up to Santa Fe and then to Durango, Colorado. It was a lot of fun!

I hadn't been to either town, which was good... I love exploring new places.

Santa Fe was more of just a stop over. We were there for only one night, but we showed up on just the right weekend. It was the last day for the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market. The boys humored me (E, a little more reluctantly than the Pirate or the Farmboy) and we spent half of the day there, before moving on to Colorado.


Here are a few photos of the Market. Everything was so colorful and festive. Each booth represented a different country. And the work of all of these people were simply amazing!










And this was what I purchased... love it! We met the artist, Claudio Jimenez Qiospe. He is from the Republic of Peru. Amazing work!


Santa Fe is where I stopped taking photos. I LOVED it there! I loved everything about it... the desert, the adobe and stucco, the people. I would fit in perfectly there. Unfortunately, the Farmboy and I don't see eye to eye on Santa Fe. He is from Colorado originally and the mountains are what he loves. Retirement time may be an issue for us.... we'll see. ;)

Please bear with me, I am SO far behind on reading everyone's blogs and you three ladies, whom I owe a little handmade something too, they are going in the mail this week... I promise!

Have a beautiful Monday!

St. George Village Botanical Garden- Part 3

This will be the last leg of our tour (even if it takes me all day to finish this post!)

As we turn to leave the cemetery we see the rare and unusual Umbrella Bush.

(heeheehee!)

And on the Great Lawn is the huge Kapok Tree.

The building behind this tree is the Great Hall. It consists of two original worker row houses and a modern building.

On the other side of the Great Hall is Sweet Lime Walk. This is a walk lined with a hedge of Sweet Lime bushes. These bushes look a lot like Boxwoods, but have little (about 1/2 inch) fruit on them. The Sweet Lime fruit are shaped just like limes, but are bright red. They say that despite the name, they are not sweet, but very sour. I convinced the boys to try them and then the Farmboy came up and tried them. I finally did and maybe Crucian tastebuds are different than Texan tastebuds, because they were as sweet as could be. Tasted like lemonade. Anyway, because everyone was starving at this point and too busy tasting, we have no pictures of any of this.

As you walk down the Sweet Lime Walk you will see buildings that were orginally part of the slave village, later becoming the free worker's village.


Beyond that is the Orchid House. This is a display area for the Garden's collection. This is just a small sampling... they were so gorgeous!






















From here, we turn right and down just a ways is the Touch-Me-Not Tree. Seriously, don't touch it. It'll hurt really bad and then kill you.








As we walk down towards the Rainforest, we are graced with some pretty Plumerias, as well as, some other plants.











Now into the Rainforest.


Termite condo. (this is a very small one!)


Remember, never leave Tour Guide Bob. You might end up lost.


As we come out of the Rainforest, we start seeing more Plantation ruins. The Flume...

at least, I think this is the side of the flume.

The Walk-in Well.


The Overseer's House.


Our tour will have to end here, even though there was more to see... the Lime Kiln, the Conservation Garden, the Tropical Fruit Orchard, the Economically Useful Palms collection and the Native Arboretum. You see, it started raining really hard at this point, so Farmboy sprinted to the gift shop so that the camera didn't get wet. The boys and I continued the tour in the rain until we came upon a palm tree in the Economically Useful Palms collection (I just like saying that:)) whose fronds were huge and touched the ground. There was room enough to stand under it... made a nice, dry, little shelter.

So that's it. Hope you enjoyed it.