Monday 24 February 2014

Snow

Thank you for the mails asking if all is fine here in the snow. We had two record-breaking back to back snow falls. Two houses in my village were destroyed by heavy snow. Several others had avalanches bury most of the house.  My neighbour had the snow break through the walls at the back of the house and then the snow came out the front doors.

It is stressful to see so many broken old houses. Many of the people are living off meagre pensions and this is a shock to all.


Two meters of snow fell on my place. A heavy snowfall is usually 50 cm.  The heavy snow slid off the roof on one side of my old clay storehouse and the weight on the other side flipped the roof off.  All this happening while my kitchen was completely ripped out and the new bath and studio being built in the side yard. Chaos chaos chaos.

Things are calming down. Ten days of endless snow shovelling has put me seriously behind on work. I am sorry that I haven't sent off responses to any mail.

The bright light is that Mini has come back for another few months this year from Singapore. We all love her here. She was a good sport struggling up the snowy road with her suitcase.  And she is being a good sport weaving and working away while I spend time cleaning up the disaster area outside. Things will be back to to normal soon. Actually they are getting better already. The new kitchen is 95% done and boy......does it look fresh and clean.


and then it snowed another 130 centimetres.

Glowing warm in the freezing snow....Mini fresh off the plane from Singapore.












Monday 3 February 2014

The Farmhouse is Under Construction Again

The Kitchen has no walls. It is freezing in here. The concrete forms have been poured for a new long awaited second bath outdoors behind the clay storehouse. I will be making the wood bathtub later this week. The indigo vats are being moved from outside the front door to a new studio next to the kura....all this going on at once.

I had the pleasure of meeting Patricia and Michael from Seattle yesterday. I had a one day opening in the chaos and something told me I would like Patricia and I did. She wrote a very nice blog about her visit to the chaos yesterday:http://okanarts.com/general/bryans-world/

You need a lot of imagination to see any potential in this mud field....but it will turn out beautiful. It just needs another month.