Hiking on the Camino Trail in France. (Called The Way of St. James in England, Chemins de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle in France, and El Camino de Santiago in Spain) The Camino is an ancient Catholic pilgrim route which goes from France to Spain (although there are alternate routes all over Europe) ending in Santiago. My mum and I (That's us in that picture up there. I think she may disown me for posting it but it makes me laugh! Make sure you zoom right in to get the full effect) walked over 400 km from Le Puy en Velay to Moissac, some very steep and hilly terrain and it rained every day except for the first three. Apparently it was the rainiest spring in a long time. That's the story of my life! It also snowed. The people in the countryside of France were wonderful. We also enjoyed meeting many other pilgrims along the way. My favourite part was the wine. As hard as it was I enjoyed it immensely and we are going back this Spring to do part of the Spanish Camino. My mum has walked almost the entire way and this coming spring we will walk on the Meseta which will finish her journey. It is addicting though, so I have no doubt we'll be walking again!
Muddy Feet. They were like that most days. Can you see how tired they are inside those boots?
I loved it. I can't wait to go back to France to pick up where I left off in Moissac.
Artisans in the Attic and The Artful Badger In October of 2012 I opened a new retail location at Artisans in the Attic in Sydney. This is somewhat similar to an "Antique Mall" where there are a lot of different little shops/booths and one main central location for purchases. This is great as it allows me to have my work for sale in Sydney (the largest city here on Cape Breton Island) and as I am a bit of a control freak I can have total say over how everything is displayed. The best part is that I don't have to be there because someone else handles the sales aspect of things. So a customer can browse through the different boutiques (17 artisans represented at the moment) choose what they like from different booths and then take all their goodies up to the one counter for purchase. I am sharing a space with my talented friend Gayle Bird who makes amazing wire wrapped jewellery. Sharing works really well for me because I am a bit worried about being able to produce enough stock in the summer while my retail store on the Cabot Trail is open, so this way Gayle can fill up any empty spaces I might have! I haven't really posted on here (surprise!) about my newer artistic ventures of button making and graphic design but for the last couple of years I have also been making pinback buttons and prints, cards, jewellery etc. under the name The Artful Badger so that is what is featured in the Artisans in the Attic shop. There is pottery too! I am having such a blast with my Artful Badger stuff. It allows me to draw more and also gives me something different to work on when the juices aren't flowing in the pottery creation world.
Here's one of the painting installed in my house, sorry for the bad light! I love the colours of the lichens on the rock and the prairie stretching off into the distance.
There were many other highlights from last year, but this post is starting to run on and on and I'm sure you all have better things to do, like cleaning the fridge, so I will wrap it up!!
A video of our group Rocky Shore, playing at the St Ann's Bay United Church Ceilidh. The band consists of me (yes, that's me up there with the slipshod bow hold), my husband Paul (to the right of me when you are looking at the stage, not my actual right) Paul MacDonald to the right of Paul, David Papazian, to the left of me, and Otis Tomas the bearded fellow, and his wife Deanie Cox. Thanks to Sandra Kay, wife of Peter Bauer who makes luscious jewellery, for taking the video.
A photo of our 1979 Airstream Excella Motorhome. We got this baby in 2011 and about 2 days later the motor went. It sat like an albatross in our driveway, taunting me with unfulfilled promises everytime I walked by. We finally got a motor and thanks to our friends Charlie and Duncan it is running again! We hope to do some little road trips around the island here, camping by the shore and enjoying the view! A video from my husband Paul's Ceilidh series in Ingonish. The Ceilidhs run every Saturday night during the summer and feature players from all over the island and sometimes visitors from Scotland, Ireland and other parts of the globe. This video is of Paul playing with our good friends Stewart and Ryan MacNeil (of the Barra MacNeils) I apologise for the shaky footage, but urge you to close your eyes (to avoid getting seasick) and listen to the tunes! Here's to 2013 and more blog posts! (I've actually got another one all ready to go after this one. There's my 2 postings for the year done! Oh I hope not. One other sad note. Today we lost our friend Joe Peter MacLean. Joe was a fiddler, a native Gaelic speaker and an eccentric and charming being. I will miss his funny and clever sense of humour, his great stories (40 dogs in a taxi!), his habit of popping up unannounced at parties, his adorable laugh and sharing and learning tunes with him. Here's a video of Joe. You'll see his sense of humour right off the bat! One last footnote: (I promise, really!) Last year I started uploading some of my Artful Badger designs onto a print on demand site called Zazzle. When a design sells with my image on it I get a percentage in royalties. To look at (or purchase!) any of my designs on items such as t-shirts, ipad sleeves, mugs (I know, I know, I'm a potter, but I still have commercial mugs in my house), buttons and more you can visit my zazzle shop Fiddle Me This. Happy New Year!
January 11, 2013 in Raku Pottery.
← VE7IG, walkers in the woods, and a New Year's Levee.
Great blog and photos. Just read it and thoroughly enjoyed it.