sun, rain, or...

Early Morning at the Beach

noreply@blogger.com (Finola Prescott) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 01:58:00 +0000

Sometimes we have to be reminded of what's on our doorstep; a few days ago I was diverted from a planned walk in my sneakers, round the neighbourhood I'm housesitting in when the lady in the apt next door came out to go on her walk at the same moment - she invited "come to the beach and walk then swim with me" I did, and have gone each morning (ok except one) since and today I took a camera so I could share.

arriving at Reduit Beach about 6am

There are always people fishing


The view towards Pigeon Point

Someone's Sandcastle

Foam

Wave receding

Leopardskin Wave on beach

Christmas Waves

a good cliche - footprints in the sand

Sea Almond Leaf

Those of us who live in the Caribbean look forward to our 'winter' when the temperatures drop a degree or two - these mornings are beautiful; cool (25-26C) the water is warm and the skies gently coloured. Already in the few days I've been walking, I see the same people on the beach, we say Good Morning...at that time of day, everyone says Good Morning - security guards, hotel personnel, the man raking the beach, the few visitors who are lucky enough to have woken up early...it's a lovely way to start the day.

Security in Life - how can we achieve it?

noreply@blogger.com (Finola Prescott) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:10:00 +0000

What is it that makes life satisfying, makes you feel that it is all alright? I had a chat today at lunch with two friends and one remarked that she had a realization that though many in our circle express their wish to have a partner in their lives, what dawned on her is that it is the security that we seek really. We talked about financial security – retirement or working till you drop, property, passive and residual income – and peace of mind, keeping stress to a minimum and health to a maximum…enjoying life, working hard but not to oblivion.

Sunst Sernity

We didn’t talk about partners– except for the realization that comes, when one parts from a partner, that cost of living is just so, so much higher…and in relation to when there’s a need for another parent.

So perhaps it is security we’re after when we’re keeping an eye out for that one who makes you feel like nesting…it’s an interesting line of thought – and I don’t think we really followed it very far –good substance for another chat some day perhaps. And of course there are other things that make us look for a partner :-)

I know that I have been blessed to be feeling a lot of contentment in my life in recent times – not borne from the kind of life security like a good pension, or solid investments to retire on, lol, I wish! Much more, it’s borne of - self-taught - from feeling I had no option but to find ways to be calm, peaceful…contented – even when all around me was really actually just very confusing, confounding…and seemingly beyond my ability to shape in ways that led to security. It took a lot of time and a lot of effort to overcome my ‘normal’ urges to lash back, be depressed , languish in ‘how is me uh’ land.

A Wall/Limitless Skies

But each small victory I realize, brought not just contentment…it brought a little security.

And it must be said, that for me, to be content, there must be both peacefulness, in a way, stillness– is that what I want to say? Not feeling the need to chase – perhaps that says it better. Well, balance with that and with feeling the urge to live – experience, adventure, see, feel, breathe life. Contentment-security with contentment-openness.

Somewhere in that learning mix comes a realization that there is a lot a person can do to influence their experience of life – not control it, but influence it. When something bad happens, you react badly and multiply that effect and your sight becomes focused on the bad; you react well and cancel at least some of the damage out and you allow yourself to see other possibilities. Live in fear and you will, well, live in fear. Be aware, be prepared and you will find many paths that may have seemed beyond you, can actually be travelled.

Road ahead

This week I was blessed once again with the opportunity to care for someone when they needed it – some of you know I have ‘kids’ ‘daughters by another mother’ who I keep a little eye on and who know they can talk to me when they need to…and like I said this time ‘Can't guarantee I'll have solutions, but I have a good ear…’ Well, apparently I did have some useful, helpful things to say and that was great…’my child’ talked, listened, smiled…she didn’t leave with solutions, but left feeling more able to overcome her challenges. That in itself is great enough, but what was also a great wonder is that, as always, I come out of these exchanges feeling not just that I have helped create a little bit more security in someone else’s world, but feeling like I am also more secure in my life – a blessing I think.

In the end, many things give security, but I think sometimes we are looking for too big and bright a security light when more often it’s a whole lot of little things that come together and build us a solid house on the rock. And alot depends on what we choose, and indeed, train our perspective to be

What do You see?

And though this isn’t a quote about security per se, I used it this week and it is one that I love

“Raise your words not your voice, for it is rain that grows up trees, not thunder” Rumi

And from the owner of Lightmuse Intuitive Living on Facebook – this came this week ( and I feel confident she won’t mind me sharing it):

“If we believe something is impossible, then it is. There is a tiny core inside you that knows that this is a universe of infinite possibilities. You can find that spark of knowing, and then take action, without knowing how things are going to pan out, just stepping forward despite doubt. You can act on the belief in possibility even if you can't find that spark within, you just know it's there...that's faith in yourself, taking steps and trusting yourself to handle whatever comes along. Don't wait until you feel perfectly ready, that's just fear talking, delaying you from creating something wonderful.”

Lightmuse on FB

Voting Is The Least Important Thing You Need To Do

noreply@blogger.com (Finola Prescott) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 01:23:00 +0000

I started writing this as Saint Lucia and a few other countries across the world were going to the vote. I wasn’t at home, so didn’t vote – and for a while, I was saying that I’m glad I’m not home because for the first time, I really would not know who to choose – I am disappointed and do not trust either of our main parties to really govern – it’s that plain and simple – they both did some good things during their stints in power, and they both did a lot of crap – a lot of questionable things – things that seemed downright not in the interests of the people, but rather, in the interests of those who could get away with it or could pay for it.

And now we have an interesting number of alternatives to the historical two parties– but none with enough candidates to form a new government…we have a Facebook Page “People’s National Movement for Change” – a page set up to encourage non-partisan discussion of the REAL issues…I like that page, though in the weeks leading up to the actual elections the posts have degenerated too often into empty party slogans and colour-bound blind party loyalties…never mind, the fact that people have found it possible to discuss openly is imho, a great start.

And though, in the end, yes, I would have liked to have put my ‘tikwa’ next to a choice out of the 4 that are running in my neighbourhood…I know that it is just not the most important thing to do…whoever wins, not much will change …unless…WE THE PEOPLE CHANGE.

And since I started writing this, the importance of each and every vote has come into fine, fine focus as the elections happened and days of recounts followed; as one incumbent candidate’s 68 vote initial lead turned into a 2 vote defeat, and another’s slim defeat of about 19 votes turned into an even slimmer one of 7…but my belief voting is the least important thing you do, remains pretty much undisturbed…

What I believe is far, far, far more important than the vote – for Saint Lucia and perhaps many other places – is what the people do with their government in-between. In Saint Lucia for sure, we need to complain constructively – with suggestions for solutions (and be prepared to set aside personal for the greater good), we need to stop being part of the ‘bobol’ (corruption) system, we need to become colour blind – this ‘en rouge’ nonsense (and ‘en jaune’ if there is that one too), and become symbolically challenged – not know a flambeau except for at a beach party, not know a star except for the night sky. We need to clean out our ears and re-learn to hear, relearn a language that does not rely on empty slogans and catcalls, learn to speak our minds and LISTEN to what others are saying and make INFORMED decisions and plans that are based on content not colour, that contain substance not kick-backs…I don’t know, but I’d figure by now people would have started to realize the biggest kickback we all end up with is one in our head to knock us down.

So yes, voting is important, but getting away from the old blind party loyalty system is much more important because unless we do, even the new alternatives will find it more difficult not to repeat history in all its less than glorious moments. And to do this, we also need to make it difficult, if not impossible for the reins of power to be attached to a golden carriage over which we have no control whatsoever, and which sooner or later flies mud in our faces and breaks our toes as we stand by and let it ride on up at our expense.

And yes, I did mean it when I said I think each previous government has done some good things as well – so we need to be able to acknowledge those things – without it being a party thing – acknowledge good things with good critique and by ensuring that the good things are available for all to benefit, not just those of one fixation or another.

Does not all this colour branded party fixation not strike you as so ‘Victorian’, ‘Colonial’ ‘divide and rule?’ I know I am not the first to say it. It’s powerful propaganda – playing up people’s insecurities and fears to divert attention away from the things that really matter. It’s a tried and tested (and I think, should be outlawed), method. It does not benefit any of us, the people, truly, in the long run – it benefits just a few – and at a cost we should not be prepared to pay.

So, you have voted…or perhaps you have not…for me, it does not matter anyway near as much as what you do now, what you say now and for the next five, ten, fifteen and forever years– some people have been making these steps, taking up substantive discussions on issues beyond, under, across party lines -so why not more of us? Let’s choose our words and actions as best we can – even each small effort, each small step towards a government of and by the people is a movement for positive change.

What do YOU think?

…Clouds …Add Colour to My Sunset Sky

noreply@blogger.com (Finola Prescott) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 11:25:00 +0000

In a short email received from a friend yesterday, aside from an unusual –and good read - short story attached, the following quote was nestled comfortably in-between the note and the attachment

The clouds that come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher a storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.

Rabindranauth Tagore

It would be appropriate at any time, but yesterday was a good day, good moment, to have such a little drop of wisdom fall in my lap; I had been spending my morning, after the evening before, turning my sister’s apartment upside down in search of my lost passport and was just getting to a point of miserable frustration, when I took a coffee break at the computer and found that humble little reminder.

It made me smile.

During in my fruitless passport search, at one point I’d rummaged through a box of old photos– I knew it wouldn’t be in there, but once I caught a glimpse of one old picture that made me smile, I knew it was a bit of a silver lining, so I kept on rummaging and came out with a stack of happy memories.

Call it what you will – Life is what you make it, Clouds have silver Linings, Carpe Diem, Choose to be happy, ‘failure’ is the best learning tool – whatever. It is a choice though, to see the colours in the sunsets, to enjoy the smell of wet earth when the rain pours down… the personal comfort and power that comes from choosing not to let problems be your ‘be-all-and-end-all’ and choosing instead to upgrade them to challenges, opportunities for something as perhaps yet unidentified, but you know it will be good – if you let it.

I missed my ‘jump-seat flight for fun’ with my sister yesterday because I lost my passport, but I gained some good photos full of memories of a full life… gained a difficult, but needed reminder that I have much left to sort out and get on with in life, and a new way – that uses my oh so favourite sunsets - to express one of life’s simple truths.

You may never get all that you want, for sure, but life, is truly what you make of it.

Sunset over Colombette

A Walk in the Park

noreply@blogger.com (Finola Prescott) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 14:43:00 +0000

For those of us who live in tropical places, the seasons are rainy n hot or drier and hot - I miss the changing seasons, so being her for Autumn has been great - especially since it has remained so mild. Couple days ago, it was yet another beautifully mild autumn day here in Holland, so I picked up and went across the road to Beatrix Park for a walk...it was gorgeous, so I took a few...ok, a lot, of pictures and a video which I thought you might like for a change.

Please, if you would like to use any of these or other pictures on my blog, drop me a line/post a comment and if it's a website/blog use, a link is great - otherwise, hope you sharing enjoy my walk in the park.

The first splash of colour entering Beatrix Park

those lovely orange trees

my favourite path - under the tree

it's those trees again - the contrasts of all the kinds of trees is lovely

leaf patterns 1

leaf patterns 2


leaf patterns 3

leaf patterns 4, near the RAI

leaf patterns 5, in the herbal garden - the herbs are pretty much gone for the winter

yellow

slightly confused daisy

slightly confused dandilion

my favouirte path going back

Meerkoets

the highway and offices are just over the water

weeping willow reflected

sounds of the park as time floats by

peaceful shade

stork?

textures

and forms in textures

and caught forever in freefall

parakeets...(un)naturally live here

pigeons of course

fountain

and lots of aquatic birds

easy pictures, peacefull...


and elegant

leaves!

boats and leaves

summer has officially ended...

But life is still good

Lasik Eye Surgery

noreply@blogger.com (Finola Prescott) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 08:54:00 +0000

So, on the day after my Lasik eye surgery, I am so happily overwhelmed with my sight that I have decided to do a post on this; especially after many of my friends and acquaintances have now mentioned that they have wanted to do this for ages…’but’…

Just over 24hrs ago – at 2:04 precisely – I stood up off the operating table and was asked to tell the nurse what time the clock on the wall read: 2:04. Wow. I had just had laser beams aimed at my eyes for all of probably 2 minutes in total, both eyes, and I could now, already, see quite clearly, though as though looking through mist.

I have worn glasses since I was 5 years old, and that’s for 42 years. At 5, I was told my left eye was a bit lazy – and back in those days, they immediately prescribed glasses – apparently now they would advise various things to try to get that lazy eye to get off it’s butt and do some proper work – with the aim that it would heal itself. But not so in my case; so I went through the hassles of wearing glasses and being teased, breaking glasses and being quarrelled with, refusing to wear horrible horn-rim (cheap n strong) ones and then being given a hard-time later when I decided that ‘ok, I need and want glasses’. And from that point, wearing glasses from the moment I woke up, to the moment I went to sleep … except when out fete-ing in the teen n early 20s years, where I opted for the inconvenience of not quite being able to make out who it was across the dance floor over good sight n unattractive glasses… ah teenage angst! At least now glasses are generally considered cool.

But of course as you age, your eyesight gets worse and since I work with my eyes – close-up making jewellery and on the computer a lot – recent decreases in eyesight have proved difficult to fully correct even with the vari-focals that cost so much. This has meant that in some (important) instances, I just couldn’t see. So I’d squint and strain and end up with extra ‘laughter’ lines and neck ache and headaches…I’m sure some reading this will identify!

The optometrist here where I did my eyes, immediately identified my ‘laughter’ lines as a result – at least in part - of the natural instinct of people with high astigmatism or cylinder, to make their eyesight better by squinting and so changing the shape of their eyeball…ahhh…that made sense! Course living in the sun and having sensitive light colour eyes…and a tendency to laugh heartily as often as I can…guess my laughter lines were destined one way or other!

So here Liz and I were on Beethovenstraat in south Amsterdam and there was the Optical Express eye clinic…….so we popped in to enquire: About 1hr later I’d had all my tests and consultation (free), found out I had a 4.75 astigmatism in the left (lazy) eye and 2.75 in the right – and no myopia – apparently high astigmatism making it a bit more difficult to treat. This meant I was advised to have Lasik (not Lasek) combined with what the clinic called Intralase and Wavefront technology (billed as approved by NASA:-) But the 4.75 would be on the edge of the limit for being correctable fully. A similar ‘number’ assigned to myopia, if I understand correctly, would be easier to fix fully.

We went home with lots materials to read and a quotation and looked them over, called back with a number of questions – all answered quickly and patiently…and decided to go for it. Here I am, a day after surgery – quite a way to go before full recovery, but just amazed at how comfortable I feel – eyes don’t hurt, don’t itch (just get dry regularly – and you get drops for that) and…I can see.

What the Lasik Surgery Involves

The day of the procedure, at this clinic anyway, you are checked once more for prescription and any other things the surgeon has asked for, meet the surgeon who may advise a different treatment or even decide you should not proceed (not an option that happens often I believe). In my case I was told there was a 15-20% chance my lazy eye would not be fully correctable in one procedure; disappointing, but 80-85% is still a good chance to get it in one shot, so I said ok, I understand, but lets go ahead.

Next step was to wait a bit, then be seen by the operating theatre nurse who dons plastic baggies over your shoes, a net over your hair and gauze(?) over your ears and goes through the medication and aftercare with you step by step and tells you basically what will happen inside the operating theatre. Then you go in, they check that you are who’s next on their list, check you and they are expecting the same procedure and then you lie down, one nurse explains what the surgeon will do, and your off! They talk you through each step, tell you you’re doing fine, countdown the seconds left and voila!

The actual procedure steps are; (as close as I can remember) anaesthetic drops, holder placed on eye, flap in cornea cut, eye cleansed, pressure cup placed on eye, eye tracking device enabled and checked, lasering etc. done, cup removed and flap replaced (not sure which one comes first in that last bit) and – next eye. It is all quite quick and does not hurt – I smelt nothing; apparently some people smell the gas that the laser apparently gives off…amazing. The Lasik vaporises single cells of your cornea to allow a very precise flap – the other two allow very precise shaping of the surface. All you have to do is be calm, breathe calmly so you stay as still as possible (though the tracking does keep up if your eye moves) and wait.

You then wait 15 mins to half hour with eyes closed and then the surgeon checks you over, then you are free to go home – wearing sunglasses (get dark good coverage ones) and make sure someone is there to take you home; you’ll be weeping and bleary-eyed, but able to see. As the anaesthetic wears off, yes, your eyes are a bit painful making it difficult to sleep as advised, but you can just lay back with your eyes closed and dab your cheeks n blow your nose as you need :-) just don’t touch those eyes! Paracetamol for me, dealt fine with the minor pain and with the first set of drops you are already feeling less teary and more comfortable.

For me, 6hrs later – the last hour and a half of which I did sleep through (with my protective goggles on) I got up, put my shades on and sat in front of the TV with my dinner and read the Dutch subtitles with ease (and in excruciatingly horrible Dutch! Sorry Holland :-)

The following week will be filled with regular eye drops, sleeping with goggles on and gradually settling eyesight – keeping away from dust (so no ceramics next week sadly!) and not letting water or my fingers or anything get into my eyes – then I’ll be told if I am on good progress and be seen again a month on. Normally you’d be seen 3 months on also but unless anyone would like to sponsor me a ticket slu-holland-slu I’ll be skipping that one and just go see my optician in Saint Lucia – the clinic here says I can come back even if it’s over a year later and they’ll do any follow up that may be needed – now that’s a good guarantee.

One Day After

I went in for my ‘1 day checkup’ this morning and pleasant surprise; the worse eye does at this point, seem to have been corrected to the maximum possible – my previously good eye is dragging along a bit and the vision with that one is a little less good. It will be weeks at least, before the eyes settle into their real level of seeing– but I can see well enough now 'to drive without glasses' and that’s the measure they use for basic success. I’ve been on the computer – sent bbms – can read my watch with ease…I can see clearly now – it is like closing your eyes one minute on soft focus vision and opening them a short while later with High Def.

So, if you’ve been yearning for it…my advice…go to a good clinic with a good history and reputation, have a consultation, ask lots of questions, take some time to research, and don’t be too nervous…I know all people react differently, but I am a difficult case (they told me today I no longer have my own name at the clinic, I am now referred to as ‘High Cyl’ – haha! Actually every one of the very friendly and courteous staff all commented ‘Finola – what a lovely name’ so I ain’t worrying with them:-) anyway, I also have notoriously easily irritated eyes, super sensitive to bright light…and get headaches way too easily, so I’d just say, it’s well worth taking a closer look if you are fed up with your bad eyesight!

Hi Def…It is good.

Refreshing My Inspiration and Learning new Skills

noreply@blogger.com (Finola Prescott) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:47:00 +0000

When I decided that if I was going to ‘cross the pond’ I wanted to stay for a good bit of time, my conscience – and perhaps my seemingly incessant urge to keep learning - made me look for workshops in Holland; I tried this just two years ago when I first thought I was going to get to make this trip – and found pretty much nothing, so when during our Skype chat to make plans this time, within seconds of Googling, my sister Liz turned up a jewelry course in English …I was pretty surprised…but not as surprised as I was during the following hour or so when I also found Ceramics and Glass courses in English too. It’s been a whirl so far and I’m only half way through my stay!

The three places that I’m taking classes are completely different in their approaches; each with their own charm.

Glass Classes

I started out with a one day course at Van Tetterode, a big workshop in an industrial area. Van Tetterode is known for big architectural glass installations and the owner Louis La Rooy has been making glass installations since the 70s. Louis was the one running this class in Glass Applique and Fusing; the intro is in Dutch – though Louis does speak English pretty well, he’s much more comfortable giving this mile-a-minute intro to glass history and technical stuff in Nederlands, so my sister came to translate (she did a fantastic job) and take part, but you could get by without a translator – you’d have to ask questions when you move on to the practical side and I’d advise taking a look at the site www.warmglass.com before you go – they have lots of ‘how-to’ tutorials there.

Louis La Rooy with our Applique Glass work

This class – and it would seem all classes at Van Tetterode – is an intensive 9-5(ish) day. You learn to cut glass and cut pieces to match to create a patchwork of glass to be fused or appliqued…and in that process you learn to forget any fear of being cut that you may’ve had…you don’t have time to think about it! And you have Hildo, the very capable assistant helping you get the right stance and pull and getting you to recognize that glass has a memory so you have to break fast; wait, and you’ll be looking at a broken break so to speak :-)

By the end of the day – after a hearty Dutch lunch of cold meat, cheese and filet americain (raw meat) sandwiches washed down with Karnemelk (buttermilk) – you’ll have a sandblasted piece to take home and 3 other pieces to pick up in a few days…and perhaps one or two badges of glass-cutting honour (plasters on those little cuts). It’s a whirlwind day and full of info and no shortage of materials here; a generous learning experience for sure!

A few of Liz n my finished pieces in the window

Jewelry Course

My second lesson was in basic metal-smithing techniques; I sort-of learnt this stuff in College 20-odd years ago, but the degree I did was, to put it mildly, short on technical skills, so I was glad to just pretend I knew nothing and open myself up to learning it all again. It was a good approach to take I think as Marleen Hengeveld, the teacher and owner of the business www.ammasieraden.nl, workshop located in De Jordaan, has lots of good little ‘tricks’ for getting it right. I learnt to saw again, learnt to solder again and learnt to polish for the first time. Now I’m continuing to make a simple pendant with a bevel set stone. Marleen classes are small – not more than 3 people each day and sometimes only 2. You get different people each lesson and that’s lovely cos you see a variety of styles and get to know the people they belong to.

Your evenings of learning are peppered with lots of tea or coffee and little biscuits and lots of interesting chats about jewelry, styles, life, cultures…it’s a lovely way to spend a couple of hours once a week – some of her students keep coming back year after year and have made all sorts of interesting pieces. No pics yet...next post! Ok, ok, one of Marleen's beautiful work - call her to make you something!

Amma Sieraden - Marleen Hengeveld Jewelry

Ceramics

My third step into learning is at Art Ceramics Studio with Gillian Smith, a Brit who’s been living in Holland for 25 years or so; she runs a studio 3 stories up overlooking one of Amsterdams lovely canals; it’s a short walk from Leidseplein so very easy to get to. The steps up (and down) include an original steep set, so be prepared to get into experiencing a wee bit of authentic Amsterdam here :-)

Classes here are quite relaxed, and are usually about 6-8 people or so – and coffee and tea flows here too :-) as does light chat about all sorts of subjects. Many of the students seem to be repeaters and so there’s a lovely friendly atmosphere and Gill makes sure everyone’s introduced. You pretty much choose what you’d like to learn and then Gill spends the sessions going from one student to the next demonstrating, advising, admiring, encouraging, helping work out, sharing a joke…So far I learnt the basics of throwing – just enough to get me going so I can practice at home; and now I’m working on a 3-part mould for a hummingbird that’s supposed to eventually be a handle for a cup…that’s the plan; it might end up being a lesson in what doesn’t work, but going through the process is what’s most important and I’d’ve had a much harder time trying to work it out on my own…I very much doubt I would’ve been able to actually!

The Class at Ceramics Art Studio, Amsterdam

Kiln Casting Glass

My last class (at this point) is another Van Tetterode one; Kiln Casting, taught by the lovely, very sharing and full of energy EffieHalkidis of Greek-Aussie extraction. She’s been making glass art for ages…lol, probably 20-odd years; lots of experience and she shares it all with you in lots of stories of catastrophes and successes as she works you through two super-intense days. Well, really it starts with your preparation; making 5-7 models in clay for casting. Now you don’t really know what shapes will or won’t work of course, so you make them 90% and finish them in class and then start making plaster moulds for them …. That part of the studio is COLD!!! Yikes! For a Caribbean ppl like me, I had to take a deep breath and ignore it…but really, your mind is kept off it as you work like mad to get your models cast. Then…you go home to pick out the clay from the molds – and be prepared – it ain’t gonna come out fast! We were up till 1am and back at class for 9am the next morning where we continued our furious pace to reach our goal of having all our moulds filled with glass and in the kiln.

Effie Halkidis at Van Tetterode giving us instruction on kiln casting glass

model for an open glass mould

model for a difficult to complete mould! More on my Explore Arts blog next week

Me filling a mould with glass

I was treated to being invited back the next day to take a peek in the kiln – pretty ‘cool’ (at 850C). All seemed pretty ok – it’s sometimes hard to tell if the glass has ‘gone down’ into the moulds, and the cool down cycle is super super long compared to a ceramic cool down, so we don’t see our pieces for a while yet – 5^th Nov is the ‘Ta-Da!’ (we hope – and not Boo-hoo) date.

Inside the Kiln - Baking Hot 850C

So that’s it for my account of my workshops so far. I am yet to get round to spending some time designing, but I’ve signed up for an email course called ‘Mixed Media and Journal Art Boot Camp’ at http://wildprecious.com/blog/mixed-media-journal-art-boot-camp/ - run by a lovely lady with Saint Lucian connections, Jeanette House and her friend Effy Wild. And I hope to get round to finally reading all the lessons and info from Lateral Action’s ‘Money for Creative People’ course…and then maybe I’ll start picking off some of those e-books I’ve got stashed on my Hard Drive…

Ahhh…learning– may the day never come when I get tired of it! Are any of you taking interesting courses or do you have courses to offer??? Please post in the comments! (or if you post on FB, I’ll copy it here so the max number of people can benefit, ok?)

Indian Summers, West Indian Food n Bike Theft in Amsterdam

noreply@blogger.com (Finola Prescott) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 21:00:00 +0000

Well there went any thoughts of blogging regularly as soon as I started traveling; I’ve been having a good time and well, good intentions just haven’t turned into blog posts…so now I have to either write a saga or pick n choose what to tell y’all about... Ok, well, here’s a little pick: I was blessed with an absolutely gorgeous Indian Summer the week after I arrived in Holland, so my initial multilayer sleep clothes instantly dwindled to much more comfortable levels and walking in the park almost caused me to break a sweat; As I described it to a friend, it’s like a lovely cool n sunny Caribbean day :-) We went to see a Dutch artist Theo Jansen talk about and demonstrate one of his ‘Strandbeest’ – Beach creatures…I’d seen them years ago on something like Make Magazine maybe, so I was thrilled to know I’d get to see one in real life.

Strandbeest - Theo Jansen's kinetic sculpture animal

Lunch at Scheveningen

The day was beautiful, walked to the Scheveningen beach via the dunes, all covered in beautiful wild flowers, had a great lunch at a beach restaurant with Wieckse Witte beer of course ( white beer – a summer necessity in Holland ) and then walked down to see the beest in motion.

Paths on the dunes at Scheveningen

It was a day of lots of sun but little breeze so the beest was not planning to walk too much on it’s own, but with the help of artificial lungs of PET bottles, filled with compressed air, he (she?) had no choice but to perform for the guests assembled…the artist was charming, half eccentric inventor, half eccentric artist..it was fun and once the beest gets going, it truly is fascinating to watch.

Traditional Dutch Food with a modern twist

I’ve lost count of the tasty dinners and eats I’ve had already – traditional (ish) Dutch, Italian, -) Wagamama Thai-like, Hema –Worst (they even have a FB page:-), Surinamese Lamb Curry, and all sorts of munchies – and of course, special mention to the Saoto Soep, Cassava and Telo (saltfish) and Spekkoek (delicious layered spice cake) made especially for me by Denny. And the Italian Ice-cream at the Beatrix Park, from the Pisa stand– even the pit-stop at the V&D café was delicious…so I better keep up walking in the park if I don’t want to be rolling back home!

Surinames Munchies

Early Sint Nicholas -Kruidnoten...mocha...YUMM!

V&D Snack

Then Sunday just gone, Liz & I cooked up a whole heap-a food West Indian Style- had a bunch of friends over and ate ourselves to oblivion – with a little bit of help from a wicked Rum Punch and Pink bubbly :-) Introduced them all to our super-delicious special Lucian Cocoa Tea – Saint Lucia, we have to make more of this treasure of ours; you know I went into a Hotel Chocolat shop in Basingstoke and enquired if they had our cocoa sticks on sale (as I’d heard they had been, and for a princely sum of about £50 in a wooden box) well, they didn’t have them anymore, but they are selling a grated version; haven’t bought one to see if it is the real McCoy, but my Cocoa Tea at Sunday’s lunch was, and as always, people wanted more…

Accra & Mango Chow...lol, nearly finished!

Creole Fish, Channa, Curry Goat, Plaintain, Sweet Potato and Mango Chow

So my sister had been planning for months leading up to my visit, to get a bike so we could both ride round Amsterdam and enjoy the Amsterdamse Bos, the Amstel and just plain bike around…after much searching she found a great deal online – well it came very un-put-together and we realized we didn’t have the tools…friend came by and gave it a try…but nope, needed tools…so I went up to the bike shop on the Beethovenstraat and enquired what it would cost to have my bike put together and they quoted ‘about €75’!!! Big long explanation of how well they’d give it a going over, but shit man, all I wanted was a basic put-together…So I walked back dejected and thinking I was doomed to be on my feet all my holiday…but no, we were in luck - a little hidden away shop just round the corner with a guy who neither spoke much English or Dutch said they’d do it for a mere €20…and a day later I was cycling back home with my new bike… So we locked it up tight and headed off the the UK for a week, got back and went shopping in Amsterdamse Poort for our West Indian meal (you can get pretty much everything you’d need there for West Indian cooking) and planned that we’d go cycling the next day…somehow the next day disappeared and the bikes stayed put…so on Saturday after a morning of cutting and mixing and putting to season all kinds of things in preparation for Sunday’s lunch, we finally put on fleece jackets, scarves, gloves and went downstairs to take a bike ride……me, in a quiet voice: “Liz…my bikes not there”

The space where the bike should be :-(

As she later put it, I was now a real Amsterdamer – my bike had been stolen!!! Well what can you do? These are the times to believe everything happens for a reason and I was being saved from something bad … ok, yeah, I still can’t help wishing the perpetrator a big ze-kak and a mess-up gweejee! (roughly but not so colourfully translates to a big knock and a nasty scrape). We drove to the Amstel and had a lovely walk along the path and realized we would not have had time to notice the birds and the plants, the details of the houses and the lovely views that popped up between them if we’d been whizzing by on our bikes…all things for a reason eh?

View along the Amstel

XO from Amsterdam
Fifi

Day 4 in Amsterdam

noreply@blogger.com (Finola Prescott) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 22:20:00 +0000

I’d forgotten that Dutch shops don’t open on Monday mornings…not that I was up n rearing to go anywhere, but like most places that still have their own special shopping hours, there’re more n more places that buck the traditions so we did get out to the local shopping Mall Gelderland Plein for me to get my bearings.

I wasn’t sure what it’d feel like being back in Holland after 16 years; before it felt like second home and I could step out the door and be familiar even if Liz had moved to a new town. This time it feels both familiar and strange at the same time – day 1 was spent realizing that I’d forgotten, or at least buried a bit deep, simple things like how to say goedemorgen, dankje wel and alsjeblieft.

We had good coffee at the local “Coffee Company” (the brand owner being a Mr Dick de Kock – not funny to Dutch people, but funny to those of us Engelsen who laugh at such silly things).

Blue skies above the coffee shop

Then went to Albert Hein to shop for food and for Liz to show me how to ‘zap’ the groceries so you can skip the cashier…only in Holland and Japan would such a trust system work.

Beam me up ... zapping groceries at Albert Hein

I love ‘shopping’ when I visit anywhere – not that I have to buy stuff, but it gives you such a good look into the normal lives of people and it’s fun to see how other people do things: the things they take for granted – like multicoloured lettuce packs in the grocery section that you can plant out if you like, and the things we take for granted but don’t expect to see on their shelves – like Maggi Bouillon Cubes.

Multi-coloured plantable lettuce

2nd shelf up - Maggi Bouillon Cubes

Neat Dutch Ice Cubes

One Sunday at Pigeon Point

My Sunday beach crew would appreciate my being amused at the neat Dutch ‘bags’ of ice…yes, those little ice-cubes are all lined up neatly inside those nicely labelled packages…and apparently in Holland you don’t need as much ice as we do on one of our rum n coconut water afternoons…kinda small packs.

Stepping out - sisters

Later on Monday we took a stroll round the neighbourhood – a block or so after the main shopping part of Beethoven Str. a lovely canal crosses under the bridge – we walked along this where the houses are big – very unusual for Holland – and apparently are some of the priciest in Amsterdam. I took pictures of those that were for sale that I could see myself in (after I win the lottery)

On the street with the older houses...

On the corner - I like this one...


Searching For Utopia

In memory of a cardiologist

There’s public art all over the place – something I wish we’d do in Saint Lucia. It’s not that I find all the art that appealing; that doesn’t really matter so much I think. It’s more important that there are visual expressions of people’s ideas, stories; desires. More important that there are parks and art in-between the commerce of life.

Tuesday we took the tram up to where I’m doing my metal-work/jewelry classes – in the ‘Jordaan’ – an old area near to Centraal Station where the roads are tiny and canals everywhere. The class itself that evening was good – good to be a student again and ‘forget’ that I know anything and be open to learning as though I am a complete novice. No pics yet :-)

The other students were very surprised that I was staying 10 weeks with my sister "you must be very close to her!" I guess so...it's good to be part of a family you don't think twice about spending months on end with :-) None of them really knew where Saint Lucia was - the teacher an echt Nederlanse, the other two students both half Japanese, one half Greek, the other half Sri Lankan - both imports to Holland, pretty good company for the evening.

Today a walk in the park – Beatrix Park across the road – not the most spectacular scenes at this time of year – flowers dying off at the end of summer and a few trees deciding it’s autumn already…but being able to walk for over an hour in the cool…that, I miss when I’m in Saint Lucia.

Traveling after a long time

noreply@blogger.com (Finola Prescott) — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 10:25:00 +0000

Living n a small island you tend to take for granted that you will bump into people with whom you’re connected in some way or other; if you’re new to life in the small islands, you may be cautioned to be careful what you say because the person you’re saying it about might very well be closely related to the one you’re saying it to. But I didn’t expect to be sitting on the plane to the UK next to a young man returning with his wife from their honeymoon in St. Lucia and find out that he’s from the very small village in the UK, Alsager, where I went to college. At least I didn’t discover that during a conversation about the things I didn’t like about my experiences in that little village! Maybe a lot has changed in those 19 + years…he seemed quite pleasant, and my apologies to any Alsagerites that read this and are offended, doh be vex – there was a lot I liked about Alsager too.

Anyhow, it’s been a trip already. I whiled away quite a bit of time watching one of the BA stewardesses face as she picked up the ‘rubbish’ after our breakfast….Lord! You would’a think she was scooping up clumps from the litter box, not ends of halfheartedly eaten airline meals. She had thick false eyelashes and painted on lips…her disdainful, pained face was hilarious.

As I stepped off the plane I wondered what exactly it was again that possessed me to take my long-awaited vacation during the beginning of autumn? 9C…I forgot how cold my nose gets :-) But I know I’ll adjust fast enough – I really miss the cool weather to walk in – I plan to hit the Amsterdam streets on foot a lot while I’m here…and by bike too in their cute little fietspaths – my sister is hoping to get me a folding bike…well, we’ll see how that goes – I guess at least my feet will be able to reach the ground and I won’t have to try to elegantly balance with fingertips on the feitspath stoplights pole trying not to look like the non-native Dutch rider that I am. Fond memories of the bike rides to work at 6:30 am in an Alphen an de Rejn.

So, what kinda irked me upon my arrival at Gatwick was that I found out our less-than-professional duty-free shops in many Caribbean islands don’t bother to ask their customers if they are transferring beyond the UK when they really should: I now know you can’t take bottles of alcohol through transit in the UK unless they are packed in a properly sealed bag/box – ‘officially’ sealed somehow. The people at the bag check were excellent in dealing with it – explained it clearly and took me through, back out to the check in, pleasant apologetic chat all the way – now why they apologizing for something my country doesn’t do, well…

At the queue I was directed to, I met an Italian guy returning home from Trinidad in the same boat, just that he had TnT rum of course…so we navigated the whole process together his English wasn’t so good and I was happy to trade off my language assistance for the company through the maze - which ended up with us having to enter the UK, then check the alcohol in at the BA customer service desk – in a checkable bag of course, which I had and he didn’t, so at that point we parted ways, he planning to find his travelling partner again and share some rum drinking I guess.

All the staff – at every point - were super professional and of course me being me, I quizzed them all about this whole situation cos I find it’s pretty ridiculous – the guys at baggage check told me there’s a constant flow of people in this situation all day long…now tell me, how difficult can it be for our shops to put up a couple signs, their staff to ask a simple question? We real lazy eh? I promised the ladies at the BA Customer Service that I’d see what I could do to at least change things in St. Lucia – I don’t like the idea of how many people’s last dealing with us is of bad customer service and they either have to dump the Chairmans or go through a whole rigmarole and possibly extra cost (if they have to buy a bag or the BA staff decide they vex that day and charge for the extra luggage).

Now with 6hrs to kill in Gatwick I figured at least I could waste some of it on the internet…only to find out there isn’t free wifi??? Well at least in that we have the up on them. I must be giving out a good vibe though cos as I sat down to the pay-as-you-surf station a stranger called me over to their station to take over the remains of their paid for session – just to say the service uses some backwards Internet Explorer version that wouldn’t load my gmail unless I went to basic html…nothing like coming from the fully loaded 3^rd world to the 1^st world inconveniences ;-)

Their airport coffee beats ours hands down though. Sorry Rituals…you have them with the free internet but not the coffee and eats.

Mwe Las tho, mwe las…I sorry for my sister cos she’s going to get a half-functioning lil’ sister’s muddled head to deal with for the first day or too. At least I know she makes a knocking coffee…that should help

Now, let me go write Senator Chastanet an email about this rum thing…

Life is Good...

noreply@blogger.com (Finola Prescott) — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 15:58:00 +0000

So today I woke up, in my friend's apartment that I'm house-sitting, opened the windows, stood at the kitchen sink 'washin' the wares', breathed in the warm rainy air and thought once again...Life is good.

Turned 47 a couple days ago...the day before, when I'd normally be doing something to celebrate my last day of the current age, I was sick n half sleeping all day - some kind of 1 day bug...such is life. Didn't seem to stop me from still feeling that Life is Good.

That evening I started getting Happy Birthday wishes as Facebook told people on the other side of the world that it was June 17th, Finola's Birthday today! Yes, Life is Good.

The morning of my birthday my alarm ripped me from my sleep at 5:30 am...I had a 6am appointment: Cake and non-alcoholic champagne is the tradition for breakfast at our house, so I had to get up there on time, cos I knew they'd be waiting...

My Cake!

The drive up was just beautiful - moon setting in the West and sun rising over the hills in the East.

Moon setting about 5:45am June 17th

Sun Rising about 5:55am June 17th

Can I say it again? Life sure is Good.

6pm that evening I started a lovely evening with friends, a few were missing, but still, it was good - balmy and beautiful on the boardwalk at the marina, plenty 'ol' talk'...took the whole next day to recover from just 2 1/2 margueritas and still felt Life is Good.

Sunset at the Marina, June 17th 6:30ish

Cheers!

So this morning, when that warm soft air hit me, I had a serious urge to get out of the house, partly due I'm sure to the fact that yesterday, though I thought about going out about every 2hrs or so, just couldn't rouse myself from lazing around all day :-). Say it with me "Life is Good!"

I've always loved swimming in the rain...so I put on my swimsuit, waited for the downpour to ease, got in the car and drove to Pigeon Point. I was the only person there - aside from the Security at the Landings - a welcome safe feeling. The water was just warm enough, crystal clear - I could easily pick out shells and sea glass from the sand below me. Soon enough I had a half a dozen little sand-coloured fish swimming around my ankles looking up expectantly to see if I'd feed them I guess. I love when that happens...Life sure is Good.

Deserted but beautiful even in the rain

Was getting a bit peckish, so I headed up for breakfast at the family home, turned the car around on the way to photograph my favourite little Flambouyant tree that is just beautiful - despite the inexplicable presence of piles of yard trash that just isn't getting moved..

Beauty Persists, the lovely little Flambouyant tree

Unexpectedly the family were all home, and I got to chat with my sister, chat with Pa Clark on Father's Day, see my niece all perky and full of beans...picked up windfall mangoes from the soft rainsoaked uncut grass...fussed the dogs, swung a while in the hammock....came back here for coffee and skyped with my other sister who lives far away...

Life is what you make it. Life is Good.

The Sounds of Silence

noreply@blogger.com (Finola Prescott) — Thu, 12 May 2011 00:13:00 +0000

Silence is a peculiar animal…sometimes the epitome of peacefulness, sometimes unbearably deafening. Just been musing on it recently in it’s various incarnations…so let me interrupt yours a bit with some random thoughts written out loud:

They say that just before dawn there’s a moment of complete silence where both the last singers of the night and the first of the day stop as though holding their breath, waiting to see if the sun will indeed come again. I’ve gotten up early sometimes, just to hear that silence, and I think I have, but then again, maybe I just wanted to believe.

Not quite dawn, but I imagine if in a glider, there'd be a beautiful silence - Pitons from LIAT

Recently, taking new Yoga classes from Jill at Yoga on the Bay, I’ve come closer to being able to silence my mind, but closer also, I think, to understanding that ‘silencing’ your mind doesn’t mean ceasing to hear everything, it about silencing the noise.

A few nights ago, I came home from dinner with friends and as I got out of the car, I was assaulted with the singing of crickets and tree frogs in the trees…they’re making a lot of noise outside right now as I type…but if I don’t think about them, their noise fades into the ‘silence’ of the night and I’ll sleep soundly through their orchestra. I never noticed they were noisy until a guest, Caroline, from the UK told me she had a lousy night because she couldn’t sleep over the noise…I had no idea at all what she was on about until she explained…later that night, I ‘heard’ them for the first time.

Here they are for your listening pleasure:

I can sleep through the hum of my ceiling fan far easier than through the silence without it…

“People talking without speaking, people hearing without listening”

Simon and Garfunkel’s famous song …. What do these words mean to you?

Silence is given many personas;

Silence is golden, maybe, but not if you need an answer…

Silence means consent – not very often in my book, but how will anyone really know if you don’t say?

Silence speaks volumes – yes, it does, but are those volumes intelligible? Not really, even when you ‘know’ someone, you’re still left guessing…

A quick search on ‘Silence sayings’ yielded a cacophony of silence sayings…. Here are some that made me think:

“In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood.” Henry David Thoreau

It is romantic to believe we understand each other enough, have wisdom enough to read another’s silence…but I think Mr. Thoreau has a much more realistic take on it here... spoken and especially, written words, can be terribly misunderstood. Silence though, what’s there really, to understand? Silence, misinterpreted can never be explained by silence, only by words…

Hmm, a thought...Are written words louder than spoken words? Which speaks clearer? For me a voice and face are part of understanding speech…but maybe that’s what distinguishes a great writer from an ok one – the ability to illuminate written words with the power of spoken expression…

“The tree of silence bears the fruit of peace” Arabian Proverb

Hold your tongue and think before you speak! That’s the funny thing isn’t it – while silence can’t say anything with absolute certainty…there are times when it would have said your true feelings so much better than the words blurted out in hurt or anger…those ones tend to echo endlessly no matter how much you try to silence them with more words and apologies!

“I have often regretted my speech, never my silence” Publilius Syrus

I guess he always spoke up when he needed to…I don’t know about you, but I’ve regretted my silence once or twice! Most painfully when someone who cares doesn’t get to understand because I didn’t, or couldn’t say… much less drastically when offered something or needing something and saying nothing…each has it’s own place, silence and speaking, maybe?

Perhaps the use of speech vs silence, is best summed up by Samuel Butler;

“Silence is not always tact, but it is tact that is golden, not silence.”

Maybe I can reword one of my favourites:

Grant me the courage to say the things I should say, the serenity to not say those that I shouldn’t, and the wisdom to know the difference. :-)

And I’ll leave it here.

Peace be with you.

Contributed by a reader, Louise - Crystal Silence by Chick Corea

Cricket and Motivation

noreply@blogger.com (Finola Prescott) — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 15:04:00 +0000

I’m not a bigtime cricket fan – I enjoy watching a game on TV or more recently at Beausejour Cricket ground just down the road from where I live…I can’t always pick out what kind of bowler is bowling, what stroke was played…ok, I can rarely pick that out…but I’m fan enough to be traumatized when the West Indies does not perform. And fan enough to still want to go to the Digicel series Pakistan vs West Indies matches later this month... but why I'm talking about cricket is because it has recently been making me focus on some things about motivation in our islands...

I still recall the match at Beausejour in the ICC World 20/20 last year where we had our big WI flag, ready to wave and shout…and I remember the sinking feeling I had before that match watching the Windies ‘warm up’…and Australia warm up…chalk n cheese. The Windies seemed like they were still sleeping and hadn’t stretched in months far less gotten themselves to a level of fitness that befits an international – or even national sportsman.

Me, Myrakle and Richelle at Beausejour last year - before the West Indies lost...

And the match that followed pretty much followed on that vein. We lost by 6 wickets. We walked back to Gros Islet, I had the flag, wrapped up around it’s pole…as we walked along the highway, I still remember an irate and disillusioned Lucian pushed his head out his car window and said “Gassah you ain’ bun dat flag yet, gassah bun dat flag man! Bun it!” I replied, somewhat taken aback and without much real fortitude... “Awah, gassah, awah...we go win sometime…”

So watching the last few over’s of the final this year in India, I was struck by the total concentration of both teams, and by the spirit of the Indian players who, of course, had the added incentive of giving Sachin Tendulkar a fitting send off on top of the desire to win after 28 years, and they’re on home turf…which much as we might like to think Windies would be in the West Indies…we ain’t one nation.

Sachin made the comment that he would like to thank the entire staff – and he listed off various parts of that staff – not one coach, a whole set of coaches, not one physio, a whole set a dem…if I’m correct, there are admin staff, a management team, even people to coach them psychologically. India is a big country, but I’m sure the Indian team, like most teams, practices a lot together – whatever part of India the team is based, do they go ‘live’ in that area for that time? I’m not sure, so perhaps someone can answer me that and if I happen to see Reds Perreira in the coming days I must ask him, I figure he’d know.

I remember listening to Down to Brass Tacks and some of the sports programmes in Barbados, must’ve been late 2009 or in lead up to the ICC2010 and hearing the calls for the West Indies cricket team to be based for long enough periods in one or other island with suitable facilities for proper training and practice…why is it that we don’t do that? Is it just that we can’t afford it? I know we’re small in the scale of things, but I just don’t buy that as an excuse…and how is it that we always expect to perform at a world level when what we provide would more aptly be described as a chukalickly likkle fing.

Sorry, but it is a dreamland we living in if we expect that just because we pay our team members a good salary, that and the ‘pride’ of being a West Indies player should be enough motivation for them to handle the rest on their own…I remember seeing Sammy’s face when he got out in that match here…the man was the picture of frustration…and while he may have his shortcomings…as far as I can tell, he tries to improve, listens to the critiques he gets and makes an effort to correct himself…so where is ALL the rest of the support that is supposed to be there?

It’s not just in cricket – I guess I wrote about cricket because so many people see and understand it – like I said, I’m no expert in this area, but it also symbolizes all that is lacking for our Caribbean when it comes to providing sound foundations for motivating our people to greatness.

We build big buildings – they look good, but when it rains, you notice, they have no guttering, their lower floors flood, the metal starts to rust, the wood to rot…and yes, a certain Stadium or two in St. Lucia come to mind. Hmm, de grass sure ain't greener over here...There’s no maintenance – or if there is, it’s a woefully inadequate provision, perhaps in some cases, and I’m not saying anything like I suspect anyone in particular, but it’s too often the case unfortunately, the funds don’t go on what they should go on either, so woefully inadequate becomes, 'might as well be nothing'. Government buildings, private buildings…roads, schools, everywhere you can see it.

And it’s not just buildings of course – I have to quote it again, Adrian Augier’s poem “How in the land of Walcott, can there be a drought of poets” We have no museum, no national gallery, no public sculpture – except for ECFH on Bridge St. Sorry, I can’t count those busts in ‘the Sqaure’ or at the Airport, I just can’t count them – made in China.

Our Public Art - photo from emeelis on panoramio

We’re faced right now, as artists and artisans, with another year of being in a basic little set a basic tents at the Island’s biggest event – the St. Lucia Jazz Festival – a basic palleted floor, basic plastic tables and flat, not fitted, tablecloths to cover…not a sign, not a banner, not a decoration to say “look, here, we’re proud of our culture!” Let me not go too far into how I feel about this event right now ‘cos I done talk enough for the day already. But suffice it to say, when we argued for better representation, it was met in some quarters with great words and feelings of support, but no budget for that (granted we asked fairly late)…but in others, it was met with a reaction that I can only describe felt as though we were being told “who de hell you think you are and what right you have?” I am not yet sure if I will participate in this event at this stage, where we pay US$200 for this set-up and many may realistically only make double that in sales…therefore, no profit for 2 long days and 1 long night of work…but whether I’m there or not, if you do go to the Jazz Festival on Pigeon Island – please patronize the ‘Crafts Village’ – especially those St. Lucia artisans that are there, check it out and DO let us know what you think…

So, let me stop wandering around on this topic – I am asking, where in this paradise island and our sister islands in the chain, where is it that we are supposed to find enough motivation day after day for us to achieve the greatness that lies stifled within? How is it that we can conceive that we will nurture greatness within our people when we can see that we are being asked to perform with what amounts to hmm, at best, a likkle kwas (end/almost nothing) of support? Where is the motivation? Give me some ideas…tell me something!

Missing Out on Living

noreply@blogger.com (Finola Prescott) — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 13:46:00 +0000

A quote that I came across on Facebook this week - The Dalai Lama, when asked what surprised him most about humanity, answered

"Man.... Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived."

Quite a number of people commented on how profound this short paragraph is and for me, it came at a time when I have been finding myself unable to avoid life’s insistence that I take time to reassess…

When I thought about writing this post, I couldn’t figure out which of the very personal issues to use for it…as I’m not into putting my private self out in blog-land to that extent. Then I thought about recent outing that I think provides a good parallel:

The Perigee Moon – the biggest full moon in about 20 years was to provide us with a spectacular show as it rose over the horizon on Saturday 19^th, at 6:19pm, just around sunset…so our Sunday group – or a part of it, went up for a viewing get-together, to Paul’s breathtaking lookout spot at the tip of Cap Estate, just above the stalled Raffles / Jack Nicklaus Golf Club project, or as I prefer to think of it, above my youth’s backyard.I asked about the safety of the Barrel Cacti if the golf course is built...I can't pretend I'm happy to see the open spaces of my youth go to private manicured greens...but I didn't dwell on that too long that evening...

Looking South over the Jack Nicklaus Golf Course to be...mabye...

It had been a rare rainy day in an early dry season and there was hardly a snatch of blue sky to be seen. It would be unfair to say that any of us did not notice the crystal clear view of Martinique to the north, where you could almost see the houses, or the proud silhouette of Mt. Gimie to the south with a dramatic wisp of cloud curled under his peaks, nor the sunset drenching the West with warm hues and sparkles, that even the darkening East was not immune to as the crests of Atlantic waves breaking on the rocks and reefs off Cas en Bas shimmered with golden oranges.

I’d forgotten my camera…brought my bag, (not that I needed it) where the camera lives, but it wasn’t there today…It made me think; “It’s not the photos you’re here for, Fifi” as in a half-conscious flash I let the weekly passing thought-conflict of which is more important, capturing the beautiful sunsets at Pigeon Island Causeway every Sunday, or enjoying the ambiance with focus on friends play out momentarily in my mind.

I’ve learnt, even if I haven’t mastered, the art of accepting that things happen for a reason. So it wasn’t difficult to let go the photo-ops that evening.

Enjoying the compa

Yes, I ended up with camera in-hand, Nadia knows I can’t resist those sunsets :-) I took photos, enjoyed it, but just as happily, handed it back to sit back in my beach chair, amidst the beauty and the reality of this lovers-lane lookout, to soak up the atmosphere, cool soft cloudy day breezes, enjoy the company of people whom I’ve come to know as friends, the unfettered joy of Jo-Jo, only 6 or 7, as she danced around, wrapped herself in her scarf 3 times her size, flitting from Auntie to ‘Auntie’, as we faced East, chatting, guessing where exactly the moon was behind all that cloud, and if it had in-fact made it above the horizon yet. Marveling at the shadow of the hill on the slightly moonlit Eastern sea as the sunset played her last ace as we sipped wine from our colourful plastic wine glasses.

We remarked that we'd seemingly forgotten to include some of our Sunday group, but while we all knew we'd have preferred they were there, we didn't dwell on it, what could be done about it now anyway?

We did see that perigee moon, which Faye has so googleishously educated us all about in our outing plans…he slipped bit by bit behind the one narrow tear in the clouds.

So, what’s it all about? Life is rarely what you expect it to be, but always what you make of it.

I have ‘wasted’ countless years when I add it up, chasing belonging, recovering from over-partying, countless days to day-dreaming up worst-case-scenario-what-ifs…to hankering afters, to indecisions and procrastination…I now waste still far too many days from my reduced health from youthful over-indulging, and I could waste countless more to regrets about hard times, bad decisions past, present and possibly future…but I am choosing, hmm, perhaps learning to choose more wisely.

For me the ‘living in the present’ thing doesn’t mean disconnectedly going with whatever flow catches you, it’s about being more much present than that -

I'm a great believer in bending the Universe to your will - life has shown that when you ask, wholeheartedly for something and open yourself up to it despite it seeming impossible, things happen. Some people do this by praying to God, Allah, Jesus, Mary, Mother Earth...for me, it's 'just' the Universe - my interpretation of God I guess...whatever it is, most of us forget or perhaps don't know how to really do that simultaneous determined focus of all your energy and complete opening up to all that might be possible...that allows you to really live in the present...and...

There is no doubt in my mind that the mistakes and hardships I went through in the past have allowed me to become who I am today…and yes, mostly, I quite like me now :-) So living in the present necessitates taking into account your past…but in perspective, putting it in ‘its place’.

And there are always decisions to be made about which path to take, which one to just see from a distance, always things you must choose to leave and things you must choose to carry.

The best days are undoubtedly for me, those where you achieve that balance of indulgence / responsibility, appreciation / ambition, peace and joy…looking back and being able to let go, forgive, forget, and looking forward with dreams and plans and openness to possibilities as yet unseen…and managing in amongst all that, to be living - consciously - in the present.

There's a constantly flowing, changing balance about life and I think sometimes - too often - our limited instincts lead us to try to achieve balance by interrupting, stopping that flow...balance by necessity must have opposing forces, and life must have change and growth, otherwise it wouldn't be living, would it?

Over to you guys I think now...it's an open ended thought today, as it probably always should be :-)

Sunset at the Perigee Moon, St. Lucia

Pausing Posting

noreply@blogger.com (Finola Prescott) — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 15:26:00 +0000

Well, this is why I don't make New Year's resolutions :-) I had said to myself that I would 'just post once a week' ... but that ain't even happening! So, here it is: I made a decision last week to take a short break off voluntary activities - as President of our new group Creative Development Network, as unofficial liaison for traditional crafters in Choiseul, and today as unofficial intermediary for supplier and buyer...and focus on just my own personal business for a while. Posting on the blog is gonna be a bit on hiatus for a while too I think.
But what I will do, is keep popping up a few photos and a few short notes, so hope you'll stay with me and enjoy the scenery along the way!


beautiful bougainvilla outside my home studio

teatime on the verandah snapping whatever catches the eye

lunchtime at my favourite spot when I'm 'in town' - Vigie Beach

almost suset at one of my other favourite spots - Pigeon Island Causway with friends

quintessential Caribbean - red hibiscus, blue puff-clouds sky

Fly Me to the Moon…

noreply@blogger.com (Finola Prescott) — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 15:52:00 +0000

Moon Set over the Caribbean Sea

…let me play amongst the stars…

Last night I dreamt of flying for the first time in ages! In this dream I was in a sturdy pair of Doc Martins or some similar boot with a good anti-skid tread on it :-) and I was running, jumping and skipping in the pouring rain, trough a muddy, puddle-filled field (surefooted in my well-treaded boots)….I’d gone back ‘somewhere’ to get long forgotten belongings and had them in a huge dufflebag…carting them off to wherever I was now going…and then, just as it always is, I figured “Why just walk/run/skip n jump when you can fly?” And off I went…soaring happily through the storm-filled clouds without a doubt that I was totally in charge.

Different people who know me may figure this is about a varying set of things…maybe it is, but whatever...wow, I love dreaming of flying and this one was a good one…

Last few days have had a variety of opportunities and challenges tossed up at me from every encounter I’ve had, creating a pretty full range of emotional, intellectual and practical challenges in an action-packed short space of time...too much to go into here…even allowing for my fondness for prattling on and on! But it obviously has fed my ‘Carpe Diem’ side…no small achievement with the ridiculous issue of our murder rate in St. Lucia being part and parcel of these interactions I’ve been involved in.

But what I’ve seen, and I think is part of what’s fed into my ability to fly joyfully in Doc Martins through stormy skies, is that I’ve been genuinely surprised by discoveries of the existence of positive attitudes, creative abilities, understanding, caring, where I thought I would never begin to see it…and reconfirmation of what has been pointed out to me is probably my best character asset…my ability to see another side of things and present it in a way that helps find solutions. And I took some criticism of my work in stride and was not floored by it, but found I could take my own advice and see it as constructive and make positive moves from it…

Some days I think we all just lose sight of what it’s possible for us to achieve; we cloud our skies with the worries of unfair competition, assumptions of persons motives, fear of sharing our knowledge lest we hand over power and income to others, despair when we feel impotent in the face of our home country being taken over by crime and violence – when in reality, yes, it’s a very real problem, but is NOT an accurate representation of us as a people, but IS a challenge to us to rise above, cut a better path, step up, cast off those bad habits that limit us.

We forget that we need to believe, really believe, that we can fly above it all.

I spent the last two weeks teaching a group of ladies – young and less young, from a variety of backgrounds, in an area of St. Lucia that in my mind is synonymous with, hmmm, ok, lets just say, not being overly proactive about seizing the day…Well, what a surprise I was in for…and a reminder that you can never assume things are as your memories of past experience paints them. As usual, although from comments made by some of the trainees, I know I gave well and in plenty, I also know I gained at least as much as I gave…I didn’t worry about the limit of what I ‘should’ give…I thought more about how can I make sure I give these enthusiastic and obviously talented people enough ‘tools’ to create an un-douseable flame of confidence. I may not have achieved it for all participants – it was a big class, and short hours, limited physical tools, and even my personal limitations – but I’m proud of what they achieved and so would like to share some pictures of their work with you…and just before that mention a special thanks to Nadia Jabour for accompanying me for two sessions and sharing her enthusiasm, ideas and skills so freely.

And if you are in St. Lucia, come see us next Saturday 26^th Feb at the Craft & Farmers’ Market, Coco Cabana Car Park, (behind-ish-next-to Rituals) Rodney Bay.

So - Carpe Diem! Seize the Day! – and worry less about what others are going to /not going to be, and just make sure you focus on being all that you can be – that alone will make a world of difference.


Recycled Copper Wire Bangle

recycled wire, re-used bead-pendant

Textures, colours, simplicity - Pride!

Framed! Taking on the challenge of keeping it minimalistic...dyed natural materials

forged fence wire - forged on a coalpot! I did not teach this - her husband, a cobbler, encouraged by her enthusiasm, guided her through this - the top is forged into a 'bead cap' too!

Concentration! Making a decorative wreath

Beach combing and recycled cardboard picture frame

recycled wire and found shells necklac

Recycled Wire and found shells necklace
Selection of multi-media collage pendants and brooches

Graduated - happy despite that snacks
never arrived on the final day!

Nobel Laureate Week in the Island of Derek Walcott & The Drought of Poets

noreply@blogger.com (Finola Prescott) — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 16:54:00 +0000

We went to Headphunk on Thursday night last – this session’s theme was “Chosen – A Literary Legacy” in honour of the fact that in St. Lucia, it was “Nobel Laureate Week”; the week where ostensibly, we celebrate the fact that our tiny island produced two Nobel Laureates…giving us the highest per-capita of Nobel Laureates in the world I am told.

Well.

It’s never been a high profile week on the St. Lucian calendar and this year, the year and month where Derek Walcott won the TS Elliott Prize for Poetry for his ‘technically flawless’ new book of poems entitled “White Egrets”…this year was no different.

The not-so-momentous week began with a 4-day display in the Derek Walcott Square in Castries where it was billed that “Choiseul Hosts Nobel Laureate Annual Exhibition”. Now, despite my close affiliation with Choiseul as it relates to crafts, I confess, I did not go. I meant to go, but other commitments got in the way. I did however, promote the event my usual way – through my big mailing list. A few people went after that, but alas, the reports that came in were far from encouraging: “Well, I saw a few tents, with a few things” “No, there were no performances…we waited a while, but there was just a DJ playing normal music”

It would be unfair to leave it there though – as the Star Newpaper report shows, yes, there were performances and activity…but so few people really noticed this event. So few people ever notice the Nobel Laureate Week events…

But without getting into details of what was scheduled and what not…the thing that strikes me is that I had more people asking me if I knew what was where, than I had people saying they were going, had gone or wanted to go, to any of the events. Our visiting neighbours ended up at Headphunk sort of in error –they wanted the Derek Walcott Lecture which they’d seen listed as happening on Wednesday, but then were told by ‘people’ no, it’s not Wednesday, the Nobel Laureate thing is Thursday and it’s at Samaan’s Park…

I just spent a while Googling to find proper reference to what was when – I found a promotional video on YouTube (should I just be glad it's on YouTube?) which listed everything as boringly as you possibly could. Sorry whoever produced it but this is the kind of thing that makes people figure it’s not an interesting set of events to go to

I found standard (un-exciting) press releases and a couple of newspaper reports – after the event as always – now fair enough, we don’t have daily papers, and if the organizers do not supply a proper press pack – complete with pictures of the actual artists, lecturers, references to their work…dare I suggest that a timed programme for the performances at The Square might have been useful? Forgive me, but if we are celebrating excellence then why, oh why must we do it so badly?!

Explain to me how it is that anyone – young student or old hardback – will be able to learn what excellence really is if our National Events are of such sub-standard quality? And I’m not talking about the performances – it’s the promotion, organization, stage set up, décor … and before any of the organizers, stage decor companies, etc get vexed...I know it is a 'lack of budget' and often a lack of understanding or commitment from the powers that be.
I could almost forgive this year as Tomas gave us roads slipping and sliding and dams to fix, houses to relocate…ok, we have a lot else of urgency to be spending our money on in early 2011…but then why was it so in 2010, 2009, 2008…?

From the as yet unpublished manuscript Navel String - due out later this year, in the poem entitled Perhaps The Children,
“How in the land of Walcott can there be a drought of poets?”
That was the line from Adrian Augier’s poem at Headphunk last Thursday that stuck hard like an African thorn in your heel on Pigeon Island.

Adrian Augier Performs at Headphunk during Nobel Laureate Week, St. Lucia (photo FP)

Adrian is the 2010 Caribbean Laureate for Arts and Letters as awarded by the ANSA Foundation. In 2009 he was presented with the NDATT Caribbean Cacique Award for his contribution to the development and integration of Caribbean Theatre. His performance at Headphunk ROCKED the house and got a standing ovation…but ask your average St. Lucian, ask half the people who should know – I bet you nearly none of them would be aware of his accolades…they might know he’s the guy who does the Rituals carnival band…or the guy who ‘gets’ to do all the shows for the Tourist Board…

From another of St. Lucia’s accomplished poets Kendal Hippolyte, in his poem “Going” that he recited Thursday past, “In the intuitive logic of a child, where you are going tells you where you are.”

St. Lucia, where are we?

Adrian Augier blog

Gratitude and Seeing the Positive

noreply@blogger.com (Finola Prescott) — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 00:12:00 +0000

Every now and then it’s good to stop and take stock of life; life is so chock full of problems that it is all too easy to be consumed by them. Watch the news, listen to ‘friends’ talking, read the papers…where are the good stories? Where’s the celebration of life? What’s the point in complaining all the time?

My life is not so different to many people’s – a bit of fun, a lot of hard work, many chances to practice holding my tongue…over the week leading up to Christmas I was working 17hr days trying to finish an ill-timed project that I really wanted to present well…and finding out at the same time that my pay was going to be late…from every source that owed me. A ‘brek’ Christmas. I could’ve been ‘vex’, ok, I was a little…but after a very short moment of that, I was instantly back in the grateful mode. Why? Well, it’s simply a life choice that I make; I find I can’t rationalize heaping negative upon negative and figuring that in life, that makes positive…not in my world.

On the last day of my teaching mini-career, I was required to attend a ‘Professional Development Day’. I did not want to go. But, I sucked it up and convinced myself that it was the ‘right thing to do’… well I must be a genius, because it certainly was! It was one of those life-changing Oprah-Aha moments. At the end of the day I really understood what making positive choices was all about.

Just two days ago I was telling one of my ‘daughters by another mother’ about that day; she’s been feeling the rough end of transitioning from one of my adopted daughter-students into an employee…and let’s just say it hasn’t been a smooth transition! That same project that I was working 17hrs a day on, and another volunteer activity (Hurricane Tomas) were her tasks, and in all honesty, there were failings on all sides, but of course, as an employee, junior, newbee, she was in a position many of us have experienced before; being sure you have some right, are not the only one who failed to do what you were supposed to, but not in a position to be able to come out without a good set ah scratches. Guilty as charged, even if others were needing to be charged too!

I am fairly sure I’ve mentioned this before but anyway…that last day at school at this Professional Development Day I was dreading, Peace Corps volunteer gave us a super-compressed version of a youth programme that essentially gets you to understand that, no matter how bad the choices on offer - could be bad, worse and “Hell No!” - your choice of action will affect the follow-on. Your choice is the most powerful element in what happens.

Essentially, in the case when things go awry, you can choose to be vexed and stew – and get sour stomach and frown lines; you can choose to mend whatever bridges may be in danger but secretly plot revenge…and get sour stomach and frown lines…or you can choose to forgive, apologize and learn from experience, you know, accept that we’re all human, and be grateful for having had the opportunity for whatever positive experiences were woven into the ‘problem’. Grateful that you are so powerful that you can choose not to let a bad scene grow into a weight that breaks you, that you have the savvy to find the positive, learn, see beyond, the ‘obvious’. No sour stomach, but plenty happiness and confidence results. In time, the ‘obvious’ starts to take on a whole new persona, it becomes more and more obvious that most of the time we’re stewing, we are the ones being cooked in our own pot…and when we decide not to stew, we get to savor the delicious desserts.

I can almost here some people saying “Me!?! I not groveling behind THAT person!” “Apologize! Not before them!” Well ok, that’s your choice…if you chose to play the victim, be the hard-done-by one, be the righteous one…whatever character you choose…then that is the life you choose for yourself. It’s not the live you’re forced to bear… it’s the life you choose.

When you ready, you can choose to join the happier, more powerfilled people who understand that taking responsibility is a choice of freedom, has nothing at all to do with letting people trample you – it’s all about being capable, strong, moving forward. Being grateful is a powerful thing.

And before my ‘child from another mother’ thinks I think she’s totally playing the hard-done-by character, no, with a little encouragement she stood up and apologized even though she felt others should be taking some of the responsibility for the failures too, she showed she was mature enough to bite her lip and be the better person. I hope she isn’t plotting revenge…I don’t think she is :-D

View looking south to Petit Piton, St. Lucia

Really, there’s way too much going on that’s genuinely bad and genuinely is beyond our immediate ability to control – crime, violence, war… it’s not about pretending these don’t exist, it’s about making sure what is positive is not lost in the darkness. That instead, it’s given as much of our energy and attention as is possible – about adding our little bit of positive energy and positive focus to the universe. Think about the image of how much hope just a tiny shining light can give when all around is dark.

I think that when we focus our energy on finding and paying respect to the positive things, that’s how they grow, that’s how we’ll have the strength and clear mind to find ways to combat the real problems in life. And if we don’t, unfortunately, the positive will be out of sight and become harder and harder for people to see when faced with the tough decisions life gives us everyday.

So, once again on this blog I get to say I am grateful. Grateful for the hard-knocks lessons that make the good-times seem even better, grateful for the pressures that forced me to understand we all have our shortcomings and our strengths, allowed me to find ways I could grow and become more content, more confident, more able. Grateful for the hands that stretch out beyond all normal human capacity to hold me or you or anyone up when we’re too weak to hold ourselves...

Grateful for hard work...;-)

Ok, ok, most of the work was done by Tim...

Grateful for the days when you can just kick back relax

Pigeon Island Causeway, St. Lucia

Grateful for the natural beauty that persists despite us;

Pigeon Island View North


Harrison's Cave, Barbados

grateful for the manmade beauty that the gifted among us make for us…

Ok Liz, where is this beautiful stained glass ceiling?

Grateful for pets...

The late "Pickles" He was a laugh at times...

Find the positive.The list could go on for ever...

St. Lucia, Recovering after Tomas Still

noreply@blogger.com (Finola Prescott) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 15:24:00 +0000

Well into the New Year, I just finished watching a locally produced Helen TV video with the Deputy Chief Forestry Officer, Lydon John "Riding the Aftermath" in the Wake of Hurricane Tomas; it was done in the early days after the storm and in watching it, as they drive up the Barre de l'Isle, into Fond St. Jacques and up around Colombette where Livity Art Studio and Sabi and Eugenia's home once stood it made me realize that in fact, much has been done in clearing up...despite the fact that there is still so much more to do that when you drive around the island you are temped to ask 'What are we waiting for?"

As life would have it, I cannot locate the photos I took when I drove down the East coast mid December where, as I descended the Barre de l'Isle towards Tomazo, I counted at least 12 places where the road had just fallen away and was now barred off with 2x2 makeshift fences, and the photos as I drove through the dip at Mon Repos where the road had been scoured away, must be 20 ft deep, by a river reclaiming it's right of passage. Even now, I'm pausing to consider if perhaps there is somewhere they might be that I have not thought of...I don't think so though.

And I KNEW that as soon as I posted, I'd find my photos...so here are a few - if you've driven the Barre de l'Isle you'll understand how strange the bare hillside is; the beauty of that road is the lush vegetation-treeferns, bamboo, gommier trees...the whole uphill stretch is stripped bare, then going down the other side the road has fallen away every 20-30 metres.

Going up the Barre de l'Isle, the vegetation is all stripped

Coming down the other side, the road has fallen away and temporary barriers erected

In some places, rebuilding of the retaining walls of gabian baskets has begun

Nonetheless, that day I travelled down to Micoud to do a session with the St. Lucia Network of Rural Women Producers Micoud Cluster (yes, they need a more attractive name to market themselves under!) they told me they still had no water in the pipes - 2 months on. Tanks were being placed around the area - but most homes had no water unless it rained...and it had hardly rained.

Last week on Facebook a resident of Vanard lamented that her area had not yet gotten water since the hurricane! There was a discussion with WASCO our water company, and we all agreed that their task was beyond what most people could imagine; I noted that as I drive around the island now - in and out of areas - I see the roads that were still in one piece after the storm, now degrading as the heavy rains off and on continue the work that Tomas 24+ inches didn't quite get done. A couple days later the same resident rejoiced for the 2hr period the water flowed in her home and before sunrise, she was able to take a shower! Small mercies.

We see in the news this week IMF approves $8.2Million for relief work in St. Lucia and many other institutions and countries have sent aid money too...but how long it will take us to reconstruct is a question indeed.

The river crosses the road every time it rains

I took this picture of Anse Galet near Anse la Raye, when I went down on January 1st...my thought was "What are we waiting for?" As I thought when I drove from Corinth to Bois d'Orange over what passes for a bridge...

Is it a bridge? Bois d'Orange, gap from Corinth (photo Finola Prescott)

But then I drove the same road a week later and they had cleared much of the way - they were working right into the night when I drove back around 7:30pm and I am told they are already constructing a proper bridge to replace the temporary crossing...

And with all the news of snows and floods and earthquakes around the world, hundreds lost in Brazil, weeks of floods in Australia (St. Lucia, Australia no less) our big loss sort of pales in comparison - and you can't help but feel our smallness. And as the 1st Anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti passing with reports of how little of the rubble has been cleared, how much remains to be begun...it is easy to see how easy it is to be forgotten, feel like we're left to figure it out for ourselves.

But the reality is that work is constantly going on to fix our island - the WASCO guy made the comment that

"The scope of the work changes with every new event. We had to relocate our pipe in Anse la Raye to the middle of the road to prevent them from being washed away again. We're having issues of varying natures and magnitude in other parts too -- from turbidity to clogged lines to damaged pumps, etc. It's hard work that seems unending."

It will be a long road.

For those of you who send barrels to help families - apparently St. Lucia received somewhere in the region of 40,000 barrels this Christmas, where normally it would be about 15,000. It might be worth checking with your beneficiary on whether they have managed to clear their goods though - I think people are being advised to use a broker to speed clearance and of course there are costs involved with that. But thanks for the generosity...that's a lot of barrels.

For our part, our small group of artists got ourselves formalized and we organized what will be a monthly event, the "Craft & Farmers' Market" in Rodney Bay on the last Saturday of each month - basically a free event to provide a place where artisans and small farmers and agro-producers can sell and earn and therefore assist themselves to fix back their own lives and livelihoods.

A stall at the first "Craft & Farmers' Market"

We are all struggling a bit with getting our Art Auction organized - life in small island paradise can be challenging, so 'spare time' for an artisan-microbiz is not always easy to find...but we are working on it...and in the background working on a much larger project which will need co-operation and approval and funding to become a reality - but we feel positive about it, it's our way to commemorate our lost fellow artisans, Sabi, Eugenia, their kids and Edge...will certainly post more on that in the near future...but first I must work on the proposal!

Meanwhile, the hotels are filling up and many of the attractions have been cleared...there's a lot still to do, but in parts, St. Lucia can still claim "Simply Beautiful"

Diamond Falls, Soufriere (photo Tim Prescott)

Pigeon Island National Landmark (photo Finola Prescott)

Sunset over Rodney Bay with Cruise Ships (photo Finola Prescott)

Have you visited recently? What's your experience?
Do you live here? How are things getting back to normal...or not, for you?

Why Write a Blog? Post Tomas Reflections and Plans

noreply@blogger.com (Finola Prescott) — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 01:10:00 +0000

I still ask myself that question often, "Why write a blog?" Even though in recent times, due to my attempts to provide info on what’s been going on in St. Lucia during and after Hurricane Tomas, I have had no need to question why. Far from it, I have finally found out what it feels like to do something useful!

Ok, ok, I have done other useful things for true, but this has been special and I understand why people say they’re humbled by someone’s gratitude…it’s a feeling that lifts you up at the same time planting your feet square on your tiny little bit of terra firma. You’d think you’d feel all blown up n grande when people are excited to meet ‘the person’ who writes ‘the blog’… but really, well for me, all jests about ‘my fans’ aside (and we’ve had plenty :-) for real, it’s humbling…a great, solid feeling of raison d’être.

I just wanted to say that. Thank you all – old n new, thank you for reading.

It’s one thing to feel like you have something to say, but it’s entirely another universe when someone actually thinks so too...and when several think so… and think also, that it’s worth sharing their views with you…Well, it is definitely why I blog…

Not that now and then there’s not plenty of blah-de-snore stuff in-between there, guilty, guilty, guilty. Those probably are days I should not have blogged. But those of you who have been with me from the start through the blah and the aha - thank you all for sticking through it. Those of you who found this blog in a time of tragedy for us, I hope you stick around and share some more time with me and my various thoughts and observations on life in the Caribbean.

Soon we will be launching an online auction of art and designer craft from St. Lucia – proceeds to go towards a fund that we’re putting together - inspired by the sudden tragic loss of Livity Art Studio, Sabi, Eugenia, their kids, Edge and perhaps more friends.

We are still putting together the fine print on what the fund will be used for, but in general, as the weeks go by, it’s becoming more and more obvious that recovery is going to be a long, hard road and as an artist-designer-trainer-developer, it’s easy to see that our already struggling artisans are in for a challenge with lost materials and stock and as we watch the High season for sales, dwindling post Tomas.

I’m not alone in seeing this – many of us are recognizing the need to move to make economic activity happen and hand back the power of independent earning to as many as possible; so the fund will be for that purpose – primarily for artisans. Most likely we will encourage people to put in requests and a designated group will review them and do what we can with the funds that we raise.

So please do stay tuned – and when we get going, I’ll ask that you spread the word too, for the auction and the other activities we’ll be promoting – get some Livity going all round!

Handpainted Calabash Bowl, Livity (photo Finola Prescott)

Calabash Car, Livity (photo Finola Prescott)

Handpainted Calabash 'Edge', Livity (photo Farida Daher-Bousquet)

Calabash Vase and Bowl, Livity, (photo Farida Daher-Bousquet)

Hurricane Tomas-Please Keep Giving-St. Lucia Still in Need

noreply@blogger.com (Finola Prescott) — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 22:14:00 +0000

Thanksgiving holiday in the USA tomorrow…in St. Lucia we had our Thanksgiving on the 1^st of October, as usual, well before Hurricane Tomas hit us!

We used to know the rhyme

June too soon

July stand by

August the forecast

September remember

October all over

We learnt that in school, geography classes – so we’d know the Hurricane Season; well the weather keeps showing us that we can rhyme all we like, watch groundhogs, track historical weather data…we still don’t know jack!

So, Hurricane Season officially ends on November 30th, but we know that it is all too possible that late storms sneak in and catch us, and even if that’s not the case, we are so completely soaked right through with the Tomas rain, that any more rain brings misery right back through our doors, mudding up our homes, stripping our hillsides of their trees, soil and rocks and challenging even our best efforts at recovery.

Bexon Primary School...from the road (Pic provided by Carmen Charles)

Over 23 inches of rain fell in those 24hrs. And since Tomas lasted more than 24 hrs, you know more than 24 inches fell in total – 2ft of rain. Where de hell we were supposed to be putting that!?!

I was going to write about our road trip down to Soufriere on Saturday just gone, but today, so many emails have come in about the hardship the schools and the school kids are facing that I figure, while I still have the attention of some people, I need to put out an appeal for help.

The landslide by Livity Art Studio - without a wide angle, it's hard to show the scale...it starts at least 100ft up and goes several hundred feet down and covers the whole corner....

Many of you by now have packed a barrel and sent it on, many more have donated to Red Cross, Rotary, Caritas and more, it has become difficult to keep up with the reports of various altruistic persons’ efforts…and a HUGE thank-you all for all of that…but we need to ask for more.

I don’t know the numbers…I have a feeling perhaps no one knows exactly, because we are so short on resources – human and otherwise – that cataloguing the losses has been a very real challenge. All I know is the losses are real – in places like Bexon, Marc, Fond St. Jacques, Soufriere town, Dennery, Vieux Fort, Canaries, Anse la Raye, and a whole host of communities ‘behind’ Castries – to the East in the steep hills, and even in Castries, homes flooded – not with just water – they flooded with mud.

Inside a Soufriere Home (Tim Prescott)

In Bexon, many had just managed to scrape, shovel, push the mud from their homes – leaving behind empty spaces where furniture, clothing, belongings used to be – when two days of normal rain brought a whole next set of mud right back into their homes. Even I, living here, right next to it, can’t quite grasp the hopelessness I am sure some of these people felt.

And in the midst of this, a few days later, schools ‘fully’ reopened – Form 5’s (16yr olds) will be sitting the crucial CXC exams in May next year – these exams are what grades them for entry into further education or the world of work; they, like all our education in St. Lucia, are not free.

To put a child in school here in St. Lucia, it costs about $1000EC or $400 US for books and uniforms. That does not include bus fares – easily $100EC /$40 US per child, per month. Then there’s food, extracurricular and for Form 5s, CXC. Most students sit 7 – 11 subjects, each one carries an exam fee, an average might be S500EC / $175US

So, for families that have lost their homes, or the contents of their homes – appliances, furniture, clothing–paying to replace these and managing costs of replacing school books and uniforms and paying exam fees is not easy…and for some whose income-earning power was not that great anyway or for those who were farmers and have nothing left to sell now…you get the picture – it is going to be nigh impossible.

A small part of the mud cleared off the road at Ladera, Soufriere (Tim Prescott)

We are getting infrastructural help as a country – I don’t get the impression that help is enough yet; my road trip of Saturday left me a little bewildered as yes, you can drive, I didn’t slide in mud once, but I passed far too many slips, undercuts, blocked bridges, etc…we have a massive amount of damage, in my laywoman’s opinion, we are going to have to re-route some roads. So, what I’m saying is…

We need your help still.

The group I work with – we have no name, we refer to ourselves as ‘the Northern Group’ and we work in concert with NEMO and Red Cross mainly, just because they are the central agencies, but we help whomsoever we can – and let NEMO and Red Cross know for their records…well, this group is organizing to help gather aid for schools and school kids – we’re getting lists from the schools and I will publish them, or summaries, here as soon as I can…

Some of my former students and their friends, after a nudge from our group, formed a youth group called YIP (Youth In Progress) to do arts with affected students – performance, art, craft, probably even a bit of sports…it’s been difficult to organize, just because the schools are struggling just to get back to the basics. But we would gladly accept any art supplies, craft supplies and such for this initiative.

In the coming days, ‘the Northern Group’ will meet to review the pleas for help and I’ll blog the results here with instructions on how you can get involved. That said, if you know of other initiatives already – please do go ahead and send your support…it’s all going to be needed!

Queen Mary dwarfs Castries Harbour, Sat 20th Nov, bringing much needed tourists to St. Lucia (photo Liz Jennings Clark)

The arts group (also not yet named) that I am part of, is also moving to organize an auction and a series of fairs – crafts and gifts and we plan to include the small farmers and agro-processers…we will do our best to get this online also so you can choose to buy items from the crafters and small farmers – we have wicked-delicious cocoa, sweets, dried fruits and more…so late Christmas pressies or why not bring in the New Year with something different?

So, don’t look away just yet ok….we have a great need for your kindness still and we’ll be doing all we can to make it easy for you to express it!

Many thanks.

Saint Lucia, Still Simply Beautiful, November 21st 2010 (Finola Prescott)

Hurricane Tomas and the Rainy Season Goes On, n On, n On

noreply@blogger.com (Finola Prescott) — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 01:06:00 +0000

I hardly know what to say. Yesterday in St. Lucia, just so, rain came pouring down. I had set out to drive down to Soufriere to return Christalee in preparation for her going back to school on Monday and we'd stopped at Mega J, Choc, Castries; the skies had been cloudy as we drove past Marisule, the view of the West coast was positively scary - a bit like the pic below that Teige took elsewhere, and by the time we'd finished shopping, the rain was pouring down like it was going out of style! So after phone calls home, to her dad, from her aunts, from random friends...we realized that wherever we were going, for sure, it was not to Soufriere that day!

Storm Clouds over St. Lucia, November 18th 2010 (photo Teige LaBorde)

On the way back up north, roads were already flooding, rivers raging with muddy water and cars in low parking lots with water inching past their doors...clouds were everywhere, sitting down low on hills just above people's rooftops - like they'd been pulled down by the heaviness of the rain.

Bois d'Orange car park flooded Nov 18th, St. Lucia (Colette Stayers-McDermott)

Clouds sit on hills near Baywalk Mall, Rodney Bay, St. Lucia (Finola Prescott)

By the time I reached Rodney bay I had an almost frantic call from a friend asking where I was, worried I'd have been on the road south - she told me a 9yr old boy had already drowned after slipping into a storm drain and being caught under a culvert.

It wasn't long after that news came that Quatre Chimen, where Livity Arts Studio and the Thomas family were lost in a massive landslide, slid again and closed that road. In reality, it's been sliding a bit every day, and every day, the crews go and clear it up so traffic can pass. But this slide was a bit bigger.

Later I heard Ladera's hillside had also slid and blocked the road south of Soufriere and one or two of the massive boulders that are held in the mud had slid there too. And again, the road crews had that road passable by day's end too.

Castries of course flooded in no time at all - much to everyone's frustration. And Bexon river flooded early up too.

Castries Flooded November 18th 2010 - frustrating people (photo Teige La Borde)

But the worst feeling was when later I was listening to the radio and one caller was recounting seeing a woman grab her child and pelt off down the road, trying to outrun the overflowing river...that was Bexon, and Bexon and Marc, barely recovering, barely beginning to start to dig themselves out of the mud...they were seriously flooded again yesterday.

Finally the order came for evacuation for that area - now 3 weeks after Tomas, it's sinking in that Bexon is dangerous - the mud still remains up to the road height and so the massively increased river has nowhere to flow...except for once again, through people's houses and lives.

In fact that was what struck me yesterday and today - as it poured down again today - the soil was so thoroughly soaked by those 23+ inches that fell 3 weeks ago that the rain has no-where to go, the soil is full, floods are instant, landslips continuing.

So yes, thanks everyone for all your help so far - many have been fed and many have received clothes and temporary shelter. But as we struggle here to turn around the muddy mess and get back to school, back to life, we are still just a few drops away from more tragedy and more loss. So, please keep your support coming - we have a serious struggle ahead of us this Christmas season.

And for those booked to come visit us, yes, many hotels are open - and many attractions - apparently the new (old) road into the Soufriere Volcano adds a little excitement to that attraction :-) and bridges in many parts of the island are in various states of repair and dispair...but we are open for business, and we do have sights to see, and if you are up to a bit of an adventure...we do need the support for real. As I've said before, come prepared for a bit of a different Caribbean holiday and come prepared to spend some money in the local economy - it's a lifeblood for many.

And spare a thought for us in the coming days - most weather forecasts say we're in for more rain...not sure where we'll put it, I suspect every bucket and rain-barrel is full right now. So Lucians, hunker down and don't get blase - keep safe, and don't do like that idiot in the video - swimming in Castries flood waters...it ain't rainwater, it's garbage soup! Nasty stuff - don't play in flood waters children (of all ages)!

I'm thinking I might have to take the middle word out of the title of this blog...in temporary protest...what you think?

Hurricane Tomas - St. Lucia we Still Have Much to Do

noreply@blogger.com (Finola Prescott) — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 11:05:00 +0000

Hurricane Tomas relief is still going on here in St. Lucia, but like many, many of the volunteers, I had to get back to work – wading through a backlog of stuff that now has ‘URGENT’ stamped all over it!

So, here’s a bit of an update. There are still A LOT of people homeless here in St. Lucia – in Fond St. Jacques, Marc, Bexon, and numerous other areas less often mentioned – such as right in the outskirts of the City of Castries.

In Bexon, the school is still cut off by several feet of mud where the bridge to the school once was and the school was already prone to flooding so…can’t help but think there should be a rethink of that location.

Now, I know I have advocated leaving off criticism while we deal with the real pressing issues of people in need, but of course, sometimes you need to do both simultaneously and one thing glared at me at the start of this week; you see, I’m self employed, and don’t yet have one of those income streams that come without constant work - so if I don’t work, I don’t earn…I have to get back to work. Others who were in seriously key positions had to return to work because their key members of their work team/on a contract with a due date/boss said so….you know, variety of good reasons…what it seriously highlighted for me is that we REALLY don’t have our Disaster Response worked out.

Digging the School Out of Mud, Soufriere (photo Tim Prescott)

Tourists Shopping Happily in Soufriere at Image Tree (photo Tim Prescott)

The primary challenge, after the topography of our ‘hills and valleys with a thick layer of mud’ island, has been lack of coordination and information flow. I’m not even so bothered about the lack of international coverage – in the scale of things our tragedy was a small dot and our media…mostly…are not super-proactive in getting the news out.

What bothers me is that everywhere you look in this disaster response, you find a mix of people in various stages of, ok, it’s not quite confusion, but it sure isn’t coordination either; and I have to follow that immediately by saying in that mix are persons who really have been doing a stellar job in the circumstances and out of this, many good little systems for making it as sure as possible that response is coordinated…but it has shone a glaring light on something that is also a genuine small island problem.

We are short of people.

Our pool of qualified and experienced people is too small – when you take one from one area and apply them to another, it is too much of a strain…they are missed too much.

So now, when we are so far from being recovered, some of the key people who have been the glue, straining to hold this all together have to return to work…

Youth In Action - new Youth Group meets with Shelter Head, Fond St. Jacques (photo Tim Prescott)

We are also short of infrastructure.

People have to leave the relative security of sheltering in schools where solid walls and ground make them feel a bit less insecure, to live in tents on hastily prepared flat areas that we hope have been put above the rest of the rains of our far-from-finished rainy season.

Our students need to get back to school, that’s for sure, and Form 5s (those due to take regional CXC exams in May 2011) return today.

But this is well into the third week after the hurricane and houses are still full of mud – cleaning up those ones that are still standing has not begun for many; no water until a few days ago and in some places, still no water; no cleaning tools and supplies distributed yet; no replacement uniforms, books, etc; very many mattresses still needed….landslips still a few raindrops away – it rained heavily last night…

ShelterBoxes - Tent City, Fond St. Jacques (photo Tim Prescott)

I’m listening to the news and hear there will now be a 30 minute programme called ‘St. Lucia Recovers’ to air daily? weekly? Hmm, I missed that - will update :-) UPDATE - Daily at 10am and repeat at 3pm on NTN (Gov’t TV channel), 10 am Radio St. Lucia and online on, ScruffyTV .

Good. Late, but if we do this now, then next time – and there surely will be a next time – we will be able to start that MUCH earlier in the process.

In the midst of all this, there are people, informal groups and agencies who have done and are still doing outstanding work – and I will write about some of them in the next post.

But for now, I must get back to work, so I’ll leave you to consider the question of how we make sure we have people who ‘can do’ and ‘can stay’ in positions of need…

Hurricane Tomas - St. Lucia, 2 weeks on

noreply@blogger.com (Finola Prescott) — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 13:08:00 +0000

5pm today will mark 2 weeks since the Tropical Storm Warning went out on St. Lucia’s cellphones. The question why another text message did not go out at 11pm when the NOAA site sent out the message that the warning was upgraded to a Hurricane Warning, remains un-answered…why we didn’t use the old-fashioned sirens? We haven’t gotten to that level of post-analysis yet.

Being involved in the relief effort gives you an insight into how things work and also how they don’t work, and it is fair to say that St. Lucia has struggled in the wake of Hurricane Tomas, to organize the analysis of damage and the relief effort.

But, it also must be stated, because we also know that good news rarely gets the same level of coverage as bad, that there has been much positive to report on.

There’s no doubt that many people and groups from diverse interests have mobilized to get aid to those in need, but there has been a very wide lack of recognition of the fact that ‘central command’ – ie NEMO – needs to be informed regularly, what’s coming in, what’s going out, who exactly, it’s going to –this is still an area that people involved in these efforts are falling short on.

You could argue that it’s not critical, the critical need is to get to those in need food an water, but the other side of the coin is that despite all these diverse efforts, aid is still scarce and so, ensuring duplication doesn’t happen and at the same time that persons in the far reaches are also remembered…that’s critical. And in case it’s not yet clear….that won’t happen without good communication and co-ordination.

Yesterday an unfortunate outcome of a generous gesture made regional news – it seems one or two Barbadian fishing vessels brought across some much needed drinking water. They somehow docked at the one unsecured dock and started to offload – water to go to NEMO – and then they announced ‘and this water is for all st. lucians’. Well, melee instantly happened and fighting ensued. You see in all of this, the pretty much unscathed north of the island has ended up with the most critical water shortage, so people were reaching a point of desperation for clean drinking water.

On the flip side – and I wish I had a picture of this – up at Hill 20, the Babonneau water catchment where WASCO had installed a bunch of stand-pipes, individuals carrying their armfuls of little 1l bottles to get a little ‘kwas’ (bit) of water have been pretty patiently – at least without more than a grumble – waiting for the big water trucks to get through filling their tanks. I’ve not heard of any reported incident of fighting there even though it’s obvious there was a need for some authority to be there managing who goes to which pipe.

As mentioned in yesterday’s post – there’s a good Lucian spirit in many people. One aspect of that is that we’re often prepared to put up with inconveniences without a protest, and in times like this, it does allow for our scarce resources to be directed where they seem more needed.

Patient queuing in Soufriere (photo Timothy Prescott)

What it unfortunately often leads into is that once the pressure is off and a level of normality is returned, we forget about speaking up, forget about participating in the discussions that are vital if we are to do better next time.

Last night - after nothing short of Herculean efforts by WASCO and Min Of Communcations and Works workers, water started flowing from the Ciceron water treatment plant. A friend told me it reached as far as Trouya in Marisule last night. My husband in Soufriere told me he woke up to water in the pipes at 5am this morning. I wonder if a lot of people realize how much it took to get back even this level of water supply in this short time?

So, as we head on towards recovery, as we look at rebuilding lives and homes of those worst affected, people, please don’t allow that Lucian spirit to become complacent. Remember, there is much that needs to be done for months to come.

A disaster has a way of presenting opportunities – it’s up to us whether we use this to build back a ‘likkle ting’ or to build a better future.

Way up in Fond St. Jacques, life goes on...(photo Timothy Prescott)

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Hurricane Tomas - starting to deal with it all...

noreply@blogger.com (Finola Prescott) — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 13:32:00 +0000

Talk is already turning to discussions of why we were not prepared for Hurricane Tomas and what we can now do to make sure next time we are able to handle the aftermath better – there’s undoubtedly going to be a lot of that for a while – I sincerely hope for a long while! We do have a tendency to get complacent, so if there’s one good thing that comes from Tomas, I’d really like it to be that we put in place much better measures now to deal with disaster in the future.

The Challenge (photo from Lulu Bergasse)

People are out and about putting up Shelterboxes provided by Rotary and flown in courtesy of Virgin Airlines and although there was an initial level of reluctance by some people to take up residence in these, to them, odd devices that perhaps didn’t seem secure enough, reports are that they are all filled with families grateful for a comfy place to sleep and protection from the rain.

the temporary solution - shelterboxes (photo Sean Compton)

After the demo by the Shelterbox.org people, local volunteers take over (photo Shaun Alcindor)

Dave Samuels on RSL on his usual morning programme is talking now about the psychological strain and that is something we’re now moving to deal with; I know for me even, the last nights have been filled with dreams about people I haven’t seen in ages or of looking for family and I wake up with my jaws clenched and muscles hurting from sleeping tensely … and I was not even affected by loss of home or neighbours … yes I was unable to contact two members of my family for 3 days and yes, I was affected by the terrible loss of Sabi, Eugenia and family, but compared to what some people are dealing with it seems so little. I can’t even begin to think of the level of emotional trauma those in the worst hit areas are going through.

Wasco repairing water catchment at Sarot (photo Bill Mortley)

In some cases, by hand...(photo Bill Mortley)

Now there are, I understand, moves to bring in counsellors so that’s good. It doesn’t help that we are not going to be able to get things back to normal anytime soon – people are reportedly starting to knock on doors asking if you have drinking water, someone had their pool drained overnight – ok, not having your pool full of water is no biggy, but you just hope the people who drained it are not selling that on as anything but water to clean a road or house walls with!

The public advisories are getting more frequent and much better, so there’s hope that water will be cleaned correctly before it’s used, but we know as each hot day passes and people get more tired, it cannot get any less difficult and people will be more tempted to cut corners, or ‘try a ting’.

But there is now a lot of aid pouring in – perhaps still not enough, fast enough but there are volunteers now also mobilized to manage the recording of what’s coming in, and more of the independent persons and groups that are busy getting aid to the needy are understanding the real need to let NEMO know what they’re doing so un-necessary duplication is avoided and the still scarce resources are gotten to the many genuinely needful.

So many people have volunteered, the agencies say they actually have enough volunteers – but even so, I’d say check again in a few days – many of us, myself included, are having to also start to deal with our own work – so still be prepared to take your shift!

There’s lots of people unfortunately, ready to take advantage in this time of loss – it has to be said – there are criminals everywhere at all times and we are no different here. But I will close with a heartwarming quote from one of my friends that went into some of the affected areas:

Volunteered at Red Cross and drove one of the ShelterBox guys and a CDRT person around doing assessments in the Trois Piton/Marc/Bexon/Marigot areas yesterday.... The level of destruction is overwhelming, but yet still we were given food and water by some residents in Marc. How can you not love Lucians?

Keep caring, keep helping.

Beautiful St. Lucia (photo Finola Prescott)