San Pedro de Atacama

We arrived in San Pedro de Atacama yesterday following a short 2 hour flight from Santiago. This is a small dusty town, full of tourists. At 2400metres above sea level, it is the world's driest desert at altitude. This altitude gave us our first souvenir- a mild headache. However this passed quickly with medication and today we are fine.
Our 2 year old hotel is a 10 minute walk from the Plaza, down mostly unpaved roads. When the wind blows and cars pass on the road, we are covered in our second souvenir!
Looking beyond the tourist trappings, it is a tough life here in the desert. Irrigated crops of fruit & vegetables are grown in the valleys & we will see this tomorrow on a full day tour. The landscape is the main attraction with volcanoes as far as the eye can see. When the sun goes down the temperature drops immediately. As it is a dry heat we are not finding 29 C unbearable!
I have done a little sketching in the plaza. We have also visited the amazing meteorite museum and I am coming home with a small piece, cut, polished & set in a necklace. This makes me feel like an extremely
 small speck in the universe!

Cerro San Cristobal

This morning, Wednesday 28th, we walked via Bellavista to the funicular that goes up the San Cristobal hill. This is the highest point in town at 800+ metres and offers great views of Santiago and the Andes.  Unfortunately I am having trouble with uploading photos via blogger.
It is a very hot day and everyone was seeking the shade on the summit. We had stopped at the zoo, which perches on the slopes of the hill, before we got to the summit. Flamingos and bright orange ibis, vicunos, lama, Humbolt penguins and many other species are housed here. The school groups were enjoying their outing.
Now we are cooling off in our hotel room!

Santiago, Chile

We have arrived in Santiago Chile by time travel, in only a short 5 hours, thanks to international time zones! As it was my birthday I had extra time to celebrate and a lovely dinner to end the day plus the hotel staff provided a bottle of bubbles, a slice of cake with a candle and sang happy birthday in Spanish! Here the candle allows 3 wishes, before you blow it out!
Santiago is a very green, pleasant city and is easy walking in the old central district. The towering, snow capped Andes dominate the eastern skyline and we can't help but stare, wide-eyed at them.

 My preparation for the trip included these small 6" squares of fabric and a couple of oil pastels as I am thinking of something in book form for these rubbed pieces on my return.

Our half day city tour was a good orientation to the city, plus I rubbed 2 squares in Plaza de Armas this morning when there.

Flower power

 Loving this time of the year, with Summer solstice just yesterday in the Southern Hemisphere. Christmas just around the corner, getting excited for my Grandchildren and the fun on  Christmas morning. Wishing all my blog readers a very Merry Christmas and may 2017 be full of all the good things you deserve xxx

Paintbox travels

I was gifted this beautiful Winsor and Newton paintbox by my dear friend Annette, who always has hers when she travels. I am looking forward to the flexibility of this new art toy on my Chilean travels. Water brush packed, tick!

Quilt construction

Currently, before I go on holiday to Chile & Argentina, I am working on a new quilt design based on my visit to Beijing, China last year. This photo shows the progress on the dragon's body, only a section of which will appear in the lower portion of the quilt. Each scale is cut then, using a silicon mat ( Giddess sheet) and Misty Fuse , fusible web, I heat set sections together. I am enjoying the slow repetition of this work.

Christmas trifle

 Family Christmas gathering today and I get to make the trifle. This is a berry trifle and has been popular the last couple of years. Who doesn't like jelly, custard, cake, fruit & a bit of cream, all mixed together?

Hand made Christmas paper

I was gifted this lovely Lino cut, Partridge in a pear tree, wrapping paper for Christmas. Too pretty to use, for now.

It's been a while

It's been a long time between blogs. Sorry for that but with our young family of 4 living with us for an extended period, before they settled into their own home, there wasn't time left in my day.

I did get quilts stitched for Viewpoints 9 deadlines though. Bark Impressions, above is one I completed using undesirable materials- synthetics, which I don't usually use in my work. Hoping to keep you a little more up to date on this platform. Bye for now.