The world

 

I have had this notebook for a almost ten years. I have bought it because I used to like old maps, before learning about what these maps were really standing for. I have never used it, I just couldn’t write in it. But it is an expensive notebook, nicely made. For my birthday, my friend Maria offered to transform it to me. She covered all the ships that went to the Americas in order to robe, enslave and try to completely erase entire civilizations and ways of living. She drew in the place of the colonial ships and the colonist with their weapons represented on this mid-seventeenth century map animals and peaceful Native humans. How the world should look like.

I don’t have a before photo, but I found this image online:

And this is how my notebook looks like now:

After almost one year

…I have finally finished this embroidery. It was a really busy year, especially in these last months. I really cherish all the quiet time I can get, but my brain has trouble stopping and just letting go of the anxiety of all the things I have to do. Embroidery always helps, so I started already a new one. I hope to finish it in less than one year :).

Falling leaves in the forest

From the last sunny days this fall…

 

Troll

There are somber days and my thoughts were in such dark places…

This sweet postcard arrived from my friend Aniko with birthday wishes and it was such a welcomed distraction.

Instax photos in the forest

I haven’t use my Instax 100 camera in a very long time. The film is so expensive and I kept postponing using the films I still have, saving them for some special occasions. But I have realized these days that I actually miss using instax film and anyway the really expired film that I have (a very lucky flea market find from a couple of years ago) might get non-usable if I keep saving it. I took these photos in the forest and I like how they turned out, even if the film expired in 2010, I think.

Forest mushrooms

We ate these in different dishes for a week :). 

Autumn forest

Last Sunday we had finally made it to the forest again. We kept planning going there, choosing a day when our different schedules would allow it, planning things and then something would come up: rain, being sick with the flue, etc. I needed so much to just do something out of my routine, even if something so small as a few hours somewhere in the nature. Fall is my favorite season and each year I try to enjoy as much as possible all its colors and smells and memories.

Last Sunday we had a sunny and chilly day and it was really nice to be in the forest again. Actually, we have been there in fall exactly one year ago. Last year we have seen more mushrooms and the light was better for photos, but this time we picked up more eatable mushrooms in larger quantities: lepista inversa and macrolepiota procera (the parasol mushroom). Also, we found the usual wood ear mushrooms. And took lots of photos, as usual. When we got home, it started raining, so we were quite lucky to have a nice day in the woods, before the real cold is here.