Moths

I am working a late shift this week, 430pm till 1am.  A shift familiar to me from my early days at Alaska Airlines.  But it's been years since I've worked that late.  And at the moment it's making me an insomniac.  I can't fall asleep in the middle of the night, and just about when I do, I have to wake up to get the kids off to school.  Then I can't sleep during the day, so my mind is very unfocused.  Thinking of million things at the same time.

Today, I drove an hour to the other side of town, looking forward to check an artist/mixed media/paper store, that I've been wanting to visit for some time.  It's called The Occasional Artist.  

And...out of all the times I've had time off to check it out, I had to pick a day when they are closed.  In fact, this whole week they are closed as they are participating in a big mixed media event that goes in Phoenix this time a year, Art Unraveled.

So I came home, made me lunch, tried to take a nap, and I all I could think of was moths.  I heard a story on NPR last Friday.  I didn't finish listening to it, but what stuck was this sentence: Moths are butterflies that come out at night.

And here...I used black board, lace, a part of a stamp, and created a moth.

Now off to pick up the kids from school, and then I have to go to work.

By the end of this week, I will be a mess if I don't get my body and mind to relax and go to sleep.

Blackbird

Last Thursday I had a mystical experience with a bird.  

See, birds chirp in the back yard all the time.  We have three trees and they like to hide in the shade.  But the chirping was so loud last Thursday, and so repetitive that I went out to see what was causing all that noise.  And there it was, a large black bird.  A raven perhaps, I am not sure.  And this blackbird started chasing me.  I thought it was either hurt or protecting something.  I looked for little ones, or eggs, but found nothing.  It chased after me, as I walked around the back yard.  It was getting so close to me, that I found it very unusual.  It was not scared of me.  

I reached out to touch it, and it let me.  After a while it even flew on my head, then moved onto my arm.  I fed it some bread and gave it some water.  

It spent the afternoon in our back yard; eating bread, drinking water, climbing on me when I'd go out to check on it, walking around my mint garden.  I was so happy.  I though I'd get a new pet, one that'd be free to fly around, and come to my backyard for food and water and to hang out with me.  

At dark, it flew on the lower part of our roof and I said good night to it.  

The next morning, it was gone.  I looked for it around the house, but not a trace.  It's almost like it never happened.  

And I am not sure what to think of the whole thing.  Why did it come?  What was it looking for?  Why was it not afraid of me?  I've never had a wild bird behave this way. 

Maybe it came to give me an inspiration to paint.  Because I have been painting it all day long.  

Traded my first ATCs

Yesterday I went to my first ATC trade meet up/event.  There is one every month at the local craft store, Craft Fusion.  I took the ATCs I made painting poppies with acryclics.

And in exchange I got these:

I also have been practicing watercolors.  Poppies off course.  I can't stop thinking about them after seeing them back home in Macedonia.  

And tonight, I opened a box and found these tree seeds.  I am not even sure what type of tree they came from.  I am trying to remember where I picked them up.  I remember thinking they looked like wings when I found them on the ground some months ago.  Tonight they looked like birds.  So...........I gave it a try to practice watercolors painting birds.

Macedonia Pt.4 - Relatives

At one point during our trip, my husband asked me: so who are your relatives and who are your friends.  To someone who didn't know the relationships, it would be hard to distinguish, because both my relatives and my friends in Macedonia I have known all of my life.  

Even an unimportant trip to the grocery store will make you run into a relative or friend.  And when we visited people's homes who invited us, if one was to judge by their hospitality, it would be hard to distinguish whether they are a relative or a friend.  Our culture is very hospitable.  People open their homes and feed you all the time.

  So I want to say that the whole country is my family, because if they are not by blood, then certainly they will be somehow related by marriage.  It's a small country, you know!!

So lets start with my grandpa. 

 

I walked to his small apartment the very first day I arrived.  I guess I couldn't wait.  I am his first grandchild, he is my last surviving grandparent.  I wanted to see him and I wanted him to see my kids.  

He spends the summer days at our house just outside of the city.  There is a small vineyard there, and other fruit trees and vegetables.  It is there that he makes home made wine and rakija.  In the photo above, he is holding a photograph of him and my grandma, my dad and my uncle dating  back in the mid 1950's.

Above: My grandpa, my uncle and aunt, me and my kids.

Above: my uncle Krste and aunt Nada

Uncle Krste and aunt Nade, are not exactly my aunt and uncle, they are my dad's.  My uncle Krste is the youngest brother of my grandma (my dad's mom).  Growing up I spent a lot of time with my uncle Krste and aunt Nada.  I am also told that whenever I'd ask my parents to buy something for me, and they would tell me they didn't have money I'd answer back to them: let's go to uncle Krste, he's got money.

An unfortunate event happened during my last week in Skopje.  Their tiny condo caught on fire.  They share a common wall with their neighbor who is mentally ill.  He's tried to burn his condo many times.  This time, he burned down his condo, and having a common wall with my uncle, their home suffered a lot of damage. 

Above: my uncle Gjorgji and aunt Duska 

They live next to my uncle Krste.  They too are my dad's uncle and aunt.  Uncle Gjorgji was a journalist for the local newspaper.  And he was my saviour when I had to write essays for school assignment.  He was the person I went to for help.  Many thanks. 

Above: my uncle Lazo who lives in Ohrid.

Above: uncle Lazo and aunt Betti.

Many years ago I spent a week with them in the summer.  They didn't have kids back then, and now their son is about to graduate from college.

Above: my grandpa's brother with my son. 

Dedo Stavre (granpa Stavre) is my grandpa's brother.  He is uncle Lazo's father.  They live in Ohrid.  

Above: my unlce Janko in Gostivar.  He is my mom's first cousin.  His brother, uncle Pavel is the one that lives in Palm Springs, CA.  Uncle Janko took us to Vrutok, the spring of the river Vardar, that crosses through Macedonia and ends in Greece at the Aegean Sea.

 

Above: Maja, my cousin's wife.  This was the first time I met her.  I could not make it to their wedding a few years ago.  Maja is an artist, a sculptor.  She has a studio in the old part of town (Stara Carsija) which I enjoyed very much.  We spent a day with Maja, museum hopping through old town.

Above: Renata, one of my cousins.  She is actually my second cousin.  He parents bought the apartment where I grew up.  So I was fortunate to visit and show my kids the home where I lived when I was their age.

As I am going through my photos, I am realizing that I never took pictures of some of my relatives.  Wrapped up in our pleasant conversations after decades of not seeing each other, and enjoying the good food, the opportunity to capture the moment with a camera didn't even occur to me.  So the last photo is a courtesy of my cousin's cell phone.  See...sitting at a table eating food.  All the time, at every house.

Above from left: myself, my mom's brother, my cousin and his wife, my aunt.

A little bit of recycling

School starts in 3 weeks here in Arizona.  We have year around school where summer break is less than 2 months, and then throughout the year they have frequent breaks for 1-2 weeks at a time.  It's kind of nice, otherwise I'd go crazy trying to entertain them all summer long in this unbearable heat, all the while I still have to work.  

I was going through Maggie's dresser, cleaning up and pulling out things that may be too small, or not in good shape.  I came across a few pairs of tights.  They all had holes in them and not worth taking to Goodwill.  And so I made these kitties.  They still have to be stuffed.

Macedonia Pt. 4 - Т'га за југ - Longing for the South

When I remember all the pretty flowers, growing wild in fields, on the mountains, on the sidewalk cracks....a variety of them, I don't even know their names.....then I feel this longing for the south.  And going through my photos I took with my cell phone reminded me of that longing and of the poem "Tga za jug" ,by Konstantin Miladinov where he too was longing for the South and Macedonia while he was studying in Moscow.

Тамо зората греит душата 

и с'нце светло зајдвит в' гората;

тамо дарбите природна сила

со с'та раскош ги растурила:

бистро езеро гледаш белеит,

и си од ветар сино темнеит;

поле погледнеш или планина,

сегде божева е хубавина.

Tamo zorata greit dushata,

i snce svetlo zajdvit v gorata;

tamo darbite prirodna sila,

so sta raskos gi rasturila:

bistro ezero gledash beleit,

i si od vetar sino temneit:

pole poglednish, ili planina

sgde bozheva je hubavina.

Translation (not mine, I took it from the link I provided above):

                          There dawn warms the soul;
                       there faith - with natural vigor
                     gifts had spread with majestic splendor:
                       serene lake turns crystal-clear,
                      and the breeze disturbs this clear;
                       see the field or mountain-range,
                        everywhere God's beauty gauge.

ATCs

The satisfaction of working small is that I have time to finish it.  ATCs, something new for me, and I like them.

Red poppies

I probably have told you already that one of the fondest memories I have of the time I used to live in Macedonia is watching a field covered in red poppies sway in the wind.  Although the field that was visible from our balcony is now a home to new apartment buildings, red poppies were certainly not endangered.  On the contrary, they were everywhere.  And I made sure I took as many pictures of them as I could. 

The last couple of days, I have finally gotten back to normal and found some time to get back to crafting.  I purchased some red paint, specifically for the occasion.  And the paper tags were on sale at the craft store.  So I made tags with red poppies.

Macedonia Pt. 3 - Ohrid where my husband had a shot of rakija

The shot of rakija (home made liquer) was not the most important thing that happened in Ohrid, but I had to grab your attention.  It's taking me a bit longer to get the details of my trip posted on my blog, and I am afraid that as time passes, mine as well as your enthusiasm goes down.

Ohrid, is probably one of the most visited destination in Macedonia by foreigners.  Situated by a lake makes it a great vacation destination in the summer.  It has beautiful and unique architecture, as well as natural beauty with the crystal clear lake surrounded by mountains.  It's a 3 hour bus ride from Skopje, and that is how we got there.  One of my uncles (I have many in Macedonia) who lives in Ohrid picked us up.  Once, a long time ago, my brother and I stayed with him and his wife.  They didn't have kids at that time, and now their son was a college student.  It was the first time I met him.  Yes, I have been gone a long time.

"If I moved back to Macedonia, this is where I'd like to live", I told my uncle.

"There is only tourists here in the summer, and retired people the rest of the time", he told me.

Maybe I want to retire then.

We stayed in the old part of town, where the locals rent part of their home to you.  We had a two bedroom, and a small kitchenette on the top floor.  And a balcony with this view:

 

And this to the left.

 

We were next to one of the many churches there, Sveta Sofija (St. Sofia).  My uncle said that there are 365 churches in Ohrid.  One for each day of the year.

Our visit was short in Ohrid, but full of great experiences.

The first day we walked to a fort, very similar to the one in Skopje.  The one in Ohrid is called Samuilovi Kuli (Samuil's Towers).  King Samuil was the king of the first Bulgarian Empire. (9th century, I think).  I am not one to say that history is my forte, and what I remember about King Samuil is that his military was defeated on the mountain Belasica, by the Byzantine Empire.  The battle is known by that all of his solders were blinded, except for every hundredth man was left with one eye to guide the rest of them home to King Samuil.  Sometime I wonder about us humans.  We are pretty cruel to each others.

 

 

 

Near by there is an amphitheater, dating back to somewhere 200 BC.  If I ever get any superpowers, it would be to be able to see back in time, while standing in a place in the present.  Can you imagine the people, the activities, the performances for the past 12-13 centuries.  Today you can still see performances here during the summer.  Take a look at the houses on top.  Talking about seeing a life performance from you bedroom. 

 

As you wiggle around past the amphitheater, you end up at Sveti Kliment Plaosnik.  It's a basilica dating back to 5th century.  Nowadays there is construction going on around it building a University.  I believe for religious Christian Orthodox studies.

 

By the time we got to Plaosnik, my kids were ehxausted.  A bus ride, walk through the old town and carsija (bazaar), up the Samuil fort, to the amphitheater, and now to Plaosnik....it was a bit much for a 5 and 7 year old.  I really would have liked to take a little more time to finish this long walk with a visit to Sveti Jovan Kaneo, another church with a gorgeous view of the lake as sits on a cliff over the lake.  But it did not happen.

When we got back to the place we were staying, the neighbors occupying the small apartment next to us were in.  They heard the kids speak English and were curious where we were from.  After a brief introduction, we learned that our neighbors were neighbors in many ways.  They were from Los Angeles....well this is where they lived.  Vlatko, the guy is actually originally from Ohrid, but has lived in the States for over 40 years.  And as the conversation went on, it turned out that we have even more connections than that.  He went to school with the husband of one of my aunts.

"What are you plans for tomorrow?", Vlatko asked us.  Embarrassed, I said that we didn't have any big plans.  There is a lot to see in the old town, that just walking around with two kids was a plan enough for me.  Vlatko was quick.  "Have you ever taken a boat ride to Sveti Naum "? (a monastery on the lake, some 30 km from Ohrid).

After a phone call to a friend of his (another school buddy of my aunt's husband), it was arranged that the next morning we are going to Sveti Naum by boat.

 

Our captain Kole (Nikola Ribarski)

 

And here is where the rakija comes (the home made liquor)...it was offered to us many times.  I take beer, but usually refuse rakija.  My husband, taken aback by the spontaneity of the entire experience in Ohrid, decided that this offering of rakija must not be refused.  So the four of us, Vlatko, Kristen, my husband and myself all had a shot of rakija.  And a cup of tea for me to chase the burning sensation in my throat and chest.

Kole was a great captain.  He stopped for us at a  place about half way between Ohrid and Sveti Naum, called Museum on Water.  A reconstructed historic settlement on water.  And this is where I have a confession to make.  See many places have their entry fee doubled for foreign visitors.  My Macedonian still in tact, with no noticeable accent came in handy.  So I asked my family to stay aside and be silent, while I purchased tickets. This worked many times in negotiations.

 

 

 

We continued to Sveti Naum after this.  And oh we were lucky in many ways to have visited just slightly outside of the booming tourist season.  That day we were the only visitors to Sveti Naum by boat.  It's like getting a private tour of everything.

Sveti Naum

 

 

We had a nice lunch at Sveti Naum and almost negotiated another boat ride, on a row boat, that takes you in to see some springs.  But time was short.  We had to get back to Ohrid, I had bus tickets to go back to Skopje.  I really would have liked to spend more time in Ohrid.  Maybe next time I go to Macedonia, I won't even tell anyone I am going.  I will enjoy Ohrid in peace.

I am going to leave you with this picture I took when we were somewhere in the middle of the lake.  I believe the shore that is barely visible is the coast of Albania.

 

I do have a little more to share about my trip.  Check back soon!