dance 4

This is dance4 our working home in Nottingham. The building used to be a 'nicker' factory and had then been abandoned to be renovated into an arts complex a couple of years ago.

And some more exploring with light.

 
 

and the work...

Here you have a sneak preview of my solo from 'beside'. A Halloween special!

 

 

tea

Yes, and it comes complete with scone and clotted cream!!

 

Robin Hood

So far, this Robin Hood street, which is at the end of our walk way, is the closest I have come to the figure who made this town famous.

 

 

Nottingham-11 Promenade

Here I am in Nottingham!

Another city that I am fortunate enough to have 10 days to discover as we work on the creation of 'beside' with Marie Béland. We are staying at 11 Promenade. This is our 'street'. No wonder the taxi driver could not find it!

 
 
 

the painter at work

 
 
 
 

suffer fest

Four golds and a bronze for the Harris/ Taillefer clan this year and a silver for Devon.

 
 
 
 
 
 

attack on the iris

Quite a crew set off yesterday to attack a huge tuft of iris at the bosun lake. I could feel the iris trembling!

Impressive roots!

And some artistic initiatives.

The second day team were eventually victorious... until next year!
 
  
 
 
 

The three sisters

 

Springtime

The joys of gardening — and of watching the gardener ! — are back :)

from my Wiltshire street window

 
 

Sunday morning run by the Fraser

 

Nitobe Garden

Ma douce Rachel est en visite chez ses parents à Vancouver pour neuf jours et voici qu'elle m'envoie ces photos du jardin japonais "Nitobe Garden" dont il est impossible de ne pas tomber amoureux dès la première visite qu'on y fait.  Tant de beauté me coupe le souffle.  J'agonise de voir ces feuilles et ces fleurs et toute cette fraîche verdure, et mon coeur implore la nature d'en faire autant à Montréal... sans plus tarder !

A little ice skating improv

An ice-skating performance group called Le Patin Libre organize various outdoor and indoor presentations each winter and we always try to go with the whole family.  Their last invitation was a "dance" party on the ice rink of St-Louis arena and they had a special slow-motion video camera set up to capture impromptu performances of whoever wanted to volunteer.

Here is what Alice and her friend Paloma had to contribute.  [You get a better resolution if you go straight to YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1WGFOy50LA]

Lily's choir at their Christmas concert

Last Saturday, Lily's choir Les Petites Voix du Plateau, joined forces with the adult choir Le Choeur du Plateau for their 5-year anniversary concert and presented an evening of Christmas songs and two classical pieces (Bach's Magnificat and Haydn's Te Deum).

The concert took place in the exquisite Christ Church Cathedral downtown.

Here are two video excerpts taken by one of the moms.

A delicious day exploring Zagreb

Today I finally struck out to explore this new place that I am in. I have had an exquisite Sunday exploring Zagreb. It poured rain all morning so I had the streets largely to myself then magically the sun broke through the clouds and smiled on the day.

These trams crisscross the city. Much the best way to get around. Hardly any cars downtown, what a difference!

St. marks church. A beautiful building inside and out. I peaked inside and happened upon a mass. The church was full and there was exquisite organ and choir singing, a peaceful spirit in the air.

Across town from the tower.

The market with the new sun.

Yogyakarta: First expeditions

Peter and i set out on our first afternoon in search of some water. We were both on this motorbike which in itself was quite an adventure. There are a great many motorcycles here - the streets are packed with them, they flow like water around cars and obstacles of any sort. The waterfall was not anything special but had the great advantage of being wet, very welcome in this hot and humid weather.

À snack on the way home. Chicken head anyone?

Iris, eldest daughter of Devi and josh.

This food stand is right next to the road but there is a tarp in front of it which makes it remarkably peaceful inside.

We went for a ride on a pujah (or something like that). It feels very strange to sit while someone else labours on our behalf but fun to see the town and the rice fields that way. It was a beautiful evening with chanting coming to us from the evening prayers across the fields. Unfortunately it is also the hour when people burn their garbage, a practice that Josh is working to stop but seems well entrenched in the habits of town folk.

Arriving at bamboo bottle

A very early flight from Jakarta (we had to leave our hotel at 3am) and we arrived rather droopy in Yogyakarta or jojiakarta as the javanease like to call it. We were very glad to be met by our super friendly host Josh who drove us in to his village and then to this street vendor where we had a breakfast of rice, Tempe, veggies, coconut curry, eggplant all wrapped up in a banana leaf.

Our lovely hostess Philianna or Devi to friends.

Peter in the kitchen.