Chani's Creative Space

Happy holidays to you all! May this new year 2019 bring you happiness, health, success and peace! Winter music

Middle of December already. As I am not a fan of setting goals in January, it may be difficult for me now to draw some conclusions about achieving them or not. But I did achieve some unspoken goals indeed.  I visited Sweden for the first time in May. At last! The country had been waiting for me since 1980, much too long. And  I succeeded in reading "Häxan" (The Witch) by Camilla Läckberg and "Skumtimmen" (Echoes from the Dead) by Johan Theorin in the original version. Although everybody is talking about productivity and growth, I was glad to (try to) decelerate my life a bit, also because slowdown has to do with sustainability. I am always more conscious that little actions in everyday life are crucial.  This year, we discovered some parts of the province of Cordoba (Zuheros and Iznájar). We did not knew much of it except the capital (most foreign tourists in Spain will probably never seen anything else than its (wonderful) historic centre...). We found little...

In my post of February 22th , I was writing about the #Animaloons challenge on Twitter (@Animaloonies).  Now, almost 10 months later, I wanted to show you all inflated animals I have been drawing this year.  This challenge may sound a bit silly, I know, but I am in good company there and to relax, you need silly things sometimes. My favourite one are the doogloon, the penguinloon and the last one, the pigloon: And here is the collage with all twelve of them (one per month): I also participated to #pinchpunchpost, but unfortunately, I had no time to draw them all (Hope it will be different in 2019). I post my two favourites here, that are the bear and the giraffe. Enjoy!

It is incredible. December is already there, people are rushing to the shopping malls, maybe some of them will enjoy a long weekend next week (December 6 and 8 are legal holidays in Spain, but I will have to work: I am a foreigner working with foreigners). The last month of this year began with fantastic weather: blue sky, little wind. A bit cold perhaps, but we could eat outside though, like in March or April.  I enjoyed taking a picture of the coast from Benalmadena's harbour. You see a lot of concrete, but also our dear mountains that are a whole world and can be reached on foot.

It was spring (end of May) when this  Animal Alphabets challenge started and it is now finished short before December knocks at our door: all extinct animals from A to Z are drawn! As always, I learnt a lot performing this: I had never heard a word about most of those creatures before. There were a little bit too many dinosaurs for my taste, but it was fun reflecting about them as well.  I hope the next challenge will be dog or cat breeds, but this will depend on the results of the poll. Here are my six favourites, followed by a collage with all of them. Enjoy!

With several orange warnings for heavy rain and thunderstorm for our province today, we could not do much more than looking at the waves between two showers and enjoying the progress of our new pedestrian centre that will be ready quite soon (I will post some pictures when it is open, it will probably be December).  Eventually, towns everywhere in the world begin to realise that people are central, not cars. We humans need space to walk with our kids and dogs, to talk to our neighbours and look at the sky and birds.   Happy in the city Hugs

It was a bit chilly and grey, but we went for walk in beautiful Parque de la Paloma in Benalmadena, the neighbouring town. There are so many succulents there that you always discover something new: blooming or fruiting cacti, changing colours. If you are lucky, you may see a rabbit or peafowl between the plants, but it was not the case this time. Enjoy!

Nothing more exciting at the moment than getting up very early to look at the sky and the sea with its fishing boats. I wish I could sit in front of it for hours, when dogs are still sleeping and before people around me begin to make noise with their phones, cars and other gadgets. I know many people do not like winter time; I love it.  Sky and sea

Those days, we are quite lucky here at the coast. Tourists of different countries are enjoying short breaks and half term holidays here at the beach, mostly under the sun and with pleasant temperatures, while parts of our province (not even so far away) are in state of emergency, suffering severe floods. (We only have to struggle with the driftwood on the beach). I notice that the end of the year is approaching rapidly now. Clients ask about my (not planned yet) winter holidays, and yesterday, I ordered self-made Xmas cards at Fine Art America and new calendars. As always, I prefer to be prepared on time than having to rush in December. ;-) Sunny pool

That is our beach after the storm. Beautiful, but a bit scary. 

A quick abstraction of some cacti and flowers I saw last weekend while we were walking in a protected area near the town of El Puerto de Santa Maria (province of Cadiz, Spain). We are generally in this area twice a year, in the autumn and spring, which are the best seasons to see some birds and enjoy the vegetation!   Cacti and flowers

A bit late (after a couple of very busy weeks, tons of work and a conference in Valencia where I have just come back from), here are the last pictures of the Netherlands, of my dearest Schoorlse duinen , Schoorl dunes (province North Holland). N.B. For weeks already (o nce again), comments do not appear on my blog and the comments I put on some other blogs do not appear either. After browsing a bit, I see that the problem is not new, but I hoping that Google engineers will solve it quite soon. There is nothing more frustrating. This was just before a storm that was not announced, with thunder and hail. We had to walk back about one hour and a half without any shelter. But it was a unique scenery. That is how it looks like with good weather.  If you are lucky, you may meet birds of prey, wild horses and Highland cattle in this landscape . Always beautiful...

The island of Texel in the province North Holland, the biggest Wadden island north of the town of Den Helder, has many facets. I have always heard that more sheep than people live there (I do not know if it is true). Texel's colours are golden (the dunes), blue or grey (the sea, depending on the weather) and green (everything else). About one third of the island is covered by a national park. Because of its marshy environment, the island is rich in birds: we say many of them, water birds, geese and birds of prey. If you plan to go there, it may be wise to go during the autumn or winter: some paths are only accessible from August 1st / September 1st to March 1st because of the breeding season.  Enjoy some impressions of my short stay there! Path near the Mokbaai    Beach near De Slufter Along a path near De Muy Galloway cows near De Muy  Near De Muy  Sheep near De Muy  Near De Muy Near De Muy

Mid-September already, it is still hot and humid here in Spain but autumn has already arrived further north. We are just back from the Netherlands, where geese and other birds are preparing to migrate for the winter. We saw beautiful cows and sheep near Schoorl and on the island of Texel (both North Holland).  I will certainly come back with more landscape pictures soon but here are the first ones, all animals. Enjoy! Highland cow in Schoorl Geese on the island of Texel  Geese on Texel  Galloway cattle on Texel    Sheep in Texel's wide landscape

Days are getting shorter, I can smell the new season coming. It smells like melancholy and activity at the same time. Looking forward to seeing empty beaches soon, and pumpkins.    Chilling

August. Time to affront the swarms of jellyfish showing up this year. Water is still turquoise and refreshing if you are brave (I am not)! Wave season

It was impossible for me to concentrate on work this week, seeing terrible pictures of forest fires in Sweden, Greece and Germany every time I opened any newspaper. I was in Sweden two months ago and I Athens four years ago (of course, I was in Germany more often, coincidentally near Potsdam three years ago as well).  I met so wonderful people in Athens, I really hope they are all right and will be able to repress those bad memories and overcome their grief.  I wish our politicians had a vision and would assume their responsibilities. I wish our destructive system could be replaced with a more respectful way of life. Right away. Be strong Wildfire

A landscape reduced to its necessary elements: water and rocks. Variation

The weekly challenge Animal Alphabets on Twitter (@AnimalAlphabets) started a new round already seven weeks ago, focusing on extinct animals this time. We have reached letter F so far (participants will post their letter G tomorrow at 7.30 GMT, and letter H will be released on Tuesday) and none of those creatures was familiar to me before. Such figurative drawing are a bit out of my comfort zone, but I like to use this challenge to improve my skills. Enjoy!