long time, no blog

Posted on | April 1, 2007 | No Comments

as you can see from the dates, i haven’t been blogging.
i’ve been running around bali instead.

i spent almost 3 weeks there, in feb/mar and had a very marvellous time.
i met up with jen and rebecca from the USA, both of whom i met online a while back.
rebecca is a professional photographer and i commissioned a few shots of my soap with balinese backgrounds.
i think the results were lovely and will make great promotional posters for all my retailers.

i spent a lot of time at toko toko in sanggingan.
they have an internet place there and a delightful little garden restaurant and the accomodation looks pretty good also.
very nice people run the place.

on the whole, i was quite solitary but not lonely.
i enjoyed having the space and time to set my own schedule and wander about ubud.
time began to flow in a very relaxed manner and i awoke each day feeling excellent.
i was able to do some creative thinking about things and write most of a short article on soapmaking in east timor for the april 07 scale newsletter.
http://www.thescalenews.com/

i noticed that the bali advertiser was seeking contributors also and wondered if i should offer to write a column for them.
it would be good for me. and fun too……
i must think more about that….but gee the second quarter of the year has started with a real BANG and i am suddenly run off my feet again.

the following pix are at the water temple of gunung kawi, in sebatu, gianyar.
this is an ancient place, with mossy stone carvings, and sacred bathing pools full of fat golden carp and pink waterlilies, and the surreal and ornate paraphernalia of balinese hinduism.
it is set in a tiny jungle-covered valley, rather like a palm cupping a precious jewel.
every morning, just after dawn, the women from the village dress in beautiful sarongs, and come to make offerings and light incense, just as they have been doing for many hundreds of years.
birdsong fills the humid jungle air and as jen remarked to me, you can really feel the deep spirituality of the place.
i think rebecca very nicely captured some of the serenity and beauty of the place as background to my soap.