How to grow vegetables on Koh Phangan: the easy way

Seeds: Lettuce, Hoary Basil, Amarenth, Morning Glory, Bok choi

Growing vegetables and herbs in 3 steps:

1) Buy organic fertilizer and seeds at the organic shop. It is located in Thongsala between the food market and Tesco Lotus. The fertilizer costs 40 baht, the seeds 100 baht for 5.

I bought Lettuce, Hoary Basil, Amarenth, Morning Glory, Bok Choi.
Morning Glory takes 3 weeks to be "happy, happy" as the man in the shop said. Other vegetables take 2 months to harvest.

(you can also buy Basil seeds at the supermarket, these are used for Thai desserts. Check out the nuts and seeds section. The amount is a lot more than from the organic shop. And they grow just as perfect)

2) I first used an egg carton as a seed starter. But next time I think I will skip this part. Instead I will use the plastic water bottle right away.
Cut the top of a large  plastic water bottle, fill this with sandy island soil, put the seeds just a few millimeters under the soil, and at last add the fertilizer on top of it.
And water the seeds.

3) Water the seeds daily. Don't ever let them dry out.

4) My first trial is with Morning Glory and Basil. After a month the Morning Glory has not fully grown, so I think I need to put it in the ground.

Happy farming!

Koh Phangan: Chinese Temple / Kuan Yin Shrine

Overlooking Chaloklum Bay

Beauty in its simplicity

I was having lunch in a restaurant between Shritanu and Chao Pao and as I looked around I thought how beautifully it was decorated. Just some colourful scarfs and fabrics knotted with ropes on wooden beams is all you need.

I would love to create a sala in this style. It would be such a nice space to do yoga, to share a meal, to dance, make music, simply to craft and to create!

Korean Food = Happy Food: Bibimbap

My Korean friend loves to cook. And I love to eat :-) 

Last night was our Bibimbap night. 

I am such a lucky chicky! 

Thank you, 

감사합니다 !

Amanda Palmer: The art of asking

Littleblackwings.tumblr.com

Last evening a friend told me about Powa meditation and this morning it was the first thing I had in mind even before I had opened my eyes. After having surfed about Powa for an hour or so I stumbled upon Amanda Palmer on Youtube. She is an artist/ musician with her own way of living, seeing and experiencing. I was very touched by her story about life and people. Watch it, it is worth the 10 minutes!

She also summarised what it means to "ask" people for something. I too find it difficult to ask people for help and what she said was spot on. Amanda's view is refreshing and I learned that asking and trusting goes hand in hand.

Amanda Palmer:

"Through the very act of asking people, I connected with them. And when you connect with them, people want to help you.

"It is not easy to ask, asking makes you vulnerable"

-Asking is about trust-.

Sea finds: Sepia

On a quiet Saturday morning I was strolling along the beach and found a lot of food for my friend's parrot. Sepia is rich in minerals.

It was on Koh Ma - Mae Haad. But don't be surprised if there is nothing left anymore :-)

Koh Phangan

I have arrived.

I am home.

Koh Phangan.

My island.

A Thai version of Bali. 

Or is Bali an Indonesian version of Koh Phangan? ;-)

It has changed immensely in 4 years.

  I am here to stay for awhile.

SYLK Studio

Where oh where art thou?
My little precious studiou?

At some point I realised that working from different locations and having my jewellery in both SE-Asia and Europe was not very efficient. Too many times I had to explain customers that the piece of jewellery they were interested in was located on the other side of the world. I also felt I needed a steady home for my tools and materials. For that sewing machine I want, the Dremel, kilos of beads, a corner for silver smithing, a space to display the pieces etc.

So about a year ago I decided to set up my studio somewhere in a warm country, a place yet to be found. Could it be Spain? Close to my family in Europe and stay abroad during Spain's winterly months? Could it be Central America? Costa Rica, Mexico? I still haven't found the right spot to settle down, I just don't know. The only thing I do know is that SYLK is begging for a studio.

But for now... I am about to leave for a Thai Island and will be staying there for awhile. Just to charge my batteries. It has been a pretty dynamic year for me and I seriously need a time out. Yoga, meditation and nature will be on my daily menu. And when the right moment appears the search for SYLK's studio will be continued.
But first things first: Sun, here I come!

Buddha's Garden of Eden

Thanks for the painting, Chris!

Bracelet Chris Design

Traveling light means...

Wearing no jewellery except for this bracelet.

It is 100 % natural.

I love how light it is to wear.

It is designed and made by my 9-year old nephew.

I love the warm colors of wood with fresh blue Turquoise sp-stones.

It makes me happy.

Inspiration of the Day: Li Ka-shing

Google image

I have always had a great interest in entrepreneurs, especially when they start from the bottom and climb all the way to the top. And stay humble once they are standing high in the sky.

So this morning when I read an article about Li Ka-shing taking over waste centres in the Netherlands at age 85(!) he had my interest. He also owns 2 large chain stores in cosmetics and container terminals in the lowlands. Because it was printed in a Dutch regional newspaper I thought it was about a Chinese immigrant who had made it to the Dutch top, but Google taught me he is a large, a very large fish in the Ocean. He's one of the most successful and richest people in the world. Besides being a philanthropist.

Soon I will be traveling to SE-Asia again, but with a different strategy than the first time. I will be using my nephew's motto as a guideline "It is what it is, and make the best out of it". No longer searching and hunting like crazy for something that's far away from me, but optimizing the situation I am in. To be is the key.

While googling I found this article about Li Ka-shing about a similar toned motto and felt deeply inspired by his words.

"When life throws a lemon into your hands, you may as well squeeze it and turn it into lemonade. Only after your own spiritual blueprint takes shape can you really begin to love life. Only by drawing on your own intelligence and capacity and establishing your own unique self according to your own principles and ideals can you pursue a life beyond yourself.

"Poverty is not necessarily due to lack of money but to total submission following the evaporation of all hopes and opportunities"

"I am happy that I am myself"

In a process of getting back in an upward spiral, these quotes reminded me of the road I was on before. I feel I am heading the right way. 

Cloud (online) storage COPY

I am cleaning up my laptop, it's about to burst... I have a 1 TB external drive where I store my data I don't frequently use. But in a month or so I'll be on the move again and I want to travel as light as possible. Some years ago I installed Dropbox, but I only used it once to receive a map with photos.

This week I installed Copy with at least 15 GB free storage while Dropbox offers 2GB.
When you invite a friend to register you both get 5 GB extra! For signing up use this link ;-) https://copy.com/?r=6sSaM0

Cloud storage makes it easy for me to have my private and jewelry making photos accessible anywhere I am. It saves me extra space on my laptop and in my luggage, plus I don't have to worry about losing my photos & documents. It's already working for me, I feel much 'lighter' :-)

Sea finds & Lovers Ice cream

Sea glass was everywhere! The best spot on Curacao is near Jan Thiel beach (drive all the way to the rotonde. On the left you see the sea and a fence. Walk towards the sea)

One little pink heart and a sea glass fish.

I am not an ice cream lover, bit I looove Lovers Ice cream. No, not because of the name (don't I? ;-), but because it didn't make me nauteous. It's soft, creamy and not too sweet. If you get the chance, try it!

Chinese horoscope Summer necklace

                   

Once upon a time there was a little Monkey, a Rabbit and an Oxe and they went on Summer-Summer-Summer holiday to the tropics. They brought their beading stuff with them and made their Summer necklaces made of wood, Jade and Turquoise.
For the photoshoot they picked the coconuts themselves. For the last ones to pick the little Monkey climbed on Oxe's shoulder and fell... But except for some bruises (and some little Monkey tears) the coconut-mission was safe and successful. They picked and plucked until de coconut tree was totally nut-free. They asked Tommy and Wurmi to show the world their Summer necklaces and here they are....
The 3 of them were very happy and danced at the Pondjesbrug until they got sleepy and thirsty. So they went home and opened the coconuts one by one and quenched their thirst by drinking the coconut water. It was so refreshing, it was nature's gold! With droopy eyes they went to bed and dreamed about how much luck and prosperity the Summer necklaces would bring little Monkey, Rabbit and Oxe ...

~The end~