Work in Progress Wednesday - a Wing and Some Legs

Sounds like a chicken, but I’m still working on the dragon.  This week I finished the wing and worked on the legs.  I still have more layers of scales to do on the legs, but it’s coming along.

 

Bali Driving Tour

One day we hired a driver and car and took a trip outside Ubud. Driving in Bali is very dangerous because of the poor roads and too many motor scooters. There doesn’t seem to be any traffic rules and our driver told us as long as you don’t crash everything is okay. We saw some interesting sites, but we also saw more poverty and unclean conditions.

Our first stop was Goa Gajah or the Elephant Cave Temple.  (One must be appropriately attired to visit a temple, but that wasn’t a problem since the cost of admission includes the use of a sarong during the visit.) It was built in the 9^th century and served as a sanctuary. Inside the cave is a worship area devoted to the Hindu god Shiva.

 

Tirta Empul or the Water Temple was our next stop.  This temple is a UNESCO World Heritage site. People get in the water and snake around in a line to get to some water coming out of the stone.  We chose not to get in the water.

 

We stopped for a short time at the coffee plantation, where we were given a tour and a tasting of several kinds of coffee and tea.  We saw a caged civet, the animal that eats the coffee beans made into the luwak copi, and some pineapples. The parking lot was full of people trying to sell us things.  They pushed their faces against the car windows and continued shouting as we were trying to drive away.

 

Our next stop was a spot where we could view the volcano, which is also the highest point on Bali. We were told it last erupted several times in 1963, killing almost 2000 people. We ate lunch a little further down the road from this viewing area.

 

Our final stop of the (long) day was to see the terraced rice fields. They look like works of art.

 

We enjoyed our driving tour and were happy not to be driving!

Monday Morning Star Count 251

Seven more flowers this week for a total of 251.

 

I need to join two strips so that I can free up some hexagons.  I laid out the strips to make sure two of the same fabrics aren’t next to each other.

 

I’m getting closer to a full quilt top, but I’m still not sure how this will finish.

Last week, in the comments, Jessica asked to see the cover of the tin I use for my sewing kit.  It's a little lunch box that I bought at the Nakajima Koen flea market last year.
 

 

I'm linking up with Jessica at Life Under Quilts.

Some Winter Inconveniences

Some people consider the mountains of snow we get in Hokkaido to be inconvenient.  The snow makes travel difficult and no one likes yukikaki (shoveling the snow).  It's been snowing non-stop for several days now.  Ted had to dig out the car yesterday. Sometimes I help, but I stayed in yesterday.

 

There are some indoor inconveniences too.  We heat with toyu.  It gets delivered to our front door, but then we have to carry these big heavy jugs from the first floor to our apartment on the third floor.

We don’t have clothes dryers in Hokkaido, we air dry our clothes.  That’s fine in the summer because we have a nice balcony outside.  In the winter, we hang the clothes inside.  Sometimes, it gets kind of crowded.

 

The inconveniences are minor.  I wouldn’t trade living here for anything.